lc_story231.xml

lc_story231.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-01-10

I was in a curtain factory,in the New York metro area, with no access to radios, television or computers. Our break came at 10:20 am and word of mouth began to spread news and rumors. Since, many of the workers, were immigrants, the story traveled through 5 or six languages to reach me. I tookin with sceptism. Around 11:30 the owner big bosses came out to tell us what had happened and said those of us who needed to or wished to leave may. Not realizing that I was ten miles away from a potential target, I decided to stay. Then I went to my car at 4:15pm to find my friend still on the air on the radio. He was supposed to have signed off at 10am. I rushed home, called the Red Cross and made a donation. My answering machine was flashing so I played my messages. My best friend, had thought that I was actually in NYC, and her voice sounded like it had panic in it. Since, she is a retired Paramedic, whose estranged husband was a police officer in the New York Metro area, I got scared. I tried to phone her and my parents, but by then our phone lines were gone. I guess they were pulled for emergency use. I drove acrss the river to see three of my closest friends. I put some provisions into my car and drove to Beacon, NY. MY friend was still on the air as 7pm approached. He signed off, and I met up with him at his home. I was already there when he finally got home. His wife is also an old and dear friend. His son had been home due to illness, his eldest daughter was fixated on the television, and his littlest wanted to know why the bad people wanted to kill us. I told her they don't all want to kill all of us, they just want to scare us into seeing their problems. I didn't want her to be so afraid. My friend cam home and went to bed, I called my other friend the paramedic from their home. We all had gone to school with each other. She was home, so I drove to her home. Her children and her husband were fine, but not all of her friends and former co-workers had been accounted for, yet. As the days drew on, there was one who did not make it home, her Fire Fighter, friend Paul Tetgmeier, was filling in for someone else on that day, in a unit that was not his own. I couldn't call my mother from her house as she did not have any long distance service and it was now late, so I did not stop at a family friend's house where I could have placed the call. I stopped at some local train stations to see if any stranded commuters were in need of rides, but arrangements had been made for those that did not normally take the trains. It was about 3:20 am on the twelth now. I looked at all the cars in the lot and wondered, how many simply could not get out of the city that night, how many went down to volunteer and how many, like the husband of the Mayor of Poughkeepsie(where I was), would never come home to collect their cars from the parking lots. I drove back over the Hudson River, and got on the NYS thruway, which to my suprise, had remain open for normal traffic that day. I drove in the right lane. My little red Honda Civic, was the only car in the right lane. The passing lane was fleet of ambulences and paramedic trucks that stretched as far as the eye could see and then beyond. I pulled to the shoulder, but they remained in one lane, they kept coming and coming, one right after the other. I thought to myself, all the locals are long gone these must becoming from the Canadian border areas and beyond. I began lookin g at the plates, NY, NY,NY,PA MA,ME, Ontario, quebec, Ohio the list goes on they were coming from everywhere. My doctor had recently told me to avoid crying due to a severe sinus condition. So that is what I did. I made some final stops at the train stations on my side of the river and then showered and got ready for work. I went to work and came home. I called my family immediatly, to tell them that I was OK, I loved them, and that I couldn't get a phone line on 9-11 and had to use the line sparingly. My stepfather got angry at me because I had told him that I could not donate blood. I knew this from my past attempts to donate. I called the blood donors in my area to see if they had waived any of the requirements, but they had not. My mother and I fought over money, so I told her I would not tie up a valuble phone line to fight with her and I hung up on her. I called my friends in a state of hysteria. My uncle called to tell me that my mothers oldest friends daughters were both alive. They had both worked in The World Trade Center. I was glad to hear that they were ok. The next, morning I called my mother phome a pay phone outside the factory to apologize. She told me that, she wished I had died as a child. I went numb, then burst into tears and hung up the phone. Strangers who barly spoke any English were trying to comfort me. I explained why I was crying, that it was not related to 9-11. Still, in my heart it was. How could my own mother, who was born and raised in NYC, Whose best friend children worked in the World Trade Center say such a thing at such a time? It was 9-13 only two days later. It rained that night. It was a down pour, the television crew said there was a need for rain gear, so I gathered slickers, tarps, umbrellas and a gallon of water and headed back over the Hudson River to catch a train to NYC. I didn't know if the subways were running yet, but I asked where I should go to bring my supplies. I did as I was told. After donating the raingear, litteraly off my back, I walked from the west thirties to the east eighties in the pooring rain . The rain was stinging my eyes, and I couldn't help but wonder what chemicals were in the air and how bad must it be down at Ground Zero. My shoes had holes in them, the soles came apart, and I had blisters on my feet, but I just kept wondering how much worse off people were down at Ground Zero. As I turned down eighth ave., a Middle Eastern looking man approached me. I did't want him to think that I hated him or feared him, because I did not. We were standing infront of a peep show place. I was wearing a Bush Annaugaral tee shirt, dirty jeans from the factory, and a National Review wind breaker was tied around my waist. He asked me how I was. I relplied very very wet. He asked me if I wanted to come home with him. I politely replied, no thank you I am staying at a friends place and I have work in the morning. He got indignant,huffed off and slammed the door to a taxi that had stopped for him. It was not until the following day, that I realized, he had thought that I was a prostitute. I got a big laugh out of that on 9-14. It was my first post 9-11 laughter. After, eighth ave. I mad my way to the 24 hour McDonalds between 46th and 47th on seventh Ave. I went inside to warm up, get a hot cocoa, and use the rest room. I really, had not been paying much attention to what I was doing, but then I realized, that I was in this very McDonalds, when heard the news on tv, that there had been an explosion at the World Trade center back in 1993. A sense of familiarity was sitting on my shoulders. I made it to my friends building by about 5:30 am on the 14th, I took a hot shower, dried my cloths and wtch Tony Blair give a speech on Television. I caslled work to say that I would be late. I slept for two hours and returned to work. I am poor and don't have much money, I had spent the last of my money on my return ticket home, but the ticket got detroyed in the rain. At first the ticket clerk yelled at me, and said it didn't even rain, but when she saw me in tears, she realized I was telling the truth. She helped me to get back on the train. The conductor, knew me from my commuting days, so I had no problem after that. Saturday, my friends radio station was supposed to have a party, but they turned it into a fund raiser. I attented it, then got back on the train bound for NYC, with some of my own supplies. When I arrived at the Red Cross Station, they asked if I wanted to volunteer. I said yes. I worked with them that weeken and the following weekend, and as groups moved and disolved I wound up volunteering with Ground Zero Food Services, Interfaith services, WTC temporary Housing and eventually the Salvation Army. In January I began volunteer full time and I stayed until July 8th. (I took three week off, 2 to attend the Olympics with my friend, who had already paid for the tickets, and one due to a fever, when I returned from Salt Lake City.
September 11th, 2001 to July 8th 2002 became one giant endless dayfor me.
When I first heard about what was going on in Skokie, I too was against allowing the Party a parade permit. Then I listened closely to the arguments in favor OF the permit, and I realized that the only way to hang on to what is dear to us, we have to protect those rights, even when the people we are protecting, appall us.
Yes, we may at times damn the ACLU when they are defending people or groups we find to be hateful........but as the ACLU defends their rights, they are protecting ours, and we should be damn glad they exist. to man

My strongest memory of September 11th, 2001, was seeing the endless stream of ambulances all in the passing lane, even though I was the only car in the driving lane on the NYS thru-way. The Ambulances had plate from NY, MA, ME, OH, PA, Ontario, Quebec and other places. It would have made an unbelievable aerial shot if there had been any planes in the air,. besides the local military jets. There were ambulances and paramedic trucks for as far as the human eye could see, and they just kept coming onto the horizon, for beyond where the human eye could see.

Well, I think this country learn a valuble lesson. We are not immune from attacks. I had been saying that since the 1970's, but most people just dimissed me as nuts. I just looked in the history books and concluded, that we were like anyone and every one else. It is best not to think your immune, that is when trouble is sure to come. It did to the Romans, The British Empire, and the ship S.S. Titanic. As for me personally, I stopped living my life for the purpose of pleasing my mother.