An oral history of 9/11, as told by kindergarteners at ground zero 20 years ago

Former students at an elementary school blocks away from the twin towers detail their memories of Sept. 11, 2001, and how it changed their lives.About four blocks north of the former site of the twin towers sits Public School 89, a brick building with a playground that’s big and breezy and protected despite being nestled next to one of Manhattan’s only highways. On Sept. 11, 2001, dozens of kids between pre-K and fifth grade at PS 89 witnessed the terror attacks from their school’s own windows.

My teacher asked us to move away from the window, and then my next memory is my mom, who had just dropped me and my brother off and was still in the playground when the attacks happened, coming up to my classroom to get me. We ran to my parents’ restaurant, Sosa Borella, on Greenwich Street, just a little north, so we could gather ourselves. I remember a man with a mask and white ashes on his face sitting on a barstool talking about how he was able to get out of one of the towers and found his way to the restaurant. My parents offered him water and food. It was a surreal moment, this restaurant packed with so many strangers not knowing what was going on.

Truthfully, it’s a little uncomfortable for me to talk about 9/11. My family witnessed that day from a unique perspective, but it was such a collective experience. It impacted people in so many different ways. I was so young, but there’s a part of me that wants to own the fact that I was there and I saw what I saw and I remember what I remember.

We lived in a very tall building right on the corner on the 24th floor, so I thought that we needed to get the heck out of the neighborhood. I went right back upstairs, and the kids were all sitting in the middle of the room. I just quietly and softly said, “Hey, I need to pick up Anabel.” My biggest impression was the faces of the teachers. There was a lot of fear.

We ended up hanging out at the restaurant, and it was a tough day. My restaurant became, at that moment, a little bit of a hub. There were people who showed up completely covered in white coming from the trade center. The cell phone towers were dead. People asked if they could use our landline, drink water. The stories you don’t hear about are the people who were on the streets.

Anabel Sosa and her classmates at a party in Rockefeller Park during spring 2002 after PS 89 reopened. We casually walked home along the water, probably a football field or two away from the towers. When the first tower fell, it just started crashing, and everyone looked up, and my dad was frozen watching it fall. Everything was covered in smoke, papers, random stuff flying everywhere. Everything was black, and you could only really make out the lights. Boats were going around, and I remember there being some kind of light, and I was on my dad’s shoulders.

Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)

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