mamiof5 Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 The anniversary of 9-11 always makes me so sad. Very sad to remember the events of that day. I wonder if some day I'll be able to read about it to our kids without choking up at some point. Praying tonight for worlds' peace! 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunflowerlady Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 I agree. I cried a little today. My dd is a teen now and I will be going through some 9/11 teaching and info with her next week. She is old enough now for me to tell her about it and teach her the details. It will affect her life also for many years. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 I admit, I forgot most of the day. /bad person, half asleep :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plink Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 We got stuck in traffic trying to cross the George Washington bridge today - for almost 3 hours. My youngest needed the potty, the oldest was getting punchy, and I could barely keep my eyes open with exhaustion. Immediately after we started moving at a normal pace, we caught a glimpse of the "freedom tower" at the 9/11 site in the distance. Instantly our perspective shifted from feeling trapped in the car together to being blessed with the luxury of spending time together. Forgetting is not an option. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JessReplanted Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 The anniversary of 9-11 always makes me so sad. Very sad to remember the events of that day. I wonder if some day I'll be able to read about it to our kids without choking up at some point. Praying tonight for worlds' peace! I'm the same way. It is always a sad day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkTulip Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 It's a somber day at our house. I'm so so grateful for the men and women who put their lives on the line every day for my own safety: police, firefighters, military, etc. Hugs to them and their families. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 I cried today too. It's an emotional day. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamiof5 Posted September 12, 2015 Author Share Posted September 12, 2015 A nearby city puts up a beautiful memorial, one flag for each person who died that day, and attached to each flag there's a tag with some basic description of who they were, what were they doing (were they in a tower? One of the flights? Were they rescuing others?). Hard not to get emotional. We read of the few kids who were involved, and stories of a few people. We could have stayed longer, but it was very hot and humid. We are all so busy, and have forgotten before, but the last few years we have tried to make sure that we remember and our kids know about it. Talking to a firefighter earlier this week and to a friend tonight who works in a public school made me sad, both stated that many kids have no idea about it, and that made me sad. We can't let the future generations forget that our freedom is not free. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincessMommy Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 The anniversary of 9-11 always makes me so sad. Very sad to remember the events of that day. I wonder if some day I'll be able to read about it to our kids without choking up at some point. Praying tonight for worlds' peace! I agree. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnnE-girl Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 I feel the same way. So sad for all those who were lost (including the cousin of a high school classmate), and feeling that defining moment of losing the innocence that we were "safe." I was a junior in college when it happened and still remember the shock and fear of that day. I want my kids to learn about it, but at 6 and 8 I still felt they were a bit too young to know too much. Then DS started reading books about special forces from the library and there was a chapter about 9/11 and the subsequent war in Afghanistan. We've had more conversations about it the last few weeks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 It always gets to me. It seems like yesterday. Driving to work I passed the beach and all of a sudden, all I could see was the 2nd plane hitting the tower. I blinked and it was gone, but it stayed with me all day. I finished Laurie Garrett's I Heard the Sirens Scream, last night. It was a hard read. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 Praying tonight for worlds' peace! Always a good thing!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unsinkable Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 I've posted about Father Mychal Judge before. He was an FDNY chaplain who died that day. "That Final Morning On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Judge rushed with some off-duty firemen to the World Trade Center, which had just been hit by the first plane. Tom Von Essen, who was then commissioner of the New York Fire Department, saw him in the North Tower. "And he looked really concerned," Von Essen recalls. "We didn't talk. We always talked. We always fooled around. But we didn't that morning." As it happened, French documentary filmmakers were inside the North tower. Their camera captured some of the last moments of Mychal Judge's life. In the film, says his friend, Father Michael Duffy, you can see the priest standing by the plate glass window, watching the bodies fall on the patio outside." http://www.npr.org/2011/09/05/140154885/memories-of-sept-11s-first-casualty-burn-bright 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valley Girl Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 We did not/do not forget either. I can't listen to the audio without tearing up. I have my own painful anniversaries (as do we all), but I always think about the families and friends of those who were lost. My heart goes out to them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenn- Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 We talk about it every year with the kids. Every year they understand it a little bit more. People kept posting Budweiser's 2002 Super Bowl commercial on FB yesterday and I would tear up just thinking about the most moving commercial ever. Even just reading this thread is still hard and I didn't lose anyone I knew. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrairieSong Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 We remembered, too: those who lost their lives, those who died trying to save others including the ones on Flight 93 who fought back, the families and friends whose loved ones died that day. We will always remember. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamiof5 Posted September 13, 2015 Author Share Posted September 13, 2015 Thank you so much for all your comments!! Got teary eyed watching the commercial, and truly enjoyed learning about the priest, had never heard of him. Can't imagine how it is to live in NYC and how it was to see it all happening. And yes, definitely grateful for all our military and their families. We have taught our kids about 9-11 since they were very young (of course when they were little we gave very little detail). It has been great to watch the kids growing, as well as their understanding of some topics grows. This thread motivated me to look for some more kid friendly resources, since we have the one book we read every year, but it'll be great to read other books on the topic. I meant to like everyone's comments, but the website was acting up and didn't let me :( Thanks for all your comments, truly enjoyed reading them all :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 I've posted about Father Mychal Judge before. He was an FDNY chaplain who died that day. "That Final Morning On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Judge rushed with some off-duty firemen to the World Trade Center, which had just been hit by the first plane. Tom Von Essen, who was then commissioner of the New York Fire Department, saw him in the North Tower. "And he looked really concerned," Von Essen recalls. "We didn't talk. We always talked. We always fooled around. But we didn't that morning." As it happened, French documentary filmmakers were inside the North tower. Their camera captured some of the last moments of Mychal Judge's life. In the film, says his friend, Father Michael Duffy, you can see the priest standing by the plate glass window, watching the bodies fall on the patio outside." http://www.npr.org/2011/09/05/140154885/memories-of-sept-11s-first-casualty-burn-bright Watched that documentary with my girls last week. Cried like it was yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeacefulChaos Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 You know, I read these and I'm reminded that I need to do better at remembering. I was 18, newly married, and asleep when it happened. And so I don't usually comment on things that talk about 'where I was that day' because I know that my answer sounds callous. Throughout the day in 2001, it didn't mean much to me. I didn't know much about what the WTC was, didn't fully grasp the gravity of what had happened/was happening at the time. I couldn't have pinpointed what the WTC looked like. I do remember turning on the TV as I got ready for my afternoon shift at Red Lobster, and being like, 'Whoa... a plane flew into them? Wow... and the Pentagon, too? That's so terrible...' but that was about as far as it went. It's not that I wasn't shocked and saddened by it, but it was brief. In days following, I saw some stuff on the news about it and I understood what was going on, etc, but I didn't have a whole lot of feelings about it. Does that make sense? It's not that I was ignorant or self-centered... but I think I was one of a part of a wave of people who just wasn't aware. I grew up in a small town and I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to outside news because in small towns, you often have to search for outside news. (Obviously, big events - like this - were well televised. I'm not using this as an excuse.) Only in recent years have I become more purposeful about looking online for news; I'm still not excellent at it (though I often know about a lot of things before other locals do). Anyway, I say all this because it just makes me think. Have you guys seen the picture where, in the background, I want to say the towers are even burning, and in the foreground, there are teenagers sitting with their backs to it and laughing and not seeming to notice? (maybe not teenagers... I can't remember. I just don't remember the picture that well) I think that was the reality for a lot of people in parts of the country that were nowhere near what was happening. When I was in NYC - which was only a few years ago! - it really hit me how huge the towers had been. I still didn't shed any tears, but when we visited ground zero and when we talked to people who told us about the day, it brought it all home to me and made it more real. I sort of feel bad that it took that long for it to be real. And as such, I think it's really important for teenagers, especially, to be kept in the loop on world events. That's something that was never taught or talked about when I was in school. Whether or not I can say I would have been super interested in it at the time, Idk, but I'd like to think that I would have. I think I would have liked to know what was going on in the world outside my own little town, whether from my parents or the school or whatever. Idk. Just seeing all this and reading different accounts makes me want to try to make things real for my kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unsinkable Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 This picture? http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/culturebox/2006/09/its_me_in_that_911_photo.html The couple in the picture said they were devasted by what was happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeacefulChaos Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 This picture? http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/culturebox/2006/09/its_me_in_that_911_photo.html The couple in the picture said they were devasted by what was happening. No, it was a different one. More straight on, and the people in it were younger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamiof5 Posted September 14, 2015 Author Share Posted September 14, 2015 Absolutely loving this thread and different ramifications. Had never seen that picture, totally see how it could send a different impression, but glad to read further. Also, other than mourning their loved ones, I had no idea of what the first responders are still dealing with, and how many died afterwards because of it...just never thought of it! And peacefulchaos, thanks for sharing! I was also much younger at the time, and I had moved to the US a couple years before. I wasn't very familiar with the place, but remember being in awe of the fact that it had happened in American soil. Where I come from violence is the norm, I never thought it could happen here. My awareness of this tragedy has increased as time has passed, and maybe that's why it has been so important for me to teach our kids about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted September 14, 2015 Share Posted September 14, 2015 When I was in NYC - which was only a few years ago! - it really hit me how huge the towers had been. About three years ago I stayed at a hotel on the 10th floor, and it seemed SO FAR DOWN off the balcony. I just can't begin to imagine what it would have taken to get people to jump from windows 10 times higher than that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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