CONNECTICUT
"Where were you on 9/11?" as remembered by those in Connecticut that day.
A Connecticut student compares her memory of September 11th with her own experience as a teacher when the Covid pandemic lockdown began.
1. "I was in 5th grade in Connecticut. We didn’t hear anything in school, we were all just immediately bussed home. I remember thinking a half day was rad and not really caring why it had happened. When I got home, my aunt and mom swarmed me as I got off the bus. I immediately knew something was up but I didn’t know what.
Most vividly, I remember the neighborhood chatter...
'Was Bill in the city today for work?'
'Has anyone spoken with Mark and Susan, are they ok?'
'I think that was the building Joe worked in.'
Everyone living in my neighborhood was okay, but I do remember my family feeling like it was a little too close for comfort."
- E. S.
Most vividly, I remember the neighborhood chatter...
'Was Bill in the city today for work?'
'Has anyone spoken with Mark and Susan, are they ok?'
'I think that was the building Joe worked in.'
Everyone living in my neighborhood was okay, but I do remember my family feeling like it was a little too close for comfort."
- E. S.
Written Stories:
2. "9th grade English teacher ran in the classroom and turned the TV. A classroom that was usually chaotic with kids talking and goofing around got completely quiet. We sat at our desks not making a sound, not making any movement. We were all trying to comprehend what was going on.
We all got out early that day, I went home and sat on the couch with my mother who was on the phone talking with my dad. He was in NYC that day on the George Washington bridge, said he saw a bunch of smoke from the Twin Towers.
This was my generation's Kennedy assassination, my generation's Challenger explosion....
I still get chills and teary eyed reading about it or watching videos of it..."
- Andy
We all got out early that day, I went home and sat on the couch with my mother who was on the phone talking with my dad. He was in NYC that day on the George Washington bridge, said he saw a bunch of smoke from the Twin Towers.
This was my generation's Kennedy assassination, my generation's Challenger explosion....
I still get chills and teary eyed reading about it or watching videos of it..."
- Andy
3. "9th grade, I was walking to a class in a very busy hallway in the front of my high school. I overheard someone say that there had been a small plane or helicopter crash in NYC and it hit a building. It wasn't until later on when I was in a world history class that things started to turn odd. Runners from the school's front office started coming in to classes asking for students to come with them. My mother had sent my brother to school to pick me up and take me home.
He drove me straight to the local ice cream place and he bought me an ice cream cone. When I got back home I walked into the kitchen where I saw my mother staring with worry at the TV. She looked at me with tears in her eyes not saying a word.
I looked at the TV and saw a building on fire with smoke pouring out of it. Whether I knew what it was I can't say, but I walked over to her and hugged her."
-D. K.
He drove me straight to the local ice cream place and he bought me an ice cream cone. When I got back home I walked into the kitchen where I saw my mother staring with worry at the TV. She looked at me with tears in her eyes not saying a word.
I looked at the TV and saw a building on fire with smoke pouring out of it. Whether I knew what it was I can't say, but I walked over to her and hugged her."
-D. K.
4. "I was at work and we all stood around the TV watching it happen. At least five people came in that room screaming and crying because their spouses or family members worked in those towers.
It was awful..."
-K. L.
It was awful..."
-K. L.
5. "I was in 8th grade social studies class with Mr. Owens at Vernon Center Middle School where many students had parents that worked in Manhattan, including mine. Administration only over the PA and said a plane flew into a building in New York and that they didn't have a lot of details so they would keep us updated. A few minutes afterwards the vice principal came to the class and removed one girl along with two twins. No one had any idea why or where they were going. Those three were sent home because both moms had called in to tell the administration that both fathers worked for the same company on the 85th floor of the south tower.
Neither father made it out and I never saw the twins again.
I got an office call from my mom at noon to tell me that my step dad was still at the train station in New Haven when the planes hit which was the first I had heard of there being two planes.
I left school at the normal time and our whole family went to Bennigans for dinner so we could watch the news on all the TV's and register what was going on. My Mom cried through dinner while my step dad told me and my sibling that we didn't have to watch, but this was something that would be defining for our generation and we needed to think about it. He kept and office in lower Manhattan and the firm had a small corporate apartment in Tribeca that we visited the next weekend to experience the aftermath before the clean up began.
I remember walking closer to Ground Zero and seeing all the abandoned stuff. Everyone talks about the cars left there with a foot of dust on them blocks and blocks away. They don't talk about the random bags, to-go food, and briefcases left on the street and sidewalk. That stayed with me for a long time - That feeling that it is necessary for you and everyone around you to drop what they are holding and run.
We went to a little family favorite Italian restaurant around the corner from the apartment, but it was littered with debris and didn't end up reopening for months.
My stepdad was right. 9/11 defined a lot of my childhood not just because of the policy and law changes, but it made us consider leaving New England which we eventually did in 2004."
- N. I.
I got an office call from my mom at noon to tell me that my step dad was still at the train station in New Haven when the planes hit which was the first I had heard of there being two planes.
I left school at the normal time and our whole family went to Bennigans for dinner so we could watch the news on all the TV's and register what was going on. My Mom cried through dinner while my step dad told me and my sibling that we didn't have to watch, but this was something that would be defining for our generation and we needed to think about it. He kept and office in lower Manhattan and the firm had a small corporate apartment in Tribeca that we visited the next weekend to experience the aftermath before the clean up began.
I remember walking closer to Ground Zero and seeing all the abandoned stuff. Everyone talks about the cars left there with a foot of dust on them blocks and blocks away. They don't talk about the random bags, to-go food, and briefcases left on the street and sidewalk. That stayed with me for a long time - That feeling that it is necessary for you and everyone around you to drop what they are holding and run.
We went to a little family favorite Italian restaurant around the corner from the apartment, but it was littered with debris and didn't end up reopening for months.
My stepdad was right. 9/11 defined a lot of my childhood not just because of the policy and law changes, but it made us consider leaving New England which we eventually did in 2004."
- N. I.
6. "Was at work when someone said a plane hit one of the towers.
'What dufus in a small plane didn't see the building?'
Then the other place hit and we knew it was intentional. Our internet sucked and it was hard to get news so we had the radio on. There were buildings in Connecticut that were evacuated because they were considered vulnerable.
I remember when planes were grounded. The sky was so quiet that day.
It seems we all knew people who were in the city that day. Or knew people who knew people."
- F. M.
'What dufus in a small plane didn't see the building?'
Then the other place hit and we knew it was intentional. Our internet sucked and it was hard to get news so we had the radio on. There were buildings in Connecticut that were evacuated because they were considered vulnerable.
I remember when planes were grounded. The sky was so quiet that day.
It seems we all knew people who were in the city that day. Or knew people who knew people."
- F. M.
7. "I was a freshman at the University of Connecticut. My girlfriend at the time was a freshman at Columbia University.
I heard the first news reports on the radio in the dining hall while I had breakfast before my first class of the day. They said a small plane had hit the World Trade Center. I figured,
'What the f*ck, I can be late to class, I should go check this out.'
I went back to my dorm room and turned on CNN...
And my world changed.
I watched the second plane hit the North Tower live. I burnt all my minutes trying to call my girlfriend, but cell service was down in NYC. A lot of my friends signed up for the armed services after that day.
I didn't.
I saw Ground Zero just a couple months after the attack. There were still bulletin boards full of printed flyers and photos of lost loved ones everywhere. The ground near the WTC was still cracked, and broken windows were still everywhere. The Deutschebank building was still ripped wide open like a wound.
I lost a lot of friends in the wars that followed."
- F. G.
I heard the first news reports on the radio in the dining hall while I had breakfast before my first class of the day. They said a small plane had hit the World Trade Center. I figured,
'What the f*ck, I can be late to class, I should go check this out.'
I went back to my dorm room and turned on CNN...
And my world changed.
I watched the second plane hit the North Tower live. I burnt all my minutes trying to call my girlfriend, but cell service was down in NYC. A lot of my friends signed up for the armed services after that day.
I didn't.
I saw Ground Zero just a couple months after the attack. There were still bulletin boards full of printed flyers and photos of lost loved ones everywhere. The ground near the WTC was still cracked, and broken windows were still everywhere. The Deutschebank building was still ripped wide open like a wound.
I lost a lot of friends in the wars that followed."
- F. G.
8. "I was in 8th grade homeroom when it was realized it was a terrorist attack and not just a horrible accident. I just remember a crying teacher coming in and talking to my homeroom teacher before he went and turned on the old CRT TV.
We continued going to every class when periods changed but all we did in each of them was watch the news. I didn’t fully understand the gravity of the situation but I remember one of the teachers told us,
'You'll remember this the way I remember Kennedy’s assassination.'
- L. G. Muir
We continued going to every class when periods changed but all we did in each of them was watch the news. I didn’t fully understand the gravity of the situation but I remember one of the teachers told us,
'You'll remember this the way I remember Kennedy’s assassination.'
- L. G. Muir
9. "I was an eighth grader in a small, western Connecticut town. We were in science class when another teacher came in and told our teacher to turn on the TV. The look on that other teacher's face scared us all into silence. All of the 7th and 8th grade classes gathered in one large classroom and watched the news on the TV that was installed in the corner. I remember seeing people falling from the buildings and the footage of the second plane hitting being shown over and over again.
I didn't know what a terrorist was until that day.
One of my classmates ran out into the hall sobbing when he realized what buildings had been struck. His dad had a meeting that morning in one of the towers. I remember seeing him on the floor on the hallway by the lockers. Just curled up in a ball shaking, with a teacher trying to console him. At some point my friend's mom called the school to tell her son that his dad was OK. He hadn't yet arrived to his meeting when the first plane hit and was able to get a cab out of the city. I think every kid in that room cried on relief when we heard that his dad was okay.
I later learned that only the 7th and 8th graders knew what was going on that day. The other teachers had to continue on as if nothing had happened.
I'm a teacher now and can empathize with hiding the fact that something is wrong from my students. The day my state shut down for COVID I had to maintain composure for three hours while trying to comfort my students who we so scared. I remained upbeat until I got in my car. I cried the whole way home. I can only imagine the effect 9/11 had on my teachers."
- Christine Gilbert
I didn't know what a terrorist was until that day.
One of my classmates ran out into the hall sobbing when he realized what buildings had been struck. His dad had a meeting that morning in one of the towers. I remember seeing him on the floor on the hallway by the lockers. Just curled up in a ball shaking, with a teacher trying to console him. At some point my friend's mom called the school to tell her son that his dad was OK. He hadn't yet arrived to his meeting when the first plane hit and was able to get a cab out of the city. I think every kid in that room cried on relief when we heard that his dad was okay.
I later learned that only the 7th and 8th graders knew what was going on that day. The other teachers had to continue on as if nothing had happened.
I'm a teacher now and can empathize with hiding the fact that something is wrong from my students. The day my state shut down for COVID I had to maintain composure for three hours while trying to comfort my students who we so scared. I remained upbeat until I got in my car. I cried the whole way home. I can only imagine the effect 9/11 had on my teachers."
- Christine Gilbert
10. "I was in 3rd grade in a small town about 45 minutes outside of NYC. They had us file out in small groups to be picked up or bused home. Both the early dismissal and how it happened were weird; we could tell that something was up, but no one told us anything because we were so young. It wasn't until I got home and turned on the TV that I saw footage of the towers burning and realized something big and very bad had happened. My mom turned it off before I could see footage of the towers collapsing or the second plane hitting.
I was scared for my aunt who lived and worked in the city since I didn't know the twin towers existed until that day, much less where in Manhattan they were. She was fine, but in the days that followed I learned that my neighbor's dad worked in the towers and was about to walk into the North Tower just as the first plane hit."
- Katie H
I was scared for my aunt who lived and worked in the city since I didn't know the twin towers existed until that day, much less where in Manhattan they were. She was fine, but in the days that followed I learned that my neighbor's dad worked in the towers and was about to walk into the North Tower just as the first plane hit."
- Katie H
11. "I was in 7th grade science class in Connecticut, which isn't far from New York at all. My mom came early in the attacks to pull me out and the school thought she was crazy! My dad had just been in Manhattan the day before for a business trip so he was very lucky to have missed the whole thing."
- I. H.
- I. H.
12. "I was teaching music lessons in college and had scheduled one that morning. My student came in and told me that a plane had hit the Twin Towers. I just shrugged that off, assuming she meant a Cessna or some similar small plane. We carried on with our lesson.
I went directly from that lesson to vote in a local municipal primary, and made some idle chatter with the people in line. I asked the person next to me if anybody had any idea what happened with the Trade Center. He said,
'They’re gone.'
I still didn’t understand, and he said again,
'They’re gone. The towers collapsed.'
I don’t even remember if I made it to the voting booth at that point. I knew that tens of thousands of people worked in the Twin Towers, so I imagined the scale of the tragedy was much greater than it turned out to be. I don’t want to downplay the loss of 3,000 lives, but I thought the number was going to be more like 50,000.
I ran back to my dorm and turned on the TV, all of my roommates were there. One of them was on the phone with his folks from out of the country. The other was frantically trying to reach her father who worked for the federal government and who, like most people, turned out to be fine.
At that point, I began to panic. My dad worked in Brooklyn, which I knew was out of the immediate danger zone. However; there were rumors of toxic gas and all kinds of other things, and I was frankly not thinking all that rationally. I tried to reach him several times over the hours but the phone lines were very much jammed up. I finally heard from him later in the day. He had walked some six or seven miles from his office to a cousin’s apartment.
A few days later, I donated blood for the first time."
- C. D.
I went directly from that lesson to vote in a local municipal primary, and made some idle chatter with the people in line. I asked the person next to me if anybody had any idea what happened with the Trade Center. He said,
'They’re gone.'
I still didn’t understand, and he said again,
'They’re gone. The towers collapsed.'
I don’t even remember if I made it to the voting booth at that point. I knew that tens of thousands of people worked in the Twin Towers, so I imagined the scale of the tragedy was much greater than it turned out to be. I don’t want to downplay the loss of 3,000 lives, but I thought the number was going to be more like 50,000.
I ran back to my dorm and turned on the TV, all of my roommates were there. One of them was on the phone with his folks from out of the country. The other was frantically trying to reach her father who worked for the federal government and who, like most people, turned out to be fine.
At that point, I began to panic. My dad worked in Brooklyn, which I knew was out of the immediate danger zone. However; there were rumors of toxic gas and all kinds of other things, and I was frankly not thinking all that rationally. I tried to reach him several times over the hours but the phone lines were very much jammed up. I finally heard from him later in the day. He had walked some six or seven miles from his office to a cousin’s apartment.
A few days later, I donated blood for the first time."
- C. D.
13. "I worked across from the train station in Darrien, CT. The school brought the children to wait for the return of their parents. It was a long and often fruitless wait. We left work and brought them water and snacks, but all I could think about was my two kids at home.
It was a very long day."
- G. B.
It was a very long day."
- G. B.