Nine, Eleven, & Seven
For the longest time, I never fully had an understanding of how people could say they would never forget how the whole country stopped and how they would always remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard that John F. Kennedy assassinated. Then again, I was a one-year old when that happened. So, I really wasn’t in a position to understand what went down back in 1963.
That all changed for me on September 11, 2001 – as I will never forget that day, everyone’s reaction, and where I was, etc., just as those older than me remember their details around hearing the news on President Kennedy.
At that time, my office was in Little Falls, New Jersey. However, my job duties back then also required me to spend some time in our Fort Lee, New Jersey, office as well – and that’s where I was on the morning of September 11, 2001. This office was located at the foot of the George Washington Bridge – and it offered an excellent view of New York City.
It just so happened that I had two tickets to the Yankees game that evening. But, days earlier, I had decided to sell them to a co-worker there (who I did not know well at the time) named Russ. (He was a friend of my friend, Bill – and that’s how our connection worked.) The plan was for me to see Russ later in the morning and give him the Yankee tickets for the game later that night.
Whenever I would work in Fort Lee, I would “hotel” in an office of someone who was out that day – plugging in my laptop to their LAN connection, using their phone, etc. On this morning, I was using the office of someone that I knew, Dan, as he was in Texas at a client meeting.
Just a few minutes before 9 AM EST, one of the department’s admin assistants, Kathy, who I was friendly with, came into Dan’s office and said to me “A plane just few into the Twin Towers. Some of us are going up to the top floor to get a better look at it. Do you want to come?”
At that time, Kathy and I – as well as others crowded around the windows – thought that it was a two-seater plane or something that got lost and hit the Towers. We really didn’t think it was a serious thing – and we figured it was more of a small, yet buzz-worthy, news story at the time. However, as we were watching the smoke rise from the tower, someone came by and said that they just heard on the radio that another plane had just flown into the Towers. And, at that moment, we all knew that this was much more than just a freak accident.
I’ll spare you the details about what happened in the office over the next few hours – as we learned about the Pentagon and more details that came in about the World Trade Center. But, it was chaos – to say the least. As things started to go insane, I decided it was time to get out of there and get back home – as quickly as possible – and urged my wife (who was working on Staten Island at the time) to do the same.
Needless to say, I never met up with Russ to sell him those Yankees tickets.
Like most of the country, I was hit hard by what happened on September 11th. I had worked in (what became known as) the Deutsche Bank Building from 1989 through 1997. So, I had spent quite a bit of time in, and around, the World Trade Center. And, I had a number of friends who were still in that area when the planes hit. But, more so, as an American and a human being, I felt violated, scared, and incredibly sad at that time – and it was a feeling that I could not shake for the next five days. In fact, each day, I seemed to get more and more depressed over it.
The weekend that followed the attack, my wife and decided that we needed to get away from the television – as all the news reports were just feuling our feelings and emotions at that time. So, we decided to see the movie “Hardball” which had just come out. And, it actually helped to break the pattern that we were in and help reset our mood towards something other than great sadness.
In the end, I never did anything with the tickets for the Yankees game scheduled for September 11th – other than keep them. I could have gone to the make-up game. Or, I could have sold them to someone else to use. But, I just felt it was important to keep those tickets, intact, as a reminder, of September 11, 2001. And, I still have them saved. Sure, it meant eating $74 (back then) – but, that just didn’t seem like it mattered.
Now it’s seven years after September 11, 2001. This means that there’s a whole generation of kids out there, ages eleven and younger, who probably feel the same way, now, about people talking about “9-11″ the way that I felt as a younger person when people would talk about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This includes my kids who were born in 2002 and 2004.
That’s O.K. – as I guess that’s how these things work. I just hope that something else doesn’t come along, the way “9-11″ did for me, to give them the persepctive that I later gained around the J.F.K. thing. And, I’d like to be the last Yankee fan out there who has saved tickets from a game to mark the event of something tragic that happened that day. Now, that’s something to root for in Yankeeland, today, and all days going forward.
As someone who worked in 1WTC and was in the building at the time of the attack, I think about “this day” every single day. I know that I was one of the last handful of people to make it out alive because less than five minutes after seeing daylight, my building collapsed behind me.
Thanks for posting this, Steve. I, too, hope that “this” is the last tragic event that any of us ever have to remember.
Coincidentally, the attacks begain 7 years ago at this very minute…
Nice write up, Steve.
MJ – I had no idea you were there. Glad you were one of the lucky ones.
Patrick – thanks.
Getting away from the media is one thing I remember well from that period too. It definitely started driving me mad and making me panicky. So much rumour and garbage was printed as straight coverage of 11th september.
I worked on the west side at the time, albeit quite a few blocks north of the WTC, in the 30s. Ironically, I could get through on the phone to my family in Ireland but not my husband in Queens. It was a strange day as with no internet or phones we didn’t really have the full picture of what was going on – even after having physically been in Manhattan it was only after getting back home we saw it on TV and went “oh my god”. One of my colleagues at the time has a funny story of spending the day doing an inspection in a basement or subway or something, and emerging at around 3pm to find one guy in the whole skyscraper typing furiously on his computer and muttering that the world was ending.
Anyway, I think you’re probably right to keep the tickets. I have a copy of the 12 Sept NY Times which got dragged to Toronto with me, and every time I come across it I gasp a bit.
Thanks Steve.
I still think the lucky “person” that I know that day was my dog, Syracuse. How nice it must have been to lay there on the bed, have the TV on and be the only one of the 4 in the room (myself, my mother, brother and him) to not know what is going on.
Im a NY’er from way back. My family moved out to Ohio when I was 7 but NY never really left the heart. Were all still NY team fans and return from time to time when we can. I made the trip this year to attend a game in the final year of Yankee stadium. The 2001 attacks have always hurt even though I was lucky enough not to have lost a loved one. I got a chilling reminder of the 9/11 events a few weeks ago when driving to NY. I havent been to the city in many years and upon approaching the tunnel in the early morning hours I found myself trying to get my barrings by looking for the towers. It took me a few seconds to realize what I was doing. That was an uneasy feeling. I think your right though, everyone will remember where they were, what they were doing, etc etc. I even remember some smells. I’ll never forget how all cell phones, even in Ohio, were not working.
I dont mean to be a pain but werent the Yanks in KC during 9/11?
“It just so happened that I had two tickets to the Yankees game that evening.”
Im pretty sure they were but it could be that they were stranded there waiting for a fleight home. I thought the Mets were in town? Having Piazza hit a dramatic 8th inning homer to give the Mets the lead and eventually the win?
Nice writeup, Steve.
Glad to hear you were one of the lucky ones, MJ.
I was working and living in Brockport (NY) at the time. Anyone who listened to me knew how much I loved and missed the city (I was up there attending college, wanted and needed a change of scenery), so this attack I took personally. Spent the whole day trying to figure a way home, and eventually made it down a week later, I think. I do remember heading there and taking a lot of pictures. It was surreal.
I still have a couple of newspapers buried somewhere.
Lee – that was part of the reason why I wanted to hustle home that day…to get to our two dogs. We thought my wife might be stuck on S.I. since there were reports that they were going to close the bridges…and I didn’t want to get stuck on the GSP or something and not be able to get home to take care of them, etc.
Bostowned – FYI, the Yanks had just played the Red Sox, at Yankee Stadium, on 9/9.
9/10 was an off-day and the White Sox were due in town on 9/11 to play in the Bronx.
Thanks Raf, I appreciate it.
[...] Has another year gone by? That was quick. I know the Yankees have something planned for today. And, others have a way to mark the day. [...]