nmah4163.xml

nmah4163.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I work in town to NYC and live over in NJ. I was walking to the bus when the first plane hit and knew nothing. When I got on the bus the guy behind me pointed and said, "Look you can see it". my buss ride goes right along the water were I could see everything from the window. The vibe on the bus was that this was an accident. Then we saw the second place hit and we knew otherwise. We were in line at the tolls of the Lincoln tunnel just as they closed it. Ten minutes earlier I would have been stuck in the city for two days. At that time I got the buzz on the cell phone telling me I had voice mail, all the phone lines were jammed out and I could only get a line out about once every half hour. It was form my mother, who was in tears trying to find out if I was ok. I was amazed at how many people got in touch with me that day. people I hadn't heard from since I had moved away from home a little over a year before the 11th. Luckily the bus brought us all back home, and I stood at my bus stop and just watched in shock for a while before heading home to watch on t.v. I remember being so afraid the first time I heard a plane go overhead. It turned out to be the air force. For the next tow days I was glued to my t.v.. I was up all night. every siren, every plane, every loud noise scared the living hell out of me, and still does when I am in the city. Two days later back at work in the city you couldn't help but cry when you saw all the signs of missing people. At Union Square it was the most heartbreaking scene I had ever scene. One story after another of missing parents, sons, friends. for the next two weeks everyone in the city was you're best friend. It was amazing how we all came together. It wasn't till about three weeks later when i heard a guy threaten a guy working at a deli counter with a roasted chicken did I know that the city was getting back to normal, or as normal as it will every be again.