story1260.xml

story1260.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

I'm an ex-NewYorker, living for the past two years in Ohio. On the morning of the 11th, I was on the internet, sending a note to a friend of mine in Manhattan. When I signed off, I noticed a small photo on the AOL sign-on screen that looked like a fire in one of the towers of the WTC, and even added a sentence to my note, asking my pal if he'd seen anything on TV? Then I went upstairs to the TV in my house, and cut on the network news, and soon found out that this was no small accident. I was transfixed, and for the next hour or so, stayed glued to the set. Like someone else who wrote to you, I was watching Dan Rather when the first tower went down, and he kept talking, oblivious. I found myself yelling,"Dan--the South Tower just fell--the tower fell!!" I quickly switched to Peter Jennings who knew already.
I couldn't stay still, and walked outside. We live on a golf course, and I asked the women playing if they'd heard the awful news. They replied, "we heard, but we can't stop now. How bad is it?" I told them it was awful, and went back inside. I felt a powerful pull to get back to New York.
I soon realized that people who were not from the City were having a hard time understanding the impact of this terrible day. Another friend from Ohio called to see if they'd have to cancel a college football game we'd planned to go see that next weekend. While he was upset that they might cancel, I couldn't conceive of two teams playing after all that had happened--and it was in fact cancelled, as were hundreds of others.
The day was a beautiful Fall day in Ohio as well as New York, very quiet, and provided a confusing backdrop to tragedy. My wife came home later, and we stayed close to the TV for the rest of the day. Of all the network anchors, I felt Peter Jennings of ABC was by far the most concise journalist and the best news manager.