story694.xml

story694.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-05-31

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. "YOU NEVER APPRECIATE SOMETHING
UNTIL IT'S GONE". I HAVE LIVED IN READING, PA. AND VICINITY
FOR SOME TIME. HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR NEW YORK CITY, I PROBABLY
WOULD NOT BE HERE. ORIGINALLY FROM MICHIGAN, I FIRST SET
FOOT IN MANHATTAN ON JUNE 5, 1986. AND WHERE DO YOU SUPPOSE,
AS IT HAPPENS, THAT I CHOOSE TO SET FOOT IN THE CITY FOR THE
FIRST TIME?? YOU GUESSED IT. MY FIRST CONTACT WITH THE
STREETS OF MANHATTAN WAS MADE VIA THE HUDSON TUBES, (PATH),
AND THE TERMINAL AND CONCOURSES OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER!!!
AS I RECALL, I FIRST SET FOOT ONTO THE STREETS OF MANHATTAN
FROM THE NORTH SIDE OF THE CONCOURSE, ONTO VESEY STREET,
POSSIBLY BENEATH #5 WORLD TRADE. OF COURSE I COULD HARDLY
APPRECIATE THE TRADE CENTER, AS I WAS THERE PRIMARILY FOR
THOSE CRAZY STATUE OF LIBERTY EVENTS, "LIBERTY WEEKEND",
WHICH WAS A MONTH LATER. I DECIDED VERY QUICKLY THAT I
WANTED TO LIVE IN OR AT LEAST NEAR, NEW YORK CITY. AND SO IT
WAS THAT FROM 1986 TO 1993, I CONTINUED, ON AND OFF, TO KEEP
COMING BACK AND TRYING TO ESTABLISH MYSELF IN THE AREA. IT
JUST WOULDN'T WORK!!! SO I FINALLY REALIZED IN LATE '93 THAT
IT WAS FOOLISH AND DANGEROUS TO KEEP TRYING TO LIVE SO CLOSE
IN, AND WAS FORCED TO SETTLE FOR SOMETHING A FEW SHORT HOURS
AWAY. I WOUND UP HERE IN PENNSYLVANIA, AND THIS DIDN'T WORK
TOO WELL AT FIRST EITHER, SO I WAS AWAY FROM HERE FOR A TIME
AS WELL, BUT SINCE LATE '93 WHEN I FIRST ARRIVED HERE I HAVE
CONTINUED TO MAKE OCCASIONAL TRIPS BACK TO NYC. THE LAST
TIME I CAN REMEMBER BEING AT THE TWIN TOWERS WAS IN LATE
1997!!! SO AS FAR AS MEMORY TELLS ME, AND I MAY HAVE BEEN
THERE FOR SOME REASON MORE RECENTLY, BUT JUST CANNOT RECALL,
ALL MY EXPERIENCE AT THE WTC SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN BETWEEN JUNE
1986 AND LATE 1997. IN '86 AND '93, I WENT TO THE TOP, THE
OBSERVATION DECK. IN '86 FOR SURE, AND POSSIBLY IN '93, I
EVEN WENT TO THE ROOFTOP!!! BACK IN '87, I WAS ON ONE OF THE
TENANT FLOORS IN ONE OF THE TOWERS, MAYBE A FLOOR IN THE
40S. I HAVE USED THE PATH AND SUBWAY STATIONS THERE NUMEROUS
TIMES, AND HAVE PASSED THROUGH THE MALL AND CONCOURSES MANY
TIMES. I'VE BEEN IN THE LOBBY OF THE MARRIOT HOTEL (3 WTC),
AT LEAST ONCE, THANK GOD, AS I WAS THERE TO GET PAPERWORK ON
THAT HOTEL!!! THANK GOD I STILL HAVE THAT AND A FEW OTHER
OLD THINGS FROM THE TRADE CENTER!!! I AM NOW FRANTICALLY
TRYING TO PROCUR AS MANY WTC THINGS AS I CAN FIND,
ESPECIALLY PRE-DISASTER ITEMS!!! NOW I FIRST SET FOOT HERE
IN READING, PA. PROPER, IN APRIL OF 1994. I COULD NEVER HAVE
DREAMED THAT I WOULD WIND UP LIVING HERE LIKE THIS, AND I
CERTAINLY WOULDN'T HAVE IMAGINED THE HORRORS THAT HAVE
BEFALLEN SINCE LATE IN THE YEAR 2000!!! I HAVE BEEN BACK IN
READING ALMOST CONTINUOUS SINCE APRIL '97, BUT IN NOV. 2000,
MY OWN "9-11" BEGAN, AND IT LASTED EIGHT MONTHS, UNTIL MID-
JULY OF 2001. I'M STILL REELING FROM THAT NIGHTMARE!!! THEN
JUST TWO MONTHS LATER IN EARLY SEPTEMBER, THIS OTHER BULL
"HIT THE FAN" AND I'VE CONTINUED TO REEL EVEN LONGER AND
MORE!!! ON THAT MORNING OF SEPT. 11TH, I HAD JUST RETURNED
FROM SCAVENGING SOME STUFF FROM A BUILDING DOWNTOWN THAT WAS
BEING REDONE, AND HAD SWITCHED ON THE NEWS AS A MATTER OF
ROUTINE. IT WAS 9 A.M. ABC NEWS, PROBABLY DOUG LIMERICK, ON
WEEU RADIO. I WAS SITTING THERE WORKING ON THAT STUFF WITH
THE NEWS ON WHEN IT WAS ANNOUNCED THAT AN AIRCRAFT HAD JUST
HIT ONE OF THE TWIN TOWERS AT THE WTC!!! I STARTED GETTING
READY TO GO OUT AS FAST AS I COULD GET THINGS DONE, BUT A
CALLER TO THE A.M. TALK SHOW JUST SHORTLY AFTER THE NEWS WAS
OVER SAID THAT HE THOUGHT ANOTHER PLANE HAD HIT!!! I WENT
OUT AND ABOUT TRYING TO SPREAD THE NEWS TO THOSE I KNOW, AND
WAS WITH A CASEWORKER FROM A LOCAL AGENCY AT 10 A.M. WHEN
WITH MY RADIO ON I HEARD THE HORRIBLE NEWS OF THE FIRST
TOWER COLLAPSE!!!! OF COURSE IT WAS A SHORT TIME LATER THAT
NEWS OF THE SECOND TOWER COLLAPSE WAS HEARD!!! SO LIFE
CHANGED FOREVER FOR ME ON NOV. 13TH 2000, AND AGAIN ON SEPT.
11TH 2001!!! I FIRST WAS ABLE TO REACH GROUND ZERO ON SEPT.
23RD, AND HAVE MADE SOME OTHER TRIPS THERE, AND HOPEFULLY I
WILL CONTINUE TO GO. SINCE AT LEAST MID-DECEMBER, I HAVE
GONE BY THE NEW PHRASE, "TWIN TOWERS TURKEY"!!! SINCE EARLY
APRIL OF 2002, I HAVE ADDED "GROUND ZERO GOBBLER"!!!
HOPEFULLY, I WILL SOON HAVE SOME MORE WORLD TRADE CENTER
THINGS COLLECTED, AND THEN WILL GET THESE THINGS GATHERED
AND CONSOLIDATED, AND THEN I WILL, GOD PERMITTING, CREATE
MY OWN MEMORIAL TO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. KERMIT SIMON,
THE "TWIN TOWERS TURKEY" AND "GROUND ZERO GOBBLER".