Never Forget – 9-11-01 / 9-11-11

I am a New Yorker.

I might live 3000 miles from home, but there is no question about it. I am a NYer.

I did not have a family member or friend massacred on 9-11.  However, on the list of the dead, was a salesman from an office I once worked at, and two children of traders I had worked with when I was an executive on Wall Street. I remember when they were born.

Like most NYers, I have lots of memories of the Twin Towers as we called them. Some of my memories are below. I’d love to hear about your memories of New York, of the buildings, of New Yorkers, of that very sad day back in 2001, or of other things “New York” that you’d like to share, post them here in a comment.

Twin Towers picture taken by Maria Marsala. One of my wishes was that I would once again work in a place where I’d be able to see the Trade Center out of my window. From 1992 to 1994, that was my view- across the water in Staten Island. This photo was taken from the Staten Island Ferry.

New York Memories

The memories I have of NYC are really memories of someone visiting Manhattan. That’s what I knew as NYC.  Brooklyn, where I grew up … well, it’s Brooklyn – a borough of NYC.  Staten Island, where I purchased a home at age 25, is another borough.  Then you have the boroughs Queens and the Bronx. Here is more information on NYC’s 5 boroughs. Not surprisingly, the only other place that has boroughs is the United Kingdom.

Whichever borough you lived in, you pretty much stayed there, actually walked there or bussed there. So I know lots about Brooklyn and Staten Island and very little about Queens (I am a Mets Fan) and the Bronx where once upon a time the Jets used to play. What all NYers have in common is Manhattan, where many of us took the bus or train (or both) to work.

Here are some of my Trade Center memories.

I was in grammar school when building those 7 buildings was conceived. Controversies abounded for a long time. You see, those buildings were going to be taller than the tallest building in NY – the Empire State Building. And they were going to be modern, in an area of the city that was pretty old (think Alexander Hamilton’s grave is in the area!) Because the controversy was played out in the news, at school we had many discussions about them. There was the fact that it was TOO tall and that they’d fall down in a hurricane.

I did not want them to be built. I wanted the Empire State Building to still be the tallest building in the city. I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t be built so that they were shorter than that special building.

My first job on Wall Street was across the street from the Twin Towers. I did admire the buildings, I mean they were TALL! But I didn’t go there to shop very often. I was still afraid that they would fall down. Every time we had a storm — and in NYC, that is most of the winter, they swayed – a lot! It was scary to watch them.

And over time, and I mean many years, I got more used to them. I remember the first time I ever saw a Farmers Market. It was outside the towers, a strange site in the Financial District where at the time no one lived. In between the north and south buildings they had summer concerts, too.

Those buildings had their own zip code — 10048.

Cantor Fitzgerald always had the best parties on Wall Street. One year they rented the Metropolitan Museum of Art when the King Tut exhibit was there. All of Wall Street showed up in black tie and gowns. We walked through the exhibit and then danced, drank, and ate the night away in a very big room! After the company moved to the Trade Center they had a private August Rodin (The Thinker) exhibit in one of the rooms overlooking all of NYC.

For about six months, after Reynolds Securities was eaten up by Dean Witter, I worked at Trade Center 7, not far from Fire House #1 which lost all it’s Firefighters.  As a consultant in the early 1990’s, during a project I was doing for a company, I worked at the Cantor Fitzgerald office for a month. I went to quite a few Broadway plays because on one of the floors of the trade center there as a 1/2 price Broadway ticket center.

I am guessing but I went to the top of the Towers 10-15 times. Every time someone came into NY from one of our Branch Offices, they wanted to go there, and so up we went. And every time someone came to visit me personally from out of state, it was one of the stops on their NYC tour.

Near the subway, under the building, was a guy who sold socks on a cart like you’d see in the middle of a mall. A sight you’d see only in NYC.

In 1999, after selling my home on Staten Island, I played tourist and went to the Trade Center to take some new pictures between the north and south buildings. Because of all the clouds, I took no pictures, but I did buy socks! I remember telling my friend that we can come back and take pictures another time. That time never came.

On 9-11-01 I was having a difficult time sleeping and watched TV. Finally near 4 a.m. I felt a bit tired. So I decided to rest on the couch. Next thing I knew I awoke to hear Matt Lauer sounding shocked, and the TV very loud. At first I thought that I was watching a movie. Then I realized that this was real and I was watching an airplane burning the building. I wondered what those things were that people were throwing out the building. Then in horror I realized it was people jumping from the building to their death.

Matt wondered if a plane had a problem. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions. Having grown up during the Cold War, I immediately thought that the country was being attacked by the Russians. Then I watched as plane number 2 went into the south building, and so on.

I called my siblings and woke two of them up in NY. I was most worried about my sister — the Airline stewardess; but no one knew what flight she was on or where her destination was. It wasn’t until 5 hours later that we found out that she was OK and in Ohio. My brother had been on his way to a breakfast meeting at the Trade Center. I am glad he didn’t get there on time.

After the event I was like most people, I was attached to the TV and cried and cried. I am sure that I along with zillions of others were in shock. Every now and then I cry again. I know that I am crying for the sadness of it all. The deaths of so many people, the people they left behind. Having this country attacked on our own soil again; this time mainland USA, and all that it meant.  Those buildings represented to this country. I cry because my country was attacked;.  I cry because as a citizen my spirit was attacked, too.  I cry becuase although it was not Russia that attacked us, as we had been trained to fear in my youth, we were attacked.  Someone had the balls to attack the USA.

It was different and difficult being so far away from NY during this time. I spent a lot of time on the phone, lots on the web and heard from people I hadn’t heard from in years. Like Cindee who I worked with back in 1985. I got angry when there was controversy in Seattle because there was a moment of silence for those who died at ballgame. I thought it was a nice gesture. Some felt that we should just move on.

Since 9-11, we have lost a lot of our freedom.

After 9-11 I wanted to do something for my fellow NYers. Tourism if you remember was at a standstill. No one wanted to go to the city. To help tourism and get some Washintonians to NYC, I taught a class called “America Remembers NYC”. Potential visitors learned how to read the NYC maps, understand the concept of boroughs, learned how to travel by bus or train, and most important how to plan their trip so that they can see everything they wanted to see in the least amount of time. Here are the NYC resources that I provided them.

I went back to the Trade Center in 2003 with my friend Pam.  She listened to these stories and more for 2 hours while we walked around the place where the buildings had been. I went through a lot of tissues.

Today, I like you will remember all those we lost.  I am not answering the phones, not working, not on the computer.  Today is the day to pray for the world.  Pray for peace.  Today is the day I save all year to cry on.  Yes, even after 10 years, I see a picture of the towers, start getting upset and say, I can do that on 9/11.

Tell me your NY or Twin Towers story below…

(first published in 2010 and updated in 2011)