CULLMAN, Ala. – As the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, unfolded on live television, Americans and the world watched in disbelief and confusion. Adults struggled to comprehend the enormity of it all and the immeasurable loss of life. As the world stopped and watched the nonstop coverage of those haunting images, the country’s children were also in the room.
The Tribune reached out to individuals who were between the ages of 4-15 Sept. 11, 2001, and asked them to recall what they remember about the day and the effects it continued to have on them.
Jonathan Mullin
“I was 12 years old and in 7th grade at Priceville Middle School. I got to second period and the TV was turned on. It was just watching the whole thing unfold over and over. We were not allowed to leave either, so we just sat and watched replays of the towers being struck and of them collapsing–then the Pentagon.
“My teacher was Mrs. Speaks. She kept us calm, but I could tell she was scared. It was terrifying. It’s one of those things that never leaves your mind. I wondered if we would be hit next because of Boeing and Lockheed Martin being right by us. It terrified me for months.
“We did continue periods as normal that day, but every TV played the same footage. There was no escape. Second period in Mrs. Speaks science class was always the moment I remember–people jumping from the buildings. That still haunts me. Why did they feel they had to play it all day though? It was like being trapped in school with a nightmare unfolding. Honestly, I found 9/11 scarier than the constant school shootings.
“Now that I live near New York, I still see how it has affected people. I’ve met people who were there and lost loved ones. Sure, I watched it, but now that I have had these experiences, I’m glad I didn’t have to live it. I just wish they didn’t have to either. I wonder how that day desensitized me and other children or how it had affected our bias and judgement.”
Alex Lindsey Anderson
“I was three days away from turning 10 and we had started our day normal with the pledge and folding the flag in Mrs. Neal’s class at West Elementary. When we came back from PE, all the teachers were in the room with the TV pulled out. The first tower had been hit. Classes were canceled for the rest of the day and we sat and watched it all play out. We were told we were watching history happen. 20 years later, we’re still watching history happen.
“I didn’t really understand what was going on and I was really confused about why I had to cancel my birthday party that weekend. My mom explained it all and I understood that something big had happened.
“We as Millennials have been through a lot growing up. We’ve seen the world unravel three times, one massive war and we are all in debt. We could all use some free therapy.”
Eryn Hyde Rose
“I remember being in driver’s ed, 10th grade at Cullman High School. I was 15. Out of nowhere, the coach turned on the TV while the first tower was burning. I remember thinking it was all a terrible accident, like a fire or gas leak or something. Then, as the second plane hit the second tower, I remember the whole class gasping. I still didn’t have any idea what was going on. The thought of terrorism didn’t cross my mind until I heard the news anchors say the word. Even then, I had no real concept of what that meant.
“I was sad and kept thinking of all the people. We watched the towers collapse and I remember feeling my heart just hurting. The rest of the day was quiet and somber. I kept thinking, ‘Why would anyone have that much hate in their heart that they could do something like that? How could people feel so little remorse for those innocent lives?’
“It shattered my innocence and ignorance of how the world was to a 15-year-old high school kid. It’s still hard to comprehend how a group of people can have such hatred and disdain for others just because they are different. My everyday life might not have been affected that much and soon enough everything went back to normal for me, but I know it contributed to my cynical thoughts about the world and how awful people can be.”
Kurt Lindsey
“I was 4, just about to turn 5. I don’t remember much. I just remember coming home and sitting on the living room floor playing with my toys and wondering why my parents were so worried. My parents never had the news on the TV, so I knew something was wrong. I didn’t understand what was going on. It was about a year or two later when I remember sitting down and watching 9/11 memorials on TV that I finally got the grasp of what happened.
“I actually had the privilege to go to the 9/11 Museum a few times in my life. I went for the first time my freshman year of high school on a band trip with the Cullman High School Band. The One World Trade Center hadn’t been built yet, but the reflection pools were finished. It’s such an odd juxtaposition to the hustle and bustle of New York City. It’s the quietest place in Manhattan. You can feel the tension in the air and the tragedy that had happened there even to this day.
“Looking down into those reflection pools was gut wrenching. People had placed flowers into the names of loved ones. I’ll always remember reading the names of all of those who were lost and seeing ‘A woman and her unborn child.’ That day is the day that I truly understood the magnitude of what happened. I will always appreciate that trip and the perspective it gave. Whenever a friend plans a trip to New York, I insist they visit the memorial.”
Elise Bryant
“I was actually still going to Ardmore and I was in the 7th grade. I was in Mrs. Baker’s class and we had just watched Channel One in our homeroom. The school secretary and Mrs. Baker were really good friends and Mrs. Baker’s son worked in the World Trade Center. All of a sudden, the secretary came running into the room. I mean she was running an absolute sprint. She insisted that Mrs. Baker turns on the TV. Mrs. Baker was hesitant and said, ‘I’m teaching.’
“The secretary told her again to turn it and that it was the World Trade Center. She turned it on and within two to three minutes we saw the second plane hit. We saw it real in live time. Mrs. Baker ran out of the room and I remember all of us students sitting there looking at each other with this TV playing with it just repetitively showing (the plane) hitting the World Trade Center over and over and over. We were literally, in live time, watching people jump out of buildings.
“Mrs. Baker’s son did survive but for days, we didn’t know where he was. I remember her being out of school, but I don’t remember having an actual substitute teacher. Random teachers seemed to stop by to make sure we were still alive, but we just sat and watched the news. We didn’t even have an adult in the room on a consistent basis.
“For the first couple of minutes, we thought it was an accident. After seeing the second plane hit, we knew it wasn’t an accident. It was in that moment that the fear set in. I will NEVER forget watching on live television, them zooming in and panning down with bodies who were jumping out of the buildings. The image forever imprinted in my brain is the moment the plane was about to hit the second building.
“It was weird because I had never been to New York, so there was a bit of a disconnect but at the same time, my teacher’s son worked there and it was horrifying because we didn’t know what was happening with him. We didn’t know and she didn’t know, and we were scared. Do you know that hollow feeling you get when you see something really traumatizing? I remember feeling hollow and thinking I wasn’t safe in my own school.
“I had the same feeling after Columbine and those are kind of comparable events for me, but I didn’t watch Columbine unfold on live TV. I remember knowing logically that people were going to die and that was traumatizing. I remember watching it all day for days on end. We had a coach on 9/11 and I saw him getting in his car that day and not coming back for the rest of the year. He was in the National Guard and was deployed soon after. I remember thinking how crazy it was to have one of your teachers possibly getting sent to war.
“When you are a kid, you don’t think about things like war. At the time, war was a distant thing. I wondered, if they can hijack planes and fly them in the World Trade Center, what else can they do to us? When you are a kid, you have such a small world. I remember being scared that they would bomb Washington DC and they are going to bomb Redstone Arsenal.
“Kids brains are not designed to be wrapped around that kind of terror and trauma. I think it made us grow up really fast. To this day, I am 32 now, I still can’t watch those videos from 9/11. I don’t think I have seen one in about 15 years and that is intentional.
“It sounds silly now, as an adult, but I thought war was lining up on a battlefield and that there were rules. Within a week of 9/11, I heard the term “guerilla warfare” for the first time. Now, in the military, that is normal to us. We do train in traditional war some, but we train a lot in guerilla warfare now. It’s crazy how radically it has changed everything.
“I had always wanted to join the military since I was a little kid, but I had given up on that idea. I did end up joining the military and 9/11 was something I thought about a lot when I did join. Even now, when I am flying on AWACS, I think about what those crews did during that time. I think about how scary it would be for suddenly all planes to be landing and monitoring the open skies. That would be so scary, and I could not even feasibly imagine doing that today.
Shelby Threadgill
“I was 4 years old. I could understand, verbally, what my mom had tried to explain about the day 9/11 happened. I knew that someone flew a plane into a building and had hurt and killed a lot of people. I also understood what it meant for people to be critically injured or killed. Mom was working at UAB on the liver transplant floor during 9/11, but she had previously worked as an ER nurse at Woodland. So, I grew up spending a lot of time seeing lots of injuries just from spending time at the ER when mom was working.
“I didn’t start to understand how many people had been killed or hurt, or how many people had been impacted by the actions of others until I was 5-6 years old. At 4 years old, I just knew lots of people got hurt because someone decided to hurt them, and that it was mom’s job was to be there and take care of anybody who was hurt.
“As I got older, 9/11 shaped a lot of my anti-war and pacifist views. I wonder too if it had any influence over my decision to go to nursing school. Seeing my mom take care of others and making sacrifices to help save others definitely did.
“I didn’t end up graduating from nursing school, but I didn’t fail either. Mom got critically ill during my third semester of nursing school. I made the decision to leave so I could stay home and tend to her needs.”
Brandtley Cruce
“I was 8 years old and in the 3rd grade at Cold Springs. It was weird because I don’t really remember anything but the second plane hitting the tower and then going to a doctor’s appointment. I do remember everybody being very upset and checking out a friend from school. I didn’t really understand the impact that day would have for decades to come and how many things changed forever, in an instant.
“As far as today goes, I’m kind of wary of big buildings and low flying airplanes. I still get nervous getting on an airplane now.”
Copyright 2021 Humble Roots, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
