I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Happy Birthday, Lassie!

Happy Birthday, Lassie!

I think the Canada haters are secretly jealous.

Mary 

Mary, as someone very wise recently pointed out to me, it's easy to hate a person, or a country, that you know virtually nothing about.  Anyhow, with the plethora of license plates I see every day here from all over the U.S., I guess there are some who don't hate us -- unless they have a bad experience while they're here.  Then they have an excuse!

It's a beautiful day here, and the windows are wide open.  There's a live band playing outdoors at the seniors residence up the street.  Right now I'm hearing a rocking version of "Splish Splash, I was Taking a Bath".  The band and the audience obviously love 60's rock'n roll! 

When the first plane hit, I was getting coffee in a little shop on Avenue A and 3rd Street -- about 2 miles north of the WTC.  There was a loud boom -- we all thought a truck must have jumped a curb and hit a storefront nearby -- I poked my head out the door and saw no traffic accident -- everyone was mystified.  Then I walked a block west to First Ave to catch a bus uptown.  Standing at the bus stop, I saw a huge plume of gray smoke and said to the people around me -- what's that huge fire?  Is it in Chinatown or something?

Bus came -- took it to 14th Street where I was switching to subway (wending my way to 9:45 am shrink appointment on Upper West Side) -- on the subway, a woman said "I heard a plane just crashed into the WTC -- my friend works there -- I hope he's okay."  At this point, I pictured a small private plane, lost or disabled pilot...

When I got off the subway at 86th and Broadway, everyone was talking to everyone about a SECOND plane -- now it was clear it was 2 jumbo jets, commercial flights, an attack.  Got to the doctor's and we looked at each in distress -- he said the Pentagon had been hit, there were news reports of car bombs in DC (there were a number of reports like that throughout the day -- about things happening that later were said not to have happened).  Anyway, we put the radio on for a bit, wished each other well, maybe we hung out for 20 minutes...

I started walking down Broadway.  No phones were working, not payphones or cell phones.  Didn't even want to think about getting back on subway at that point.  Buses heading downtown were packed full.  Just kept walking.  Vehicles parked at curbside had their doors open, radios on -- kept pausing to listen to radios and talk to whatever group was gathered at that radio.  Bus stops were plastered with garish posters for a new Schwarzenegger movie about a terrorist attack -- that movie was never released and the posters came down in a couple of weeks, but it was certainly creepy on that day.  Just kept walking downtown.  Such horrible things happening on such a beautiful day -- looked like a volcano had erupted down at the end of the island, and I just kept heading for it.

I've reached Broadway and 54th -- Ed Sullivan Theater (Letterman show) -- huge video monitors visible from outside are SHOWING A WTC TOWER COLLAPSING.  I don't understand what I'm seeing.  Is this a computer simulation?  Another bad-taste terror/horror movie?  Maybe I only had this sensation for a second, but it all felt like slow-motion.  All of us on the street had our mouths open.  I guess I asked, "Did it really collapse?" and someone answered "yes."  So many people are in the streets, stunned like I am.  Policemen, firemen, ambulances, and (already) construction workers are racing downtown.  Most of the rest of us are just stunned-calm, trying to stay out of the way of people who knew where they were going...

I had thought I would walk to 42nd Street and then take bus or subway the rest of the way -- but by the time I get to 42nd Street, subways have been stopped, and only uptown buses are running.  The policeman who tells me this at 42nd Street said -- "you don't want to go downtown -- we just got another call that more things are happening there."  He says I can walk back to work (17th Street) and will need ID to get home (i.e., below 14th Street).  I keep walking.

At 30th Street, I start to smell the smoke.  I'll smell it for the next week.  Somewhere just north of 23rd Street/Flatiron Building -- a wave of evacuees appears -- 20, 30, 40 people covered in white ash.  One young woman in her 20s is barefoot, looking so alone and traumatized, moving slowly (the rest seem purposeful).  It seems no one headed downtown is speaking to any of the ash-covered people heading uptown.  Maybe they need their space.  But this girl -- I wonder if she needs something.  We've made eye contact -- she seems so lost -- I speak to her very gently and ask if there's anything I can do for her -- get her a bottle of water? -- she says no, but says "I almost died!"  I think she just needed to tell somebody that!  I ask her if she has a place to go -- she's going to a friend's -- I can't remember much of what we said, just that it seemed needed to gently speak to her, as if I recognized that she WASN'T A GHOST!!!  She didn't want water, or shoes!  Just to say that she almost died.  Then her friend came.

From there to work (17th and Second Ave) is kind of a blur... don't remember which street(s) I walked east on.  Must have been noon by then.  At work (a small hospital specializing in orthopedic surgery), doctors, nurses, stretchers are all lined up outside -- waiting for a second wave of injured (a first wave had been treated) -- and what was so horrible was that there never was that second wave...

Back at my desk -- email.  Lots of emails from my brothers and sisters, friends outside New York.  At some point in the afternoon my son was able to reach me by phone at work --  he had just started his freshman year at college -- about 40 miles north of NYC -- classes were cancelled, but they'd been told it was best to stay there, especially if home was NYC -- I agreed.

Well -- that's enough story, I guess.  A neighbor in my building was a Port Authority security guard at WTC -- she got out just before tower collapsed.  And she'd suffered smoke inhalation in the 1993 bombing there...  Thank heavens she was okay.  Gave her my spare building key because hers was in her purse, in the rubble...

The oddest thing -- a friend of mine who had died of melanoma in 1998 had lived on Chambers Street, very near the WTC -- I kept thinking "Is Tom okay?  Is Tom okay?  How is Tom doing?"

Ann your story is so incredibly descriptive. I've been to NYC a couple of times, so while you are naming the streets that you walked that day, I can visualize the areas but truly can't imagine the horror of what you were witnessing. Thank you for sharing.

Beth 

Ann, thank you. I could feel every step you took that day.

Condolences to anyone who lost loved ones.

Big day - Musee de L'Orangerie, followed by lunch and a rest, then we foolishly set off for the Eiffel Tower around 5pm - got back to the hotel at 9:30pm!!! We went to the top and I made DH buy champagne for us - I don't think I have stayed on my feet for so long since I worked in a dept store as a teenager. The queues were incredible - far too many people, but it was great to see Paris from on high.

Tomorrow we go to Wales - we will take advantage of the 12 noon check out and then go for lunch nearby - need to get to the airport a couple of hours before the flight as it is one of those dodgy airlines - don't trust them. We have to get a cab (hooray) as the shuttles were booked out - lucky me.

Sue

Ann, I am touched by your remembrance.

Ann - thank you. I, also, could visulize every step you took. What a horrible time in our history. I'm watching a replay of Today from 9/11 on MSNBC. Those familiar voices so badly wanted to believe it was an isolated small plane that hit the first tower. We'll never think that way again.

Lassie - hope you have a grand day.

Susie - I'm loving being on your trip with you! Your DH is quite a loud snorer.

I'm waving at Sunflowers too .. and wondering how long she's going to be on time-out.  I didn't see anything wrong with her posts.

hugs,

Bren

Well.. Stoeseer won!!!!  great games!  She played wonderfully.

HL and Ann - thanks for sharing your stories and Lassie Happy Birthday!