I have reposted here my experience on Sept. 11, 2001, archived at http://911digitalarchive.org/parser.php?object_id=19929.
That morning my boyfriend, a NYPD officer, dropped me off at work at P.S.11 (on West 21st Street), where I was an assistant teacher at the time. Shortly after my students got to their classroom, while I left to retrieve something from another floor, another staff member told me a plane had crashed. On my way back to my classroom, someone said, "You need to turn on the T.V." I heard someone else say "The World Trade Center is gone." I went upstairs and shared the news with the other teachers in my room.
I left the room again to call my boyfriend since no one's cell phone was working. He was awaiting my call desperately, as he was being called in to duty. He told me we were in a state of emergency, and that I should try to make it to my mother's place in Spanish Harlem and not come home. He promised to call me. I told him I was to remain at school until all the parents came and that my kids were still unaware of the news. Parents began streaming in, tears falling from their eyes as they tightly hugged their small children and took them home. The children in my special education class sensed our anxiety and sadness and began to ply us with questions. What was happening? Why were the parents coming so early? Was it a half-day? I simply said the train was out of service, which was true, because I didn't want to frighten the kids.
We took small lunch breaks. As I and another female co-worker walked through the streets we were overwhelmed by the eerie sight of no cars, not a single one on the street, people running, the radios blaring very war-like minute-by-minute news. "A plane hit the Pentagon." "The Pentagon has been struck." Acrid smoke and dust filled the air. It was terrifying; someone had attacked us.
After work, when all the children had been picked up, my co-workers and I departed, trying to figure out the best route to our homes when the trains and the buses weren't running. On a Manhattan street not one car, much less a taxi, was to be found. Sirens filled the air. Signs posted everywhere begged us to donate blood. I walked down 23rd Street, heading east. All the pedestrians at the corner of the Flatiron building stood gawking and looking south. One said, "That's where the World Trade Center USED to be." I felt a raw gush of emotion. A couple of blocks down, soldiers wearing camouflage stood in the middle of the streets holding the biggest guns I have ever seen in my life. What were they, missile launchers? They had legs, these guns, like a tripod for a camera.
I stood transfixed; our worlds had been turned upside down. My pager went off, my sister was calling me. I stood on line to use the nearest phone. Strangers were hugging each other, others were taking pictures of the armed soldiers. I finally caught a bus going uptown. The ride from 23rd St. to 122nd St. took over three hours. A lady on the bus told me I had beautiful eyelashes, were they real? I thought it such an odd comment, but weirdly it made me feel good, as if everything was normal.
At my mother's place I began to worry. I had not heard from my boyfriend for a couple of hours. I was already on the phone to the Red Cross when he called on the other line -- he was at Ground Zero. He was running when the last building fell. He was okay. He would call me back. At 2AM he was relieved of duty. He came to my mother's home to get me. We drove down deserted streets, we were allowed to leave the borough when he flashed his badge. At home, our machine was filled with messages, from family members, ex-girlfriends, concerned friends.
The next day school was closed. I was glued to the TV.
I watched news all day long. It was a day I will never forget, ever. The memories are as singed into my head as the remnants of what used to be a symbol of New York's grandeur are now.
Will Rich Ross really have a positive impact on Disney's movie operations?
Consumers sick of recession, may spend extra on holidays
Corrections, seasonality and Santa Claus
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-11-2007 @ 2:29PM
Ron Fellman said...
Valerie, Please thank your boyfriend for his efforts that day. We should ALL NEVER forget---I, and my wife will not !!!
9-11-2007 @ 2:43PM
Michelle said...
I was at work, listening to a radio station out of Chicago, who was, up until the time the first tower had been hit, playing a practical joke. Then they broke in and told the listeners, this is not a joke....the WTC has been hit by a commercial airliner. At first, I remember everyone thinking it was a mistake. A pilot that had been misguided. It was probably hope, because none of us wanted to think we were under attack.
Then I started worrying about Chicago (downtown), about what might be a target there. Then I started worrying about my son and my family, hoping they were ok.
I remember trying to get online with a DIAL UP connection. It was impossible. I had no access to TV or internet. I remember feeling very scared. Then I heard the words "Osama Bin Laden", and up until that point I had never paid any attention to who this person was, nor did I know why he wanted to attack us.
I remember going home that night, and I was locked into the news channels trying to get as much information as possible.
The one thing that sticks out in my mind from that day is the terror I felt as I felt the whole country was under attack.
Six years later I would say that it is definately an event that has changed my life, and they way I view the world around me.
There is not enough thanks in the world to ALL the heroes of 9/11, and to the familes who paid the ultimate price that day.
WE WILL NEVER FORGET....
9-11-2007 @ 3:21PM
Zaira said...
Sometimes I wish I could forget.
This 9/11 is rainy and overcast. I'm almost glad for it because when it is a beautiful, picture perfect day without a cloud in the sky, the horror of that day comes back at me. This rainy day fits how I feel perfectly.
Some people say it's time to move on, and that's not fair. Some news channels didn't even show the ceremony, opting to show instead The View and Regis and Kelly. How disrespectful. The entire city and country carries this hurt, and now we are expecting to keep it moving even on this day.
I will always remember, I will never forget. Thank you Valerie for sharing your experience.
9-11-2007 @ 3:25PM
Billy said...
I lived uptown during 9/11. I hadn't left for work before the towers fell, so I didn't witness a lot of the turmoil and confusion that Lower Manhattan was experiencing on that day. I just watched my television like the rest of the world in disbelief. What sticks out just as much for me about 9/11 though, was the weeks following. Will there be another attack? Am I safe in Harlem, far away from "the money"?
I remember it vividly how my former girlfriend and I were watching television, and a jet flew overhead, so loud, and so closely that it shook our apartment building. In that moment, I jumped over and covered my girlfriend and we braced for impact. I truly thought that could be our last moments. Now, how close it was, I will never know. But I do know what I was feeling. I thought we were about to die. Even if the plane was miles away, and a plane crashing into a Harlem Apartment building is as ridiculous as it sounds, 9/11 made every New Yorker confront death in a way that no one could avoid, or ignore. Because no one was safe. Fear of terrorism was our new common denominator.
9-12-2007 @ 9:38AM
nanbob1 said...
thee will be no recession,we are going to see a depression 3x as bad as the 30s and it has begun,if 100 million are not homeless by 2009 I am crazy..........