My 9/11 Memory
Today marks the 8th anniversary of the what us commoners refer to as 9/11. 8 years ago today I was sitting in my office when my partner Scott poked his head in. “My wife just called and said that a plane had crashed into the world trade center.”
Months earlier someone smuggled a small TV into the building so we could watch March madness, now it was madness trying to find that TV so we could see what was really going on in the news.
I watched live as the plane hit the 2nd tower, somewhat comforted knowing I was 2,000 plus miles away and probably safe.
I don’t have permission to tell these stories with my friends names but I’m going to tell them anyway because they remind me that “life is a choice, enjoy it while you can.”
While I was sitting in my chair with my feet up watching the news and eating snack pack, a friend of mine had just kicked open the door to the roof of his office building in New York. He sees a building down the street with a hole in it, black smoke and flames pouring out. He’s aware of the crowd that has now gathered with him on the roof. He hears the sirens, the people, the police, he looks around and thinks of his family. It’s at this moment he realizes this is not accident, it’s an attack. His office is directly across the street from the Empire State Building. When he did the math in his head, it was clear he needed to vacate the roof immediately. If the Empire state building was next he was certainly toast. He called his wife and told her to call his married children and for everyone to meet in central park.
I asked him why the park and he said “there are no tall buildings in the park.”
While my one friend was scrabbling to gather his family, my other friends was having a personal nightmare.
His office was four blocks away from the world trade center. When the first plane hit the first tower the noise was so loud he instantly know something was wrong. Since he lived in New Jersey he thought it was in his best interest to vacate his building and head home. He grabbed his briefcase and jacket and exited his personal workstation called a cubicle. He was immediately created by his supervisor who said “where are you going? You haven’t been excused.” Not wanting to cause waves he returned to his cube to “wait it out.”
He attempted to leave two other times only to be greeted by the supervisor who insisted that all would be well and that he needed to stay in his cube.
I asked him why he stayed and he said that he didn’t want to lose his job.
By now ash and smoke had filled most of the financial district. He could see people running down the streets trying to get away from that area as fast as they could.
Your life or your job?
He chose his life. By the time he gets to the street there is no transportation and most of the access to and from Manhattan had been closed.
To make a long story short, he walked back to Jersey and once in New Jersey the state police were quarantining everyone who had made it across the river because of possible chemical warfare. I won’t tell you his exact phrase but to summarize it went something like “Oh hell no.” With the huge crowds and limited state police he was able to jump a fence and walk home.
There was no phone service all day, his family had kissed him good bye in the morning and hadn’t heard from him all day. They knew his office location and had expected the worst. At 10:45 PM EST he, covered in ash, soot and smoke, with suit torn, feet hurting and hungry as hell, he knocks on his own door.
His Quote – - “I have never felt more loved in my life.”
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