20 years later: What we remember from 9/11

We promised never to forget. But now, 20 years later, what do we still remember from September 11, 2001?

Mike Price

The morning of September 11, 2001, I was standing outside Tiebreaker Elementary school in Ammon waiting for school to start. My fifth-grade classmates were all worked up because they had heard someone had attacked our country. At that point, I hadn’t heard anything. We had just barely moved into a new house and hadn’t set up our TV yet. I had no idea what was going on, but neither did my classmates.

There was much debate about what had actually happened. “Bombs had been dropped.” “No, we were being invaded.” “No, it was rockets not bombs.” “Actually, it was a plane crash.”

To our 10 and 11 year old minds, it didn’t matter. We were all ready to sign up to fight and defend our country.

Finally, the bell rang and we were let into the school. As we lined up to enter Mr. Weller’s classroom, a somber mood fell over us. Even as young as we were, and despite all the excitement just moments before, we all felt something serious was happening.

There was still some chatter among my classmates, but it died as soon as we took our seats and Mr. Weller stood in front of us.

He told us that something terrible had happened. Planes had been hijacked and crashed into the World Trade Centers in New York. Then he turned on the news.

We sat in silence as we watched the planes crash into the towers over and over again.

I can’t remember what was live and what was recorded footage. I don’t remember if we saw the towers fall live. But it doesn’t matter, the images were burned into my mind. Twenty years later, the same feelings of anxiety, horror and dread still well up inside me whenever I think about that day.

Jeff Kelley

I remember waking at 7 a.m. on November 11, 2001, and going downstairs and turning on the TV while I prepared my breakfast. The coverage on all the channels was of the North Tower of the World Trade Centers having been struck by a plane. I remember thinking back to the tie when I lived in Los Angeles and watched the Interstate Bank Fire. I remember the Los Angeles Fire Chief saying if they didn’t get the fire out within the next couple of floors, that it could compromise the integrity of the building and it would collapse. I just kept thinking they need to get everyone out of that tower before it collapses.

Just then a second plane hit the second tower. At that point, I knew we were being attacked by terrorists. I was awestruck to watch firemen running into those buildings realizing that they were likely going to their death.

As the buildings collapsed, I kept asking myself if I could have done what those firemen did.

After the attacks, for the next week, I just felt a profound sadness. I felt like our country had changed. I felt that we had hit a period that was different from anything we’d ever seen before.

The funny thing is we were all worked up over Y2K, the virus that was supposed to stop all the computers and cause all sorts of chaos and death on New Year’s Eve of 2000. I remember going to a party down the street and everyone was just not in an excited mood. I remember hearing the song by Prince ‘Party like it’s 1999’ and thinking this is the most dull and stupid party I’ve ever been to and it’s the change of the century. Everyone was so concerned that things were going to go bad. I remember saying to them if something’s going to go bad, it’s not going to happen on New Year’s Eve. It’s going to happen on a clear day during the middle of the week when nobody knows what’s happening.

Little did I know I was so spot-on in my prediction.