Saturday, September 11, 2010

Nine Years Ago Today...

I was watching, in person, as the 1st tower burned like a torch in the otherwise beautiful September morning sky. I was at work, about to get off the night shift at UPS when someone asked if I had seen the plane crash on TV in the break room. I had not, so I went out to the parking lot to see for myself. Holy Fuck! I thought, Richie (my brother-in-law) and Jeanette and some friends all work there..I was instantly scared for their lives and it started to occur to me how many thousands of people were down there right then. So I ran back inside, punched out and started to speed home. Work was in Secaucus, NJ and home was in Jersey City Heights. I had a clear view of the Trade Center for the entire 5 minute drive home. About halfway there I saw the second plane approach and crash into tower 2. WTF! Things were instantly different. This was NO accident. This was an ATTACK! We were under seige. Laws, speed limit, everything was instantly dismissed. My priority was getting home to my (then) wife (who should have been leaving or gone to work by then). I burst into our apartment to find her asleep. I scared the hell of her with my abruptness. She had called out of work for the day (which was very unusual) and had no idea of the events occurring just 2 miles away. She knew instantly that something was horribly wrong. She was begging me to tell her and I insisted she just try calling her brother and her father's girlfriend. All circuits were busy. She again asked, yelling at me in fear, "What was going on?!" I just said put on some pants and come with me. Seconds later we were outside and I said "Look", (pointing to the Towers), "We are under attack!" The streets were chaotic, filled with onlookers. There were several car accidents and already someone had attacked the Indian guy (not Muslim at all, but wore a turban) who owned the liquor store up the block from my place, they beat him and his wife and wrecked the store...The next three days were horrible, it took that long to locate our family members (all of whom were safe) and the news of the death of some friends made it our way as well. The worst part was something rarely mentioned...the smell, the soot, and the fear. Over the course of the next few weeks, two houses within 3 blocks of where I lived were raided by the Government and it became known that these terrorists ate and made plans in the same Diner I often frequented and lived close by. I can't really bear to say more at this point as my memory is flooding with the horrible shit I saw and it's upsetting me. I gotta go......

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