MISSISSIPPI
"Where were you on 9/11?" as remembered by those in Mississippi that day.
Mississippi resident Hadley remembers the innocence and simple understanding of being a child on 9/11
1. "I was in first grade in Pass Christian, Mississippi and a teacher turned on the TV which we were kind of were watching in class. I missed my mom, I was really scared and she was stuck at Oklahoma for school when the flights were grounded.
Later, my school had this memorial ceremony and they told all the first graders, it was almost like a competition, like whoever wrote the best sentence would get to read it for TV. I wrote:
'I felt sad when the buildings fell.
They picked my sentence because I guess I spelled everything right or something. I read it in front of about a hundred people and in front of the TV cameras and then said they're gonna send this big quilt off to New York. I remember looking at the quilt and sitting there and just crying my eyes out and having to turn my head to see the Sun so I could blame it on that. I guess I guess I was embarrassed to cry"
- Hadley
Later, my school had this memorial ceremony and they told all the first graders, it was almost like a competition, like whoever wrote the best sentence would get to read it for TV. I wrote:
'I felt sad when the buildings fell.
They picked my sentence because I guess I spelled everything right or something. I read it in front of about a hundred people and in front of the TV cameras and then said they're gonna send this big quilt off to New York. I remember looking at the quilt and sitting there and just crying my eyes out and having to turn my head to see the Sun so I could blame it on that. I guess I guess I was embarrassed to cry"
- Hadley
2. "On September 11th, 2001 I didn't know the world had changed. I was a first-grader at Reeves Elementary in Long Beach, Mississippi; the school decided we were too young to turn on the television and show us what was happening so they left that to our parents. Kids were being checked out of school and my father came to eat lunch with me in a half-empty cafeteria. We sat in silence, I still didn't know.
The day I clearly remember is September 12th. My father sat me in the car on a foggy morning before school and said “The World Trade Center is gone.” I asked, “What’s the World Trade Center?”
At school, our teacher tried to comfort us, but no kid my age could possibly understand all of what happened. Sometime in the weeks that followed my school entered a penny donation fundraiser to help recovery efforts at Ground Zero. The class that raised the most pennies won a pizza party. As a six-year-old kid I heard “help” and “pizza” which were two things I did understand.
I put in a big effort and when I asked neighbors or family members for donations I would say “Do you want to donate money to New York? People are trapped in the World Trade Center!” I didn’t know they were all dead, the money we were raising went towards recovering body parts for funerals not finding survivors. No one wanted to tell an innocent kid they were all dead. After an awkward hesitation, they filled my jar up and thanked me.
I remember going to the bank with my dad to turn the donations to pennies and telling the teller what it was for, I remember dragging a red Radio Flyer wagon filled with massive jars of pennies into school like a hero and telling everyone it was going straight to New York, and I remember the sad joy on my teacher’s face when I showed her what I had done and told her not only were we going to help those people in New York we were going to win that pizza party.
Along with my money, I drew up the design for a robot with big claw arms and a slot in its back for pennies. For each penny inserted my robot found a body. I encouraged my teacher to send my designs to New York with the money.
My robot never made it to New York, but the pennies did. We won the pizza party and I felt second only to the President’s perfect opening pitch in patriotism.
A few years later in a random moment, it hit me that all those people were dead, I had saved no one. I was mad no one told me, I was angry that I acted like such a foolish kid.
I don’t feel mad or foolish remembering it anymore, I was an American boy who wanted to help people and eat pizza. I felt like a hero walking into school wheeling that red penny wagon behind me. America needed heroes."
- Ben
The day I clearly remember is September 12th. My father sat me in the car on a foggy morning before school and said “The World Trade Center is gone.” I asked, “What’s the World Trade Center?”
At school, our teacher tried to comfort us, but no kid my age could possibly understand all of what happened. Sometime in the weeks that followed my school entered a penny donation fundraiser to help recovery efforts at Ground Zero. The class that raised the most pennies won a pizza party. As a six-year-old kid I heard “help” and “pizza” which were two things I did understand.
I put in a big effort and when I asked neighbors or family members for donations I would say “Do you want to donate money to New York? People are trapped in the World Trade Center!” I didn’t know they were all dead, the money we were raising went towards recovering body parts for funerals not finding survivors. No one wanted to tell an innocent kid they were all dead. After an awkward hesitation, they filled my jar up and thanked me.
I remember going to the bank with my dad to turn the donations to pennies and telling the teller what it was for, I remember dragging a red Radio Flyer wagon filled with massive jars of pennies into school like a hero and telling everyone it was going straight to New York, and I remember the sad joy on my teacher’s face when I showed her what I had done and told her not only were we going to help those people in New York we were going to win that pizza party.
Along with my money, I drew up the design for a robot with big claw arms and a slot in its back for pennies. For each penny inserted my robot found a body. I encouraged my teacher to send my designs to New York with the money.
My robot never made it to New York, but the pennies did. We won the pizza party and I felt second only to the President’s perfect opening pitch in patriotism.
A few years later in a random moment, it hit me that all those people were dead, I had saved no one. I was mad no one told me, I was angry that I acted like such a foolish kid.
I don’t feel mad or foolish remembering it anymore, I was an American boy who wanted to help people and eat pizza. I felt like a hero walking into school wheeling that red penny wagon behind me. America needed heroes."
- Ben
Written Stories
3. "I was stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, MS training as an Aerospace Control & Warning Systems operator in the Air National Guard. Our job was to track and identify aircraft using a tactical ground radar.
We were in the operations module training and one of the instructors stuck his head in and said,
'Forcecon Bravo, some asshole just crashed a plane into the World Trade Center.'
Our instructor replied 'real world?' (He assumed this was just a training exercise which would actually be fitting for our job).
'Real World' he responded and shut the door. We all just continued with our training. I assumed they meant a little prop plane accidentally hit the building. A short while later the door flew open again and the same instructor who had warned us previously screamed into the OM:
'Forcecon Charlie! Get in the building!'
The day got crazier as it continued on. Some students described seeing a lone Chaplain running down the street screaming, 'Forcecon Delta!'
We were sent into the basement to get a TV so we could watch the news. Nobody really spoke and nobody knew what to say."
- John Stoll
We were in the operations module training and one of the instructors stuck his head in and said,
'Forcecon Bravo, some asshole just crashed a plane into the World Trade Center.'
Our instructor replied 'real world?' (He assumed this was just a training exercise which would actually be fitting for our job).
'Real World' he responded and shut the door. We all just continued with our training. I assumed they meant a little prop plane accidentally hit the building. A short while later the door flew open again and the same instructor who had warned us previously screamed into the OM:
'Forcecon Charlie! Get in the building!'
The day got crazier as it continued on. Some students described seeing a lone Chaplain running down the street screaming, 'Forcecon Delta!'
We were sent into the basement to get a TV so we could watch the news. Nobody really spoke and nobody knew what to say."
- John Stoll
4. "I had just moved to Mississippi. My dad was a pastor and enrolled me at a Christian high school. It was really strange. They gathered us in the sanctuary, rolled out a tube TV, showed us the towers being destroyed, then proceeded to tell us it was the beginning of the end of the world."
- J. H.
- J. H.
5. "I was finishing up my studies at Mississippi State University. The entire student body, citizens and international students felt the impact of the attacks a thousands miles away. Sadness descended upon us all that day."
- Carlos Vasquez
- Carlos Vasquez