I was here.
It kept me sane.
Me too.
My 15 year old son just asked me about it. He has an English essay to write about it, but he was really pretty young and doesn't remember it all that well anymore.
On my way to work (phoenix) when the first plane hit. By the time I got there, second plane. My co-workers and I were crying when we heard about the pentagon
Sleeping in a midtown hotel I woke to a call from my sister saying the WTC was on fire ... turning on the TV I could see both towers had been hit and the replays of the 2nd plane were endless.
Taking the elevator to the roof and looking south all you could see was the smoke heading south-east. My hotel was tiny amidst the forest of the surrounding modern skyscrapers. So back to my room I went to watch the final collapse.
Heading out I walked downtown, listening to the radio, directing traffic here and there (tunnels and bridges closed) bonding with other NYers ,
glancing at Palestinians on TV dancing in the streets (hey .. this was their Christmas!!)... and finally down to West Bway south of Canal st., evading the NYPD to make it that far. Standing with a group a little after 5 pm, looking south to the smoke rising high into the sky, astonished as WTC #7 dropped before our eyes (and no .. no audible explosives). wow ....
The night before a heavy rain scrubbed the streets and the air, morphing into the type of clear, crisp, blustery Sept day all NYers love, the backdrop for the tragedy.
I was drinking and watching the Broncos whip the Giants in the opening Mon Nite football game at the Riviera, an actual sports bar right in the middle of lefty, bohemian Greenwich Village. Walking out onto 7th Ave, the towers loomed over your right shoulder just 1 1/2 miles south. Often times I would glance up at them high in the evening sky before hitting the subway and heading uptown.
To this day though, I don’t remember whether or not at about 1 am on sept 11, 2001 I glanced up at them that one last time.
I will always wonder.
- zig