Their Stories: Verona-Cedar Grove Teens Remember 9/11

The attack on Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy Assassination, the first moon landing, John Lennon’s murder, and the 9/11 attacks. Depending on your age, most people remember exactly where they were when these events that moved the world happened.

Patch interviewed some Verona and Cedar Grove young adults who were only children when the world changed beneath their feet, and who have now lived more than half their lives in a "Post-9/11" world.

Though their memories, experiences and perspectives vary, as was the case for all of us, Sept. 11 2001 was a day of great confusion and uncertainty for the young adults we spoke to.

Eric Vanderstreet was a Third Grader at St. Catherine of Siena School in Cedar Grove on 9/11 when his principal came in and told the class that a plane had hit the world trade center.

"Everyone was baffled. We were just at that ripe age of understanding. Everyone had a question. Our principal would answer, and her answers would be met with even more questions," he said.

"We didn't understand the entirety of the situation, how serious it was. Kids are optimistic, we were all hoping it was an accident."

Today, Vanderstreet is preparing to attend Montclair State University, where he will pursue a degree in Criminal Justice. He said he almost doesn't remember what life was like before the towers fell.

"You know how you can only remember the end of a dream, but you can never remember the beginning of it? It almost feels like that because in a sense the way everything is now feels normal, like this is how it should be because it's been this way for so long."

Christie Torchia, who graduated Verona High School in 2010, and is now a sophomore at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania was nine years old, and a student Laning School.

“They didn’t tell us at school because we were probably too young. I remember my Mom coming to pick me up with my friend, Natalie’s Mom and taking us to H.B. Whitehorne to pick up my older sister, Britney, and Natalie’s older brother, Frank.

"I think they knew but all I gathered from their conversation was that there was a plane crashed into a building in New York City. I remember seeing the plane crashes over and over again on television. A week or two later my Dad had a business trip and I wouldn’t let him get on a plane. I was hysterically crying and he called his customer to cancel his trip because I was melting down. He really cared about my feelings.”

Christie reflected on the last ten years, which seem to have not tarnished her resolve.

“Terrorism is scary but I don’t dwell on another attack. I think we should fight against it and shouldn’t just sit back. When they got Osama bin Laden, it didn’t make me think that terrorism would stop just because he was found and killed. We need to keep fighting back.”

Christie’s friend Natalie Ramunni, also a VHS 2010 grad and a sophomore at University of Scranton, shared her thoughts on 9/11. “My memories on the day are similar to Christie’s. Once I saw it on television, I knew something bad had happened but I was too young to know what was really going on.”

“Over the last ten years I usually don’t think too much about terrorism, except when I get on a plane. All the security is a reminder of what could happen. My grandmother worked for United Airlines and she knew the flight crew on United 93 that left Newark Airport and crashed in Pennsylvania.”

“I’m not for the war in the Middle East but it’s something that has to be done to keep us safe. Obviously, I want everyone to come home safely but as someone my age, going through this during my developmental years, it was also an education in a way. To experience this is something that made me more involved with my country and I became more aware of things in the world.”

Frank Ramunni, Natalie’s older brother, was an 11-year-old at H.B. Whitehorne on 9/11. Currently a senior at James Madison University in Virginia, Ramunni did not hesitate to reflect, “I remember that day perfectly. The principal announced it on the speaker system. He conveyed what he knew about the World Trade Center and the Pentagon attacks. He started calling students to the office because their parents worked in Manhattan. At first I was scared out of my mind because my Dad worked in the city. When I got to the office, my Mom was there and she said not to worry but she was taking me home. That day we had to drive down Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair and I remember seeing black smoke coming from the direction of the city.”

Shea Sweeney, of Cedar Grove, who is training to be a ship's officer in the Merchant Marines at SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx, remembers sitting in Mrs. Martin's Third Grade math class at South End Elementary on 9/11.

"Mrs. Martin kept a cell phone in her desk that she only used for emergencies. That day the phone rang in the morning, and she exited the classroom to take the call, which we all thought was strange, but in my 8-year-old mind, I was just relieved I had a break from math."

Shea said when she returned to the classroom, though she said nothing, her body language and the events to follow were the first indicatiors that it would not be a business-as-usual day.

"For the rest of the day, the main office kept calling kids down to the office. Bit by bit, it seemed like half the school was getting called down to the office and were leaving for home. We really didn't know what to think or what was going on."

Shea said he was not told about the attacks at school, but that when school let out, the usually jubilant sight of kids excitedly running to their parents cars had turned strangely serious.

"I remember all the moms had nervous looks on their faces and were quickly grabbing their kids and getting them in the car. It was all weird and serious," Shea remembered.

It was then that he learned what had happened.

"She pulled me into the car and told me to say an Our Father. She told me that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and that a lot of people died today."

Shea said his father, Bob, a clothing and briefcase salesman who frequently works in New York City, happened to be in Philadelphia on 9/11, which also happened to be his birthday.

"That night we had the cake, cards and a few gifts for him. Because of the attacks he didn't get home until really late at night. I'm eight years old, I know this is bad, but I still think we're going to celebrate my dad's birthday. He walked in the door, looked at the stuff on the table, and said today is not a day to celebrate. We haven't celebrated his birthday on Sept. 11 ever since, always on the Saturday after."

Shea said now, a decade later, it has become a common experience for teens to compare experiences and share stories of that day.

"You get a bunch of 18-year-olds together and the topic of 9/11 is mentioned, everything gets dropped and we all share our experiences, we all want to talk about it. As kids we didn't fully grasp it at the time, so we share our experiences to kind of learn from one another."