Remembering 9-11
Last night, at a party, several of us sat around and remembered where we were on 9-11 and how we first heard the news. At that time, I was living in Atlanta and not New York and only had a visitor's perception of the city. I was in my car, driving to work, and I turned on a popular rock radio station and I heard them narrating the events. I thought it was a joke. After several minutes of listening and never getting to a joke, I called my mom, and told her to turn on the TV right now. I told her that something important was happening, but I wasn't sure what it was. When I got to work, everyone was very quiet. No one knew for sure if it was real. Then we hooked up the TV and watched. Thoughts turned to friends---were they in upper Manhattan or lower Manhattan, where did Brooklyn friends work in the city? Emails, phone calls, nothing made us feel better, but it made us feel like we were trying. A month later, I took a trip to New York with two friends and we got as close as we could to the site. The air still smelt burnt. We were the only people around besides the cops. Even to a visitor, the silence was eerie.
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I remember that smell. It persisted for months.
My last real memory of the twin towers was a roof party in Williamsburg the previous Saturday. I'll never forget that. I actually DJ'd the previous roof party and remember how magical the skyline was as the sun set and people were showing up and I was playing records.
So the 11th...
I remember going to the subway in Brooklyn (Pacific St station at the time) and I couldn't hear the announcements because of my headphones (probably why I don't listen to music while out and about any more) so I didn't hear about disrupted subway service. Nothing seemed amiss in the streets, everything seemed normal.
Coming across the Manhattan Bridge I then saw the burning buildings and EVERYONE in the train ran to the windows. I actually stayed on the opposite side and wondered silently what was going on. I just saw smoke (I couldn't see the holes in the building or the other tower due to the angle) so I just thought it was a bad fire that got out of control and honestly didn't think much of it. I stopped for my breakfast and walked to work like every other day.
When I got to work and got online I realized what I had just seen. The next few hours were surreal as the towers fell and looking out on Broadway and seeing the sea of people walking uptown. I don't remember seeing anyone covered in that white dust though.
My girlfriend (now wife) had JUST started a job in Hell's Kitchen the day before so I had no idea how to get in touch with her. So I did the stupidest thing possible (as I am usually wont to do) and walked from the Village up to the West 40's to see if I could "find" her building. LOL Of course I wasn't successful, got back to my office, most everyone had left so I started off for home as well. I finally heard a subway underfoot and walked to the nearest station and went home. I was out the next couple of days just glued to the TV at home.
Oddly enough, I was on the flyer to play Vinyl at the end of September. That never happened, obviously. When Vinyl opened back up the first party was unreal. It was a major fundraiser for the Firemen, many of which showed up. It was one of those nights. Danny eventually had me open in early 2002 to make up for that September slot that didn't happen.
Actually I must have seen both towers as I just checked and at that angle I would have seen both given how they were situated... I thought I went to work late that day but I guess the 2nd plane hadn't hit the towers by then which is why i would have only seen one tower smoking.
Great Keith Olbermann clip here
I've been passing that to all of my friends today.
Keith Olberman is quickly becoming one of my favorite commentators... I'm glad he's stepping up, speaking out and not dumbing things down.