Reply #30: I was teaching [View All]

[TallahasseeGrannie]

a class of middle schoolers in a computer lab when the secretary came on the intercom and told us there was an incident at the WTC.

I turned on the class TV just in time to see the second plane hit. Then a bit later I saw wreckage and the runner underneath saying "the pentagon" and remarked to one of my students that some idiot had gotten it wrong.

When I realized it was correct, I think I went into shock. I don't remember a lot after that, except trying to keep the kids calm. We are minutes from the very, very visible Florida State Capitol (which is a huge 22-story phallus alone in the sky) and heard jets still in the sky (we are also on the flight path to the airport) and we wondered if somebody might just want to make a point with Jeb Bush. So there was at least a small sense of personal (probably irrational) danger.

But when the towers both came down I had to get an aide to come into my class so I could go sit alone for a while. I grew up in Northern Jersey and watched those towers go up.

I don't know about LIHOP or MIHOP. I guess I never will. I'll leave that to others to work through.

That's where I was.