My personal experience with 9/11 was a lot like most people’s my age. I don’t know anyone by name personally that was killed. My hairdresser said one of her clients had a daughter who was a flight attendant but that is my closest personal connection. I am rather blessed for this. Losing someone you love to a situation you don’t understand is surely a painful experience and I (being a first grader at the time) didn’t understand 9/11 in the slightest.
I remember sitting on carpet squares in my classroom listening to Ms.Hindricks, my spunky young teacher, explain in her southern drawl -to the best of her ability- that a plane had crashed on the world trade centers to a bunch of doe-eyed six-year-olds. I had no idea what she was talking about.
Why was she so upset?
Doesn’t she know that plane crashes are pretty common?
“New York City” and the “Pentagon” in “Washington” sounded like such foreign and distant terms to me… and anyway my teacher hadn’t specified whether it was “Washington D.C.” or Washington State,” which really had me confused.
It was cutting into snack time so I decided not to ask.
