Jinjer 35: The Baby Wait

[pook]

I went to bed after a 12 hour nursing shift and did not hear of 9/11 until I woke up at 5:00 pm to get ready for another shift.

I was taking a patient's blood pressure as a nursing student when the O.J. verdict came in via my patient's hospital television.

[elliha]

21 hours ago, singsingsing said:

This obviously only applies to certain geographical areas, but I know I'm not the only one when there's a nice, warm day with a particular kind of beautiful, clear, cloudless blue sky, who feels a momentary pit in their stomach. I actually noticed the sky on my way to school that morning, because it was so gorgeous and blue, and thought, "Today is going to be a good day." One of those weird things that you would have forgotten completely, but it'll stay with me forever because of what happened later than morning.

My dad died a sunny and stuffy day in June just before I turned 17. From that day on I link that type of weather with death. I mentally call it "death heat". I also had shorts which were a very unusual tone of blue and a tanktop with a pattern which was a similar color but slightly darker. I also still connect these colors with death. For my mom's funeral I had to buy a black dress and went into H&M and got the first OK black dress I saw. It has taken me ten years to not link black lace with death because of that. I bought a black lace dress earlier this winter and for the first time in a long time I loved it and felt pretty and not thinking about death. 

[Queen]

I vaguely remember 9/11, I was in primary school back then and I remember the teachers telling us about it. My mum wanted to protect me from the news but since it was brought up at school she could not stop me from being exposed. Since the US was,to me a place both geographically and mentally far away, 9/11 did not ruin my own innocence but I do understand that it affected you very deeply. It's scary when terrorism happens in your own backyard. And 3 000 deaths is a lot, not to mention all the ones who got injured! It must have been really chocking.

On a lighter note, tonight I dreamt that Jinger was pregnant with twins! Two baby girls. Remember where you heard that first...  

[Iamtheway]

12 minutes ago, Queen said:

On a lighter note, tonight I dreamt that Jinger was pregnant with twins! Two baby girls. Remember where you heard that first...  

I think both Jill and Jessa would explode if that happened. 

[singsingsing]

It's interesting how many people found out about 9/11 over the school intercom. The same thing happened to me. I was sitting in class, it was the second period of math (math was a double period in the morning - again, another thing I never would have remembered if it weren't for what happened that day) - and the principal came over the PA system and said, "There has been a very bad terrorist attack in the United States this morning" and I thought she was talking about a school shooting and wondered why she was announcing this to us. Then she elaborated that planes had flown into the World Trade Center buildings in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

I actually didn't know what the WTC was (had no idea how huge it was until I got home at lunch and saw it on TV), but I knew what the Pentagon was, so I knew it was a really big deal.

I seem to remember the principal then asking the teachers to talk to their students about it, and for a long time that struck me as odd, because how could they talk to us about it if they didn't know any more than we did? But now I think they must have had some kind of staff meeting earlier that morning, or maybe had been pulled out briefly one by one to be apprised of what was happening, and we just didn't notice.

[SorenaJ]

I don't remember 9/11, but I remember the 2004 tsunami quite clearly. That was terrifying. 

[Karma]

I was in my mid 30s when 9/11 happened, and I’m ashamed to say that when my husband woke me to tell me that a plane had hit the WTC (I’m in Australia),  I had no idea what he was talking about, grunted, thought about the toddler who would inevitably wake several times before morning, and went back to sleep.  He didn’t wake me when the second plane hit, or the towers collapsed.

When I woke in the morning, he had the radio going, and a voice I recognised (one of his former work colleagues) was being interviewed as he’d been in the north tower  when the plane hit.  Reality hit fast then.  

[Satan'sFortress]

On 1/20/2018 at 12:57 PM, Tangy Bee said:

I remember seeing Elvis's hearse on TV but not being sure about what was happening. Parents were not fans. Jimmy Carter was the 1st president I was "aware" of and then I started understanding more when Reagan won. I was in high school when the Challenger space shuttle exploded. Oh and who can forget Madonna dry humping the stage on the MTV awards? Bill Clinton was the 1st president I was old enough to vote for. I'll let you all do the math.

Very similar to my memories---but I voted for the first time in 1988 (Dukakis).  I'm going to guess you were born in 1971 or 1972?

[adidas]

I’m in Australia - I woke to the news on the morning of September 11 because I’d gone to bed early the night before, but DH had watched it happen when they started broadcasting on the evening of September 10. I remember being confused (is this a joke?) then worried for my kids’ future. 

[elliha]

I found out about 9/11 when I came home from the library after being there to borrow some books about rune stones which was my then latest nerd subject. My mom told me about someone flying a plane into a big building in the US and my first thought was that she had watched the news and fallen asleep and woken up to watching a film like Independence Day or something. I turned on the TV and found out there would be extra news on soon and yes, now I knew she was not confused. I remember all my mixed feelings. I thought about the victims who died and burned with those buildings, I started hating George W Bush even more and I also felt slightly impressed that someone would dare to do that to a country like the US and then I got scared of dying because this might trigger a nuclear war. I kept my fear of nuclear war throughout the whole Bush presidency and it only resurfaced a little now with Trump. 

My earliest news related memory is from when Sweden's prime-minister Olof Palme was murdered. I don't remember watching the news but my father's reaction to his death. I heard the name "Palme" and knew I had heard it on TV sometimes but could not figure out why my dad was sad about his death when I knew we didn't know him. I was only 4 at the time and I think my next big news memory wasn't until the fall of the Soviet Union. I should be old enough to remember the fall of the Berlin wall but I don't. The first big thing that I was old enough to at least partially understand was the first Iraq War. I remember both certain news clips and asking a lot of questions about war and dying in war both to my mom and my teacher.

[mtc3659]

4th grade. I remember I was sitting in my classroom which in a set of trailers at the time. My teacher and the 4th grade teacher were called to the main building for a few minutes and the classes were so stoked. But then the teachers came back and we had to pray the rosary (catholic school). It was odd because we only prayed the roast in class in October and May. And then halfway through the rosary, we started getting paged on the intercom to send students to the main office for pickup. Again really odd for a Tuesday. My neighbor came and picked up the few kids from my neighborhood and she had the local news radio station on in her van. She still didn't tell us anything. It wasn't until my sister and I got home and my mom was there did we find out. My dad had just had back surgery so he was home too. I remember walking know my house and seeing the images on TV of the smoking skyscrapers and my mom telling me what happened. 

Apparently the eighth graders at my school were told what happened but no other students were told that day by the teachers. 

[JesSky03]

I was born in 91' and I think my earliest newsworthy memory is the Clinton scandal. Then there was all the hub bub around Y2k. Can't say I fully understood either events at the time they were happening. 

I definitely remember 9/11. I was in 5th grade and our teachers crammed us all into one room to watch what was happening on one of those roll in TVs. I didn't fully comprehend the magnitude these events would have on the world and remember even feeling kind of bored after sitting on that classroom floor for hours. It wasn't until the following days and weeks that I started to understand how much of an impact 9/11 was going to have on the world. 

[AtlanticTug]

The first big international events I remember well are the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Gulf War. I was about 10-11 when those happened so I have actual memories of them rather than a sort of jumble in my head of my own memories vs learning about them later on in life.

[Jenn The Heathen]

Since everyone is talking about how they found out about 9/11 (I shared earlier how old I was and where I was)....

I took the university bus from my apartment down town to campus for my first class and I briefly heard on the radio that a plane had hit one of the towers.  I figured it was a little commuter plane or something because it was a quick blip of news before musics started again.  An hour and 15 minutes later, I head to my second class (Women’s Studies, it’s crazy that I will forever remember that detail) and our professor told us and then ended class.  I watched news coverage until I had to go to work at an area afterschool program where we were under strict orders to not tell the kids.

My uncle used to work in one of the towers and was there during the 94 bombing.  After that, his company moved their offices.

[Four is Enough]

Several of you, who were in fifth grade at the time of 9/11, are One's age.. I remember picking him up early from school, and he demanded to know why he was getting out of school because of a "plane accident" which is what his principal announced over the intercom. So I had to explain what had happened, and of course, he watched the coverage on the news same as we all did.

Two spent the afternoon building the Twin towers out of legos, and when the plane flew into them, he had all his    lego soccer people running away from the towers. He assured us "everyone got out safe, Mommy. " He was in second grade.

[justmy2cents]

I started working in the North Tower (tower 1) a week before the attack. I forgot to set my alarm the night before after getting home at 1am and overslept by an hour. I was frantically rushing to get to work ASAP. When the subway pulled into the station at the WTC stop a man got on the train yelling incoherently for us not to get out there but of course I didn't listen as I was running late. Seeing the building you work in and were supposed to be inside of at that time with a giant hole and on fire is very surreal. My knees literally buckled underneath me. I got about half a mile away when the south tower collapsed.  I thought we were being bombed. Everyone was running north and there was complete chaos.  And yes, every time I see a beautiful September sky I think of that day.

As far as earliest memories, I think it was Watergate.

[clueliss]

Moon landing for me.  I don't remember seeing it on tv but do remember standing in our dark kitchen looking up at the moon wondering if there were men in the , on why couldn't I see them.  The next big event I remember is 1972 and the summer l

Olympics when mark spits won all those medals and the Israeli hostages.  And that latter part confused me because I didn't understand the difference between a gorilla and a guerilla.  

Watergate us a memory mainly due to the interruption of Saturday morning cartoons and the end if my parents marriage.  

 

[WiseGirl]

I had just moved to CT. Our district had a PD that day for some reason, so no students. We were stunned, I distinctly remember sinking into a chair. Our training was cancelled sent home. One colleague was married to an NYC firefighter. Fortunately,  he made it. 

Both my brother and sister-in-law work in the city.  Fortunately she wasn't working in the tower that day. She finally got home to pick up my nephew at daycare around 10 pm. (Wonderful director stayed with him). My brother was unable to get home.

Moon landing, Montreal Olympics,  and Watergate are some if the first historical memories.

[nst]

22 hours ago, jerkit said:

 

9/11 was my first day working for the government.  It was a sad day.  

[Sky with diamonds]

1 hour ago, justmy2cents said:

I started working in the North Tower (tower 1) a week before the attack. I forgot to set my alarm the night before after getting home at 1am and overslept by an hour. I was frantically rushing to get to work ASAP. When the subway pulled into the station at the WTC stop a man got on the train yelling incoherently for us not to get out there but of course I didn't listen as I was running late. Seeing the building you work in and were supposed to be inside of at that time with a giant hole and on fire is very surreal. My knees literally buckled underneath me. I got about half a mile away when the south tower collapsed.  I thought we were being bombed. Everyone was running north and there was complete chaos.  And yes, every time I see a beautiful September sky I think of that day.

As far as earliest memories, I think it was Watergate.

 

[Londish]

I was another who found out over the intercom at school. I was in 4th grade and the assistant vice principal made an announcement that the plane had hit the buildings but didn’t really elaborate. They did ask that the TVs remain turned off - it was a K-5 school so I imagine they didn’t want us to see what was happening. I do remember thinking it was an accident, that someone accidentally flew into the building.

I also remember later in the week, having lunch with friends in the cafeteria and the one mature friend of the group telling the rest of us that a terrorist was responsible and what terrorism was - obviously not explaining well, being 4th graders. But only one friend at the table even knew that much. After that I remember thinking it was just one terrorist and the government just had to find this one guy. It was a simpler time.

[Glasgowghirl]

9 hours ago, VelociRapture said:

I remember there was A LOT of criticism about how Bush continued reading to the classroom of very young kids during the attacks, but I honestly think it was one of the best decisions he made. Rushing out immediately would have sparked panic and made those kids feel pretty scared, but calmly leaving a fairly short time later the way he did helped protect those kids a little bit. 

Agreed, the kids would have wondered why he left half way through the story and it probably gave him time process what he had just been told. I watched a documentary on the Dunblane Massacre where one for the teachers of the nursery class at the school said after the shootings she made the kids sit for story time and pretended nothing had happened until the parents came to collect them. 

[SportsgalAnnie]

7 hours ago, singsingsing said:

Wow, were your teachers sociopaths? That's awful!

I got in trouble for crying in school more than once. I was a sensitive kid and prone to tears, and I think the sight of a kid crying makes a lot of teachers really uncomfortable and unfortunately for some of them that means getting angry and taking it out on the kid. But accusing a kid of 'crocodile tears' during 9/11 is like next level insanity.

No, they were just very strict. Looking back as an adult, I don't think that's how they should have handled it. They never really explained it to us either. I get not explaining it to younger kids but 4/5th graders ?

We had an assembly the next day to say things were going on like normal . 

[Jatalie1996]

This is interesting for me because I was five when 9/11 happened, but I don't remember it at all. The next big thing I remember truly understanding the gravity of was Hurricane Katrina, and I was in third grade then.

[MathQueen]

Baby Boomer here, adding my comments to the topics on this thread drift. When I was a child television news was in black and white, basically talking heads, so my early memories of world/national news items are hearing about them, not any powerful images. The earliest news story I remember hearing about is Sputnik. My dad worked in the aerospace industry, so I suspect it was a topic of conversation at home. President Kennedy's assassination was that earth-shattering event for Boomers. I learned about Kennedy's death in my fifth grade classroom. We were just sent home from school in the early afternoon after being told about it.  For me, however, the most shocking moment happened a couple days later as Lee Harvey Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby on LIVE TV! It shocked me to see someone murdered in front of my eyes. (For context, television was significantly tamer, and you would not have seen violent crime even as a recreation for viewing. And live television only happened outside of a studio if the cords for the camera could reach.) 

Tech? I've always been  pretty tech savvy, but my first "computer"? The slide rule my dad taught me to use. It got us to the moon, you know.

As to 9/11, many of you mention seeing it/finding out about it at school, but wondered what your teachers thought. I am a Degreed Education Professional (TM) and was teaching second grade that year. Since I live on the west coast, I knew something was happening before leaving home. Before class started, we teachers were called into a staff meeting and directed not to discuss this with students (it was a K-5 school). We could answer individual questions privately. No TV, etc. We actually took the portable television our classrooms shared and kept it on quietly in the large supply closet so all the staff could check it when we had a break/lunch. The MathBoys were at the middle/high school campuses, where teachers did have televisions on in class.

As we saw the second plane fly into the tower that morning, MathBoy 2.0 commented to me that this was going to be  the defining event for his generation, as President Kennedy's death had been for mine. It certainly appears to have been so. I've really appreciated this thread drift and the varying perspectives here.