09-11-2008, 09:22 PM
hotzester Wrote:I was awakened by the constant ringing of my phone. I remember thinking it was a telemarketer. I thought, "Wow, this guy is incessant!" When I heard my mom on the answering machine saying a plane had hit the first tower, I woke up quite quickly. I thought about the B-25 that had crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945, and how sad it was another accident had occurred.
By the time I turned TV on, the second plane had hit.
I'd been in Manhattan less than two weeks prior, for a job interview. I was dating someone in the airline industry at the time, and she'd flown up to the city so I could show her around, since she'd never been there. (She lived in DC.) I asked if she wanted to go to the Trade Center roof, because the view from up there was incredible, and she said "Nah, we'll go next time. It's not going anywhere."
9/11 really hit home for me. I lived about 2 1/2 hours away from Ground Zero. I'd worked for quite some time for a major airline. I've been to and through the WTC a million times. I was also a firefighter for a few years. 9/11 took so many of the things I'd spent time doing, and devastated them.
Oddly, the girl I was dating was the daughter of someone in the Washington political scene. (No one anyone would know!) Friday the 14th, there was going to be a dinner at the White House that she'd asked me to go with her to. I knew right away that it was off the table when all hell broke loose.
I spent the next few days terrified - but wondering if it would make any sense to go down there and try to help. Right about the time I realized I couldn't just sit there anymore, my best friend called and said, "Are you thinking what I am?" So we went to NYC, and we were asked to go to St. Vincent's Medical Center and hand out relief supplies to rescue workers. It was an experience I'll never forget.
It's cliche to say it was "the day everything changed." But for me, it really was.
This may be the best post I've ever read. You are a good man, zester.