My annual Sept 11th post...never forget ...

[duke74]

We were in the WTC until the first attack in February 1993. (My office was on the 100th floor, facing the Lady of the Harbor. I remember the walk down in the dark and smoke). We then moved temporarily to our midtown offices on B’way and 50th Street. Thank goodness, my managing partner decided NOT to move back to the WTC – a gutsy decision based on client and political pressures, but a wise one in retrospect and one that considered the employees of the firm. We moved across West Street to the World Financial Center.

On September 11th, I was in London for a series of meetings. Someone came back down to the conference room and said that a plane went into the Trade Center..and had to make the point that she was not kidding, based on our reactions. We spent the next day trying to reach our families, crying and watching CNN. My wife was on the BQE (for those o/s of NY, that’s the Brooklyn Queens Expressway) heading to work and saw the planes hit. My son was in his senior year at Duke.

I headed off to Zurich for another meeting, since I couldn’t get back home anyhow. I ended up being able to get back to the States on Saturday, but with the “lottery” of air availability, flew into Pittsburgh. Luckily my travel service was able to get me a rental car at Pittsburgh, and I started the long ride back to Queens. Stopped in PA for the night, eyes almost closed from fatigue and emotion. On Sunday morning, I crossed the Verazzano Narrows Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn and saw the smoke rising from what was the WTC complex. Tears again…pulled off the road until I composed myself.

This is NOT about me, but my life has not been the same since – professionally or personally. My wife (an atty by profession) is a volunteer with the cops of the NYPD, and has embedded herself even more into that group of heroes to help any way she can. I went on an intellectual journey, and went back to school at NYU at the age of 53 for a masters in int’l relations. (We suddenly learned that something was out there..and I had so much to learn on the subject.) My son decided that he was “coming home”…he graduated Duke in 2002 and went to law school in NYC. The magnet was there. What got to him was some non-NYer’s moronic comment in a class shortly after the attacks – something to the effect of “why is everyone so upset? They were only buildings!”

My office looked RIGHT out on the site, so I have seen the last parts of the clean-up and the rise of the new structures and development of the memorial on an almost daily basis. It hits me each and every day what was there, but thankfully, also what has now risen from those (literal) ashes. I will watch the ceremonies, with tears in my eyes.

God bless the victims, the first responders, and those who we have lost since that day. And God bless those who protect us here and abroad.

[DukieInKansas]

Thank you for sharing you memories. Please assure your son that at least one non-NY'er always understood that it was more than buildings. And I know I wasn't the only one.

God bless the families and friends of those that were lost that day - and everyday since.

[Reisen]

We're neighbors (I also work in WFC, overlooking the site), and I was the same year as your son at Duke. I think I've posted on past threads, but I did NOT feel Duke handled the attacks well, at all. For one, they mandated all students go to class that day, instead of watching coverage or discussing the attacks in groups. Some profs just turned the class over to a discussion, but a number held class as normal, including quizzes, tests, etc. Imagine trying to take a test hours after 9/11, especially if you were a New Yorker.

I didn't get to lower Manhattan until the cleanup work was done, but have been watching them build on the site for over 5 years now, including watching a couple of presidential visits. I'm looking forward to the opening of Freedom Tower.

[kmspeaks]

We're neighbors (I also work in WFC, overlooking the site), and I was the same year as your son at Duke. I think I've posted on past threads, but I did NOT feel Duke handled the attacks well, at all. For one, they mandated all students go to class that day, instead of watching coverage or discussing the attacks in groups. Some profs just turned the class over to a discussion, but a number held class as normal, including quizzes, tests, etc. Imagine trying to take a test hours after 9/11, especially if you were a New Yorker.

I didn't get to lower Manhattan until the cleanup work was done, but have been watching them build on the site for over 5 years now, including watching a couple of presidential visits. I'm looking forward to the opening of Freedom Tower.

I was in high school in 2001 and my school did the same thing. Being ~30 miles from DC with many students whose parents worked there I guess they thought it would be too much for us to watch some of the coverage. They made an announcement after the second plane hit but that was all the acknowledgement it was given. I still amazed at how our teachers were able to just go on with the day like they were told.

[Dev11]

I was in high school in 2001 and my school did the same thing. Being ~30 miles from DC with many students whose parents worked there I guess they thought it would be too much for us to watch some of the coverage. They made an announcement after the second plane hit but that was all the acknowledgement it was given. I still amazed at how our teachers were able to just go on with the day like they were told.

You weren't in Montgomery County, then. We all went home early that day. I was in middle school, and I remember how surreal the whole day was. I was too young to really discuss what was going on, so the teachers had to compose themselves silently until we all went home.

[duke74]

We're neighbors (I also work in WFC, overlooking the site), and I was the same year as your son at Duke. I think I've posted on past threads, but I did NOT feel Duke handled the attacks well, at all. For one, they mandated all students go to class that day, instead of watching coverage or discussing the attacks in groups. Some profs just turned the class over to a discussion, but a number held class as normal, including quizzes, tests, etc. Imagine trying to take a test hours after 9/11, especially if you were a New Yorker.

I didn't get to lower Manhattan until the cleanup work was done, but have been watching them build on the site for over 5 years now, including watching a couple of presidential visits. I'm looking forward to the opening of Freedom Tower.

Reisen,

Thanks. I was at 2 WFC, 9th Floor, from October 1994 (when we moved back downtown after the first bombing in February 1993) to just last month. We're now at 30 Rock - first time in my 36+ years with the Firm that we haven't had a downtown presence. Strange not to be downtown on a day like this.

Herb (aka Duke74)

[Here is a Turtle]

I was in high school in 2001 and my school did the same thing. Being ~30 miles from DC with many students whose parents worked there I guess they thought it would be too much for us to watch some of the coverage. They made an announcement after the second plane hit but that was all the acknowledgement it was given. I still amazed at how our teachers were able to just go on with the day like they were told.

It was different for me. I was in elementary school in Charles County, MD (about an hour from DC) and the school made an announcement and stopped all classes. I remember kids were getting picked up and one kid's dad was in the Pentagon when it happened. I remember sitting in front of the tv watching CNN the rest of the day. Been scared of planes ever since.

R.I.P. to all those that lost their lives that day.

[matt1]

I was only 5 years old on 9/11, but here is what I remember:

It was the day before my first day of kindergarten. My mom had nothing to do with me, so she made me come with her to some beauty appointment (perhaps it was a nail salon). They had a TV in the waiting area, and I remember watching the coverage of what was happening, though I was too young to really understand the significance of it. After she was finished, she took me to my karate class (I only did karate for 2 weeks, but it happened to be right then). There, we continued to hear of the tragedies. My dad is a lawyer and was in court in Philadelphia for jury selection that day. Court was dismissed at about 10 AM for fear of an attack, so he came home. I remember him saying to me that "we are lucky to all be alive".

[Edouble]

You weren't in Montgomery County, then. We all went home early that day. I was in middle school, and I remember how surreal the whole day was. I was too young to really discuss what was going on, so the teachers had to compose themselves silently until we all went home.

I was doing graduate work at Georgia State in downtown Atlanta at the time. The school shut down entirely after the second plane hit, as all major metro areas were deemed potential targets.

[Mike Corey]

Thank you for sharing this recollection.

I was a few weeks into my freshman year at Duke, and my connection to the attacks was only as an American--I am not from New York or Washington, and only my new classmates had a direct connection to what was going on, many of them concerned about their loved ones who worked in the WTC or Pentagon.

I skipped a math class that afternoon, and could not bring myself to attend a vigil that was held at the Chapel. But that evening, some friends from Randolph and I painted the "Duke bridge" on East campus, with slogans, support, and anything patriotic we could come up with. A very small gesture, but something we could do until we retired to our dorms to continue offering support to those who needed it.

As to what Duke did, I simply cannot remember. The rest of that week is a blur. I just remember feeling very small, and very much like I wanted to go home.

[duke74]

... I just remember feeling very small, and very much like I wanted to go home.

Mike,

Exactly the feelings my son had (hence his return to NYC for law school in 2002).

Herb

[Rich]

I was living and working in NJ, but the company I worked for then (and now) is based on 42nd Street and 3rd Avenue. I occasionally had to go into NYC for meetings and on September 11, 2001, there was a conference I was planning to attend in NYC. I remember it being a cool, crisp, but utterly beautiful morning without a cloud in the sky. A perfect September morning for NY, really. I recall seeing smoke downtown as I took NJ Transit into Penn Station and lot's of conversation between commuters without any news or answers. Mine was one of the last trains through the tunnel. I saw on a TV in Penn Station that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers although at that point most thought it was an accident. Perhaps a small plane flew into the building by accident. But because of the commotion around the incident, I decided to go to my company's office instead of the conference, which I assumed was canceled. By the time I got there the second plane had hit and it was then surmised to be a terror attack. We could see smoke from the higher floors looking downtown. Because many of the communication networks were down, it was sheer chaos in the building. There were rumors that other planes were falling out of the sky all over the country. We learned of the Pentagon and a plane downed in Pennsylvania. We were worried that the UN building, a few blocks away, would be a target. And, of course, I was stranded as all tunnels were closed, cell coverage sparse, if at all.

At some point I left to head uptown to my brother and sister in-law's apartment on the Upper East Side. I had to walk. Everyone was in the streets, in bars, in restaurants, looking for answers. There was a mass exodus of people from downtown to uptown and no cars or busses on the streets. Just a mass people migration north away from the chaos. I spent the day at the apartment before venturing home later that night. Now the streets were completely empty. Completely void of any activity. The most surreal experience I've ever had in NYC, which is usually active 24/7. I finally made it home later that night as tunnels were opened for only outgoing travel.

Although my conference was not at the World Trade Center, for some reason that was the icon they used on the brochure. I saved it as a momento.

I still can't believe, but will always remember.

[Indoor66]

I was living and working in NJ, but the company I worked for then (and now) is based on 42nd Street and 3rd Avenue. I occasionally had to go into NYC for meetings and on September 11, 2001, there was a conference I was planning to attend in NYC. I remember it being a cool, crisp, but utterly beautiful morning without a cloud in the sky. A perfect September morning for NY, really. I recall seeing smoke downtown as I took NJ Transit into Penn Station and lot's of conversation between commuters without any news or answers. Mine was one of the last trains through the tunnel. I saw on a TV in Penn Station that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers although at that point most thought it was an accident. Perhaps a small plane flew into the building by accident. But because of the commotion around the incident, I decided to go to my company's office instead of the conference, which I assumed was canceled. By the time I got there the second plane had hit and it was then surmised to be a terror attack. We could see smoke from the higher floors looking downtown. Because many of the communication networks were down, it was sheer chaos in the building. There were rumors that other planes were falling out of the sky all over the country. We learned of the Pentagon and a plane downed in Pennsylvania. We were worried that the UN building, a few blocks away, would be a target. And, of course, I was stranded as all tunnels were closed, cell coverage sparse, if at all.

At some point I left to head uptown to my brother and sister in-law's apartment on the Upper East Side. I had to walk. Everyone was in the streets, in bars, in restaurants, looking for answers. There was a mass exodus of people from downtown to uptown and no cars or busses on the streets. Just a mass people migration north away from the chaos. I spent the day at the apartment before venturing home later that night. Now the streets were completely empty. Completely void of any activity. The most surreal experience I've ever had in NYC, which is usually active 24/7. I finally made it home later that night as tunnels were opened for only outgoing travel.

Although my conference was not at the World Trade Center, for some reason that was the icon they used on the brochure. I saved it as a momento.

I still can't believe, but will always remember.

That program cover is haunting. Thank you for sharing. That was a horrifying series of events and day.