Remembering 9-11 through an oral history

For this project I worked with Chris C.
Chris was very young that fall, just starting 4th grade as a 9 year old. He remembers the day well though, as most of us do. His bus got to school around 9:30 and when he walked into his classroom he could tell something had happened. After asking around a student told him that a plane had hit the World Trade Center towers in NYC. He knew what these were of course having visited them with his family. He did not know anyone nor did he know anyone who knew someone who perished on that dreadful day. His father though told him later that day that he had seen it happen with his own eyes. He was driving on the highway across from New York when the towers were attacked and although he couldnt stop his car since he was on a highway he watched as the smoke and souls rose to heaven.
Something else he remembered was the amount of homework assigned that day was too much. He was up until 11 at night doing homework and his mother was one of many who wrote an angry letter to his teacher, suggesting that on a day of crisis it's best the students have no homework.
Chris and I talked for some time about our experiences with 9-11 remembering the flags and patriotism of our neighbors and we couldn't believe how Dr Chandler said it wasn't that way in the mid west. This was a very hard thing to talk about and I think next time we do oral histories maybe we can give a history of the first time we rode a bike something less painful.