Do You Remember?

In my book, Crumbling Spirit, when a terrorist bombs a nearby building in Oklahoma City, Julia's dad unexpectedly yanks her from school.

Rescuers have not found her mother and baby brother, and Julia imagines the worst.

In the events that follow, Julia's emotions swim between joy and despair, and she must finally make a choice - be a victim or be a survivor. Not only is Julia a survivor, but she ends up putting the event into perspective for children across the nation.

Crumbling Spirit is a short account that roughly follows my own experiences during the Oklahoma City Bombing on April 19, 1995, almost 18 years ago.  Below are two selections from Crumbling Spirit.

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Selection One

Wednesday, April 19, 1995

In the Computer Lab:

    Something weird is happening.  I don’t know what.  The weather is nice – a beautiful spring day – only something strange happened.  At about nine o’clock, we heard a loud clap of thunder.  Only it wasn’t thunder.  It was just a short booom! and then the rafters in the ceiling shook and vibrated like there was an earthquake or something.  (I’ve never felt an earthquake, but I’ll bet that’s what it sounds like.)  Then, as quickly as it came, it was gone again.  We all just looked at the ceiling with our mouths open, as if we were expecting it to happen again or fall in on us.  Nothing ever did.

    We kids were a little shaken up by this whole thing, but Mr. A just said it was a jet breaking the sound barrier and we should all get quiet so we could finish the test.  That’s what we were doing when we heard the boom – taking our spelling pretest.  He said we shouldn’t worry, but he looked more concerned than he let on – like he wasn’t convinced it was a jet after all.  As he gave the next word – legislature – his face twisted up like he was confused.  Then, he announced he needed to check on something and that we should read silently until he got back.  He didn’t even pick up the spelling tests.

    I’ve never known Mr. A to leave the class without an adult to supervise us, but that’s exactly what he did next.  I was glad to have a reprieve from the spelling test, but this latest action kind of got me worried.  Was he scared about something?

    ...Something is going on, and it’s making me very nervous.

Selection Two

    I hugged the wall so no one would notice how close to the library I was getting.  I might have gotten in trouble for being out of class, but I was too worried about my dad to think about that – I had to find out if the reporters were talking about his building.  I heard the reporter interviewing a passerby about what she thought had happened.  The passerby stuttered and stammered, finally saying, “It’s a war zone!  The building is gone.”  Then she began coughing, and the reporter took over again:  “Rescue workers and medical personnel are running in every which direction just looking for survivors.  From the picture on your monitor, you probably aren’t able to tell very much about the situation.  The dust and smoke have not yet cleared enough to get a clear picture of what the building looks like from this location.”

    The anchorwoman at the television studio took over.  “Thank you, Brent.  Now to recap, there has been an explosion in downtown Oklahoma City.  Again, a building in downtown Oklahoma City is the site of a large explosion.  It happened at 9:02, this morning, and our news team is still trying to get information as quickly as they can.”  There was a long pause.  Then the anchorwoman said, “They are evacuating the rescuers.  Repeat:  Rescuers are being told there may be another bomb at the…”

    The TV channel was switched...and one of the teachers recognized the location of the explosion.  “That’s just a few miles from here.  See.  See there, that’s the YMCA.  Whatever it is, it’s close to the downtown YMCA.”  This was not comforting news to me.  True, Dad was safe at the air force base.  That was good to know.  But Mom works downtown.  In a building across the street from the YMCA.  My mother and baby brother might have been in that explosion.

We were four miles away.  When a terrorist bomb sounded in our ears and darkened the sky with the resulting smoke, I was administering a spelling test to my second grade class.  We heard the boom and felt the shock wave, as described above.  For the rest of the school year, I nurtured students through issues no child should ever face.

Together, teachers, parents, and students worked through memorials, constant television coverage, fatality reports, and challenges of unprecedented proportion – all stemming from the terrorist bombing in Oklahoma City, and all under the watchful eyes of the media and the world.

Every year since then, I have brought the experience into my fourth grade classroom at Cecil Floyd, figuring they don't have many opportunities to experience history through a live eyewitness report.  Through my own reports and photographs, students find empathy for the victims, rescuers, and their families.  They find their own compassion for the survivors and their continuing struggle to cope with the tragedy.  And now, after many have experienced their own tragedy in the 2011 Joplin tornado, students compare and contrast the natural disaster with the terrorist bombing of 1995.  Above all, I stress to everybody the difference between being a victim and being a survivor.

These days, the Oklahoma City National Memorial loans us their Hope Trunk for use in our classroom.  Through the use of the materials in the trunk, students are brought into contact with the history of the event and are introduced to the memorial itself.

This Friday is the anniversary, and we will spend a significant time remembering this historic event.

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