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The Giants and Broncos played a Monday night football game that ended really late the night before... I grew up in Northern NJ only 10 miles west of NYC - lots of my classmates parents were late to work the next day and it saved their lives.
The news reports told us to close all windows in our houses if we lived in the area because there were fears of chemicals on the planes.
We were on vacation at my sister-in-law's bungalow in South Seaside Park.
I had Imus on the radio,
but I was concentrating on the Daily News crossword puzzle.
Suddenly I realized that Imus was ridiculing a report by a woman of a plane crash,
because it seemed unbelievable.
(I think it was Warner Wolf calling in from his apartment,
relaying what his wife had witnessed).
I took the compass bearing off of a map,
and biked to the top of the Rt. 37 bridge over Barnegat Bay.
I could see the smoke plume from 53 miles away with 7x50 yacht glasses.
I was expecting to get rousted or worse any minute,
standing at the very top of the causeway
right after a terrorist attack. But everyone was oblivious.
A couple of guys were fishing in a boat right underneath me.
I wondered if they were night shift cops or firemen.
I couldn't bring myself to yell down to tell them what had happened.
That afternoon we bought a 5 gallon gas can at Pep Boys,
in case there was a shortage - we had the bikes and kayaks with us,
and couldn't get back home on a single tank.
I've never filled it, but we still have it.
The next morning we woke up to the smell of burning PC boards.
53 miles away. (The wind came from the north overnight).
We stopped at Garrett Mountain Reservation park in Paterson on the way home
from vacation. There were still tons of people at the clifftop lookout,
looking at the smoke.
Everyone drove "on eggshells" for the first few days.
No one wanted to hassle anyone else.
There were lots of soldiers in the Jersey Turnpike rest areas,
from convoys that had stopped for lunch.
Everyone was thanking them.
Two of my wife's cousins were late getting to work in the towers.
(One saw his office collapse while he was stuck in traffic on the Pulaski Skyway;
he became a deacon in his church).
Another of her cousins who worked in a nearby building
was already in his office when the first plane hit.
A colleague became so upset, he decided to punt for the day
and escort her. They caught a train back to NJ
from the basement of the WTC
before the first collapse buried the PATH station(!).
The dead-end extension to the street I grew up on in Massapequa
was renamed after a local who was a Port Authority police officer.
I wonder whether she was the sister of a grammar school classmate.
Going to work a couple of weeks later,
after air traffic had resumed,
I saw someone in a single plane skywriting near Hopkinton.
I've never seen a news article on it.
He spelled out some inspirational word; maybe "HOPE".
I've subsequently learned: She was.The dead-end extension to the street I grew up on in Massapequa
was renamed after a local who was a Port Authority police officer.
I wonder whether she was the sister of a grammar school classmate.
I've subsequently checked my EMail archives: It was.Going to work a couple of weeks later,
after air traffic had resumed,
I saw someone in a single plane skywriting near Hopkinton.
I've never seen a news article on it.
He spelled out some inspirational word; maybe "HOPE".
I saw it broadcast live No way do I want to relive it either, so not watching all the programs.As Enbloc said, 'Still sad, still hurt, still pissed'. But I wont be watching the documentaries or any of the other commemorations... I really don't want to relive it, I know people that died and I know people that fought in the seemingly endless wars that followed. Yesterday I saw the picture of that restaurant worker that leapt to his death to avoid the flames... that was more than enough for me, still pissed.
yep, i was at work and we had a TV in the rec room and all people went there and watched it in silence, then one gal started crying as her brother was working in one of the towers and she could not reach his cell (he was one of lucky ones who got out).I saw it broadcast live No way do I want to relive it either
I recall footage of FD in some sort of lobby I assume planning on how to go about their task. Every few seconds there was a WHAM above them which the narrator later said was people hitting the roof of the area they were inyeah, the image of people falling down and the whole plaza below red of blood from splashed bodies is not the thing they ever show again. sad.
well said!Still sad, still hurt, still pissed.
God Bless those who died to Save and those innocents involved.
Strength to their families and Survivors.
~Matt