September 11, 2011

A day of remembrance. 

I love Alan Jackson's song "Where Were You" (When the World Stopped Turning)...every single time I hear it it takes me back to that day.  September 11, 2001.  I was "teaching a class full of innocent children".  Camille and I were on the 1st grade hall (teaching 2nd grade) and she passed a 1st grade teacher who had a break in the hall, and was told that something was going on.  I don't remember if it was 1 or 2 planes at that point, or even what time it was, but they had also heard that some of Knoxville was being evacuated, as were all the top secret facilities in Oak Ridge.  Well, there happened to be a certain someone working in Oak Ridge at that time...someone I had met barely 5 months before, and was quite smitten.  So, naturally, my thoughts went to him. 

I used my cell phone and left him a message, meanwhile hearing over the intercom "Teachers, there will be no outside recess today."  We had multiple different "codes", meaning different things (if someone was in the building and we were supposed to lock ourselves in the room, for example, might have been an announcement of, "Teachers, there are no packages in the office."  So, we're all searching our list of code announcements...none of which were "there will be no outdoor recess".  Apparently, it meant just that.  =)

Anyway, I finally did hear from Rich, and they had not evacuated (in fact, I'm not 100%, but I want to say he hadn't heard much about it yet), and he was fine.  Shew. 

So, the rest of the day continued...any time the kids were out of the room we had the tv on, but they were blissfully unaware.  It was decided we would say nothing to the kids (we were only K-2), let their parents tell them what they wished that night, and then we'd address questions, etc the following day. 

One of my mentors lost her cousin's son.  Fortunately, that was as close as personal loss came to me, but, as with the rest of our country, I, too, was forever changed by that day. 

New to my "bucket list" will be going to NYC and seeing the new memorials...standing in the exact spot where so many lost their lives.