Journal Entry 9-11-01

I have been keeping a journal since the summer of 1978. This is my entry for six years ago, today. I started off with a brief, several word overview of each day. This was that day's. The first part was recorded before I left for school.

UNBELIEVABLE --- OUR "DAY OF INFAMY" ---FREDDIES ---BEAUTIFUL SUNSET

Rerecording Rick Jackson and he said George Jones was celebrating his 70th birthday [Rick Jackson has a radio show called Country Music Hall of Fame. I would record the show on Sunday, then go through it later in the week to tape songs I didn't have] as he was playing "She Thinks I Still Care, Still Doing Time, and The Race is On." I just saw him a week and a half ago,

6:47- flock of gesse flying southeast--uh oh. 6:49 another flock.

The yard looks a lot better since I cut it yesterday.

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The Daily Challenge question was about Sunday's suicide bombing attacks in Israel. I only did it with the honors class. At the end of the first hour, Linda Curran [another teacher] came by and very quietly told me that planes had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. This would be a very horrible accident but PLANES would mean that this was no accident.

For the rest of the day, we listened to events as they unfolded. Evidently, one plane hit one of the two 110 floor towers, then around twenty minutes later, another plane slammed into the other tower. Less than an hour later, a plane flew into the Pentagon then we heard that a jet had crashed in Pennsylvania under very mysterious circumstances. Any thoughts that accidents were happening were dashed by the second tower's collapse.

We were all stunned. I tried to get the old black and white TV to come on, but could just get the sound. I guess the picture just finally went. The sound is perfect. A lot of teachers are trying to get in pictures on their TVs but Magee just is not conducive to TV reception. It was hard to get through to any of the internet sites and when you did, there wasn't much information. I did get one picture of the top of one of the towers bellowing smoke from the ABC news site.

We're having problems with the lunch tickets which have to be picked up from your mailbox which means you have to enter the building by our wing, walk to the office, and then back to your room. For 28 years, I've entered the main back door, checked my mailbox, and then gone to my room. I absolutely hate retracing my steps like this. Diane Korzsynski was supposed to get my tickets but was called in to internal sub for Terri Zumbrook [who was at the contract negotiations meeting with Kip] and didn't get them so I had to go down with my kids and get the tickets to hand out. [I walked my kids down to lunch] On my way back, I stopped in at Bob Dawson's room where he had a TV with poor reception but at least I got my first eyewitness shots of the day.

They kept showing scenes of the second plane striking the tower. You could see the nose of it come out the other side before the fireball exploded. Most of his kids and Kathy Warner's class which was in there were talking and not really watching it. I suggested [to Bob] that perhaps they should have them write a 200 word account of it like my kids have to do. Our kids have heard over and over about Pearl Harbor and the Kennedy assassination and how everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard about it. I told my kids this would be a shared experience as a generation.

To Be Continued...