World Trade Center - Fifth Year Anniversary
The September 11 tragedy is going to be one of those special, tragic events that people will remember every minute detail about for their entire lives. Like the JFK assassination; like the day their parents died; or the day their children were born. All were memorable, in a depressing sort of way, but there was something about 9/11 that makes it stand above all other bad days in my memory, because I saw it happen.
I don't live in New York City, but it has always held one of those special places in my heart. My brother lives there. My wife and I met each other there, at LaGuardia. I visited The City often when I was young, tagging along with my parents as they ventured out into the concrete jungle in search of the best shops and restaurants. I remember the time we visited Coney Island in the late 1950s. And I was at the World's Fair in Brooklyn.
This time, my September 9 - 11 trip, was booked solid. My brother and I had plans to see my cousin, a former writer for Time Magazine, to let her have a copy of a manuscript I'd been working on and then I was going to catch an opera at the Met that night. It was going to be a great visit.
It was also the first time in about ten years that I'd flown in an airplane without blitzing myself out with Valium. Seems I'd started having panic attacks every time I got closed up in an elevator, airplane, traffic jam, public bathroom, etc. and the only way I could handle it was to down about 20 mg of Valium. I was proud when I got off the plane that Saturday morning un-drugged.
We spent a couple days fishing and visiting and Monday morning, I was up and ready by 7:00 a.m. and we jumped in my brother's Jeep and headed toward the city around 8:30, hoping to miss most of the rush traffic on I-80. We were wrong. The traffic got bad the minute we decided to take the GW and had committed. It was bumper to bumper. And we found ourselves in the middle of the bridge, on the upper deck, I think, when Howard Stern said that there's some kind of problem at the World Trade Center.
Kevin, my brother, said to me, "Can you see it?"I couldn't. There was a box truck blocking the view. I asked him to move his truck forward as much as he could. He did and I could see it clearly. There was a sinister, gaping hole near the top of the North Tower. It was more like a slit, slightly higher on the right side than the left. The center part of the slit was larger than the edges. It was clear that an airplane had struck the tower. An accident, I assumed.
In a couple of minutes, the box truck moved out of the way and we could both see the tower. By then, smoke was starting to billow out and Howard Stern was saying that it could have been a terrorist attack. I remember feeling compassion for the people that had been there when the airplane struck. I said, "My God...there are lots of people in there dying right now."
Kevin said, "Well, get a good look. This might be the last time you'll ever see the World Trade Center."
He was right. More coming tomorrow. Click here for the rest of the story
