nmah5340.xml

nmah5340.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-12-18

I rode the PATH into the Trade Center that day, just like I always did. I do rememeber how beautiful of a day it was, it had rained very hard the night before. I worked at the corner of Broadway and Liberty - one block from the WTC. I was on the 8th floor when we heard the loud noise, (it sounded like a big truck going fast through the street), and then another noise, like crumpling aluminum foil and we looked outside. You could see people on the street running, and people pointing to the WTC. Then we looked up, and the beginning of the debris was just starting to fall past our windows. Someone said, "They just bombed the Trade Center" - two of us left the building and ran to the Trade Center to see what was happening. We didn't take anything with us, so I had no wallet or cell phone, we thought we would go look and be back. Of course, we didn't know it was plane, but the smoke was horrible, and there was paper and debris everywhere, we even picked up some of the papers, calendars and CD's, and a computer tray. As we kept walking and stood there looking up at the flames and looking around at the horrific carnage on the ground, another blast happened. I happen to be looking at the tower and saw the impact, then we ran as fast as we could towards the Hudson. I remember having to stop and rest in the middle of the West Side Hwy, and there were so many stopped cars, with the doors open and no-one in them. Some people were saying it was a bomb, other saying it was a plane, others were saying there were helicopters trying to get people off the tops of the buildings. Everyone was in a calm state of panic, some little girl lost her shoe and her mother. I talked to her until her mother came along and found her. There were people of the waterfront trying to get their employees together, some were not having any luck. We stood and watched as people choose to jump to their deaths. How BAD was it, that the better of your choices was to jump out of the building instead of staying in..? We stood there in shock and in fear with a feeling of helplessness. I got on the ferry towards Hoboken and was on the ferry when the first one fell, I was in too much of a state of shock to turn around a look, but you could feel and hear it. I caught a train to Newark Broad street and then a Bus to Newark Penn, and they made us get on any train because they were evacuating the train station. I used someone's phone to make a call to a family memeber to let them know I was OK. We still didn't know what was giong on. I eventually made it to a train station and was picked up by my husband and spent the rest of the week watching too much news...

Yes - I think and hope that everyones life has changed since then. I appreciate life more, and think about life more. I respect America and the values and freedoms that we have, so I have changed for the better.

But I also have changed in what I notice in life. I can tell you when the sky is the same blue it was on Sept 11th. It hasn't been that color often since then, but I know that color and remember. I think war movies are a little too real for me to watch. And I think children should be children for as long as possible. I think of my life as before and after....

I no longer work in the city,,,,,

The heros that worked, both the ones that lived and died. The victims and their innocence and lack of choice in what happened.
The way America pulled together. The way we all were affected.

Yes, I had flags on my car. And yes, I never understood the honor and pride you could take in a symbol. I understand that the Flag is a symbol and I now believe that I have experienced what that Flag means and I appreciate it, and believe that we should all honor the flag. By honoring the flag, we help to rememeber and respect those who protect it. The flag is our freedom and our freedom is what makes us Americans.