Twenty years ago today, September 11, 2001, was a day that will live in infamy.  Every year on this day known as 9/11, we pause to remember the events of that day.  For those of us who are old enough to remember it, it’s still a memorable day today.  Although after 20 years, there’s now a growing segment of our population that isn’t even old enough to remember it.  To me, it seems impossible that it’s already been 20 years. Although I had no direct connection to any of these events myself, other than watching it unfold along with everyone else, I wanted to take this time to share my own personal memories of 9/11.

This happened during a time of transition in my life.  I had just accepted a new teaching job at a school in Ohio, three hours away from home.  About two weeks prior to 9/11, I had just moved to my new town and started my new teaching job, so I was still getting settled in.  It started as a normal September day, and for some reason, I remember three random things about that day.  First, the weather outside was very nice that day.  Second, it was a Tuesday.  (More about my ability to either recall or calculate the day of the week for certain historical dates can be found here.)  And third, this happened the day after a scheduled September 10th baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees was rained out, as Yankees ace (and former Red Sox pitcher) Roger Clemens had been set to go for his 20^th win of the season.  I realize that’s a very random thing to remember, but it was the last sports headline before 9/11, and therefore stands out in my memory.

On that morning, I happened to be giving my 2^nd period geometry class their first test of the year.  I was actually giving a test in all of my classes that day.  Sometime after 9:03 a.m., the principal came on the intercom and announced, “Teachers, you might want to turn on your classroom TVs and watch the news right now.  A plane has crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City.  This appears to be a historic news event, so we may want to watch what’s going on right now.”  Well then.  I turned on my classroom TV, as did all the other teachers in the school.  Again, my students were taking a geometry test at the time, and, being a new teacher and unsure of what the protocol was when unexpected historic news breaks on live TV during the school day, I told them, “Keep working on your test.  But we can go ahead and watch this while you work.”

At the time we learned of this announcement and turned on the news, two planes had actually hit the World Trade Center.  According to reports, the first plane had hit the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. Eastern time, and the second plane had hit the South Tower at 9:03 a.m.  As we were also on Eastern time, and as the second plane had already hit the second tower before our principal announced this, that’s how I remember that we learned of this sometime after 9:03 a.m.  Apparently, the news had started covering this immediately after the first plane hit at 8:46, suspecting at the time that it was a tragic accident.  But when the second plane hit on live TV prior to our learning this news, that’s when everyone who was already watching at the time knew this was no coincidence (and likely when our principal decided to announce it to the school).

It was difficult to know exactly how to navigate the situation, especially as a new teacher.  As Michael Scott would say, “I knew exactly what to do. But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do.” For the rest of the school day, in the rest of my classes, I continued to give my test as scheduled, but I also kept the TV on the news because everyone, including myself, was interested in what was going on.  Actually, all the teachers in the building kept their classroom TV on all day, and much of the whole school simply watched TV all day in their classrooms.  I remember we watched as news reports came in of another plane hitting the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and then as both towers of the World Trade Center collapsed on live TV.  At least one student asked, “What if a plane hits here?”  I tried to reassure them that whoever was doing this was targeting a largely populated area, but that we ourselves were safe.  They weren’t going to target a school in rural Ohio.  Then, as if on cue, reports surfaced of another plane crashing in rural Pennsylvania, thus seemingly ruining my argument momentarily.

The school day went on as scheduled, but all after-school activities were cancelled at the end of the day.  I went home to grade papers and watch more of the news.  Incidentally, many of my students did quite poorly on their test that day, but I chalked it up to their being distracted by what was going on, so I allowed them a re-do at the end of the week, which helped significantly.

Over the course of the day, and in the days that followed, everyone learned more about Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, airport security, and the exact events that transpired.  However, I’m not here to focus on the detailed news accounts of what happened.  You can read that on your preferred source of news and information, such as Wikipedia.  Rather, this is mainly to provide my own personal perspective of what happened on 9/11.

One other random thing that I remember about 9/11 is the price of gas the following day.  On the morning of September 11, the price of gas was somewhere around $1.25 a gallon.  I don’t remember the exact price, but it was somewhere in that range. Driving home after school, the price of gas was still the same, but there was an insanely long line of cars backed into the street, waiting to get gas in anticipation of a huge jump in price.  On the morning of September 12, as I was driving to school, I specifically remember that the price of gas was $4.99 a gallon.  Never before, or since, have I ever seen the price of gas that high.  It quickly came down after that – not all the way down to where it was before, but at least the ridiculous price of $4.99 a gallon (especially ridiculous in 2001) only lasted for one day.

The other thing that I remember about the aftermath of that day is how the country came together, and everyone was seemingly nicer to each other than usual, at least for a while.  Unlike today, when the most trivial thing gets politicized and causes people to get angry at each other for no reason, it seemed like everyone in America put aside their differences to focus on the important things in life.  At least that’s how I remember it 20 years later, anyway.

9/11 was not a pleasant memory for anyone, but not one that can be forgotten.  20 years later, I thought I would take a moment to remember it and share my own personal memories of that day.  Next time I post something on here, it will hopefully be to share something more pleasant.  Until then, here’s to the next 20 years.  May they be everything we ever dreamed of and more.