story1072.xml

story1072.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

to the people i knew and worked with in the world trade ,ill never forget you.

.it all started in 1997 when i got this job working for mcs business solutions fixing canon copiers.i had just

finished a course for electronics at rets institute.this is what i wanted to do after serving in

the us army from aug 1990 until jan 1993.as i flew back to nj from my duty station.the plane flew

by the world trade on its way to newark airport.i looked at them like i always did when i was

growing up from my bedroom window.what marvel!i finished the school,and took the test to see if i

even qualified to take the job.i passed.then they asked us where did we want to work "we have

different locations".i thought to myself wow i could work in ny,and not just anywhere,downtown.so

i had an interview,and i got the job,working in the financial powerhouse that it is on may 12

1997. right after i took the job i had a baby girl born may 19th 1997,7 days after i took the

job.my company gave me 3 days off,thank you .so after that i focused on training and becoming

what i was,a professional copier technician.well now the years started to pass,its now 1999 and

im a great technician,fixing copiers for companies in downtown manhattan.im working on an

exclusive account,lehman brothers at 3 world finacial building.it was great.i got to be in there

all day.they had a lot of copiers.it was known as an in-house account.a lot of floors,people and

copiers.i worked there for about a year,then sometime in late 1999 me and another technician

switched places his name was zack levy,he worked in the world trade account servicing our canon

copiers.now i was the one working in the world trade with another technician,his name is derek

morgan.i live in jersey and now my travel is better,i take the path in newark and get off in the

world trade,the gave me an id card,and now i get off the and go right upstairs.thats when i begin

to work with people and know the places and floors and whos machine is who's.we had two desks and

two closets for copier parts on the 82nd floor of tower one,facing north.derek was there before

830 ready for his morning muffin.id go the 43rd floor and get breakfast and eat it while looking

at the statue of liberty and the river,man that was a great view.what could be better than

working in the tallest buildings in manhattan.

ill always remember the time i met cory miller,who worked on the 101st floor for cantor

fitzgerald.he was the one who called for service for the copiers up there,and also ran the

stockroom from what i saw,also there was a girl named karen montague,she also worked on 101st

floor.i see her on the way to see cory.that day i met him he was a little hesitant to let me

touch his machines,but after seeing my work,he liked me a whole lot.then there were his pals that

worked across from him,they were cool too.i dont know their names.
then there was the lady from the 82nd floor her name is nancy nunez i fixed her copier lots of

times.
i mention them because i saw them alot,but i also saw many people and fixed many machines in

world trade centers 1 through 7.chances are if you worked in those building i probably fixed your

canon copier.
so many days and hours spent in those buildings and not one day did i think of them being

destroyed,until the day i went down to sublevel. i was walking to fix a copier there when i say

the memorial that was built for the 1993 bombing victims.i stared at it,then i stared at it some

more.i then said a prayer to god. i said "god please dont let this happen to me".
fast forward to 2001.after working with people in those buildings for about 2 years i feel like

were friends,productive friends.friends that laughed with me,got mad at me when the copier didnt

work and id fix it and they'd be happy and thank me,and id thank them back.friends that chatted

with me,i remeber talking to cory miller about some new speakers he bought from J&R in lower

manhattan sometime in spring 2001 or so,he kept playing a song from silent bob strikes back and

were listening and were talking about how the speakers were great,and i talked about how i took

the family to dorney park,and he told me about a place in long island thats a waterpark and we

even looked it up online.everytime id go to cantor fitzgerald me and cory would talk up a

storm.we were cool,we exchanged aim screen names,his was jedinyte44,mine was livetildoa,and we

would chat sometimes after work.
now its the week before sept 11th
i had went to fix some copiers for cory 2 times that week,and 1 of them was in the 105th floor.
as i was leaving and seeing them for the last time,karen montague asked me to donate for diabetes

foundation,i said ok and paid 2 bucks for 2 paper boots and i put my name in one and taped it to

the wall,and she taped the other to the wall and she forgot to write my name in.so she looked and
then she realized it and wrote it in.then i went into the elevator never to see them again.its

friday sept 7th 2001,there werent any machines called in so my manager decided i could help out

in the field.i didnt like that at all.id rather be in "the trade".so i went in the field and did

my job.friday morning same thing.monday morning same thing.monday afternoon i get a call to fix a

machine at the federal couthouse at 500 pearl st ,its 430 and i said to myself ill go in the

morning,the call specifies that i need to bring a part with me to the call,so i go home.

tuesday morning sept 11th.as i leave my house my and my fiance which i pregnant are having an

argument about being late to work,and when i get to penn station,i leave her in the car without a

goodbye or a kiss or a hug.and i hurry to catch my train thinking im going to be late,its about

755am.i get off on the platform in the world trade and i look at the clock and it says 825 am,so

i hurry up and go up the escalators and through the mall,and just past victoria secret theres an

escalator .that was my usual way to go to our office at 90 william st.i get there and theres a

clock and it says 835am i think to myself "great im late".i take my elevator the the 11th floor

and i walk to the parts room.i pick up the part for the call at 500 pearl st.,then i go to see my

manager .he looks in out system and sees theres no call in the world trade.its 843 or so,he says

go in the field if anything comes in ,youll go back to "the trade",i looked at him not liking the

news but i dont argue.i say to myself "its ok a machine is gonna break down any day now,and ill

be back in "the trade".just then my coworker calls me on the jobs nextel and says"the world trade

is on fire".i said "what?"stop playing man.and he says " for real the world trade is on fire".so

i walk towards the front of our office.thers a conference room we use with big windows,and when i

look through them .they face the world trade and i could see both of them.and i could see a

really big hole.i could see through the hole to the other side.i dont know what to think.all i

know theres people on the top floors and theyre waving stuff and theres papers flying

everywhere.then the people start jumping out.so i go to the back and make a call to let my

pregnant fiancee know that i was ok.i went back to the windows.then all of a sudden a big

explosion flew out of two wtc.i looked like someone set off a big bomb because all i saw was

yellow water like orange fluid coming out of the building.i didnt know it was a plane.1 liberty

plaza building was blocking the other side where the plane came in.so i thought it was a bomb.at

this time i dont know what to do.i must have been in shock because i just stayed in the office

for a good while.next thing i know i feel our building swaying.so we all try to run down the

stairs ,11 flights,,by the time we got down there was smoke and white stuff coming into our

building.we had to go back up,but the floors where locked so we couldnt get back in.we found exit

on 3rd floor and we kicked the door in of some office and closed it behind us not knowing what

just happened.we saw nuthing but black and white dust when we looked at the windows.we thought

about what was gonna happenn to us.i thought about my daughter, my fiancee,and my unborn

child.then the smoke started to clear and get lighter.so we ran outside and walked uptown.im

looking back where the towers were,and i didnt see them there anymore.and i thought about my

coworker derek who was there on the 82nd floor.and the people i knew there.thinking about what

happened to them.i walk uptown for a while.alot of people on the street.trains didnt run.i waited

a while,i called my fiancee at home after she got off work and told her im fine.that i missed

her.i finally got home around 830-9 pm.clothes and shoes were dusty.i didnt know who lived or who

died.my manager called me and said take the next day off.so on thursday he said come to work in

lyndhurst,our refurbishing and training facility.we got some donated copiers and we fixed them

for the port authority,they had lost all the machines in the world trade and they had setup a

command post and they needed some copiers to do their stuff.monday sept 17th were back in

downtown ny,backin the place i worked in and loved and had known so many people in such a short

time.and god let me know he heard my prayer.he let me live .then my son was born 11-09-01.