Remembering September 11

It seems like it was only yesterday that I was crossing the 59th street bridge by foot. The scene looked like a movie where thousands of people were walking on both lanes and chaos was in the air.

My day started out normal, I got into work early and was getting ready for the day's work. My boss came in and says to me "Did you hear about a small plane hitting one of the World Trade Center towers?" I hadn't heard anything by that point so I was oblivious to what was transpiring. We walked out of the office we were in and headed towards the conference room where a small group of people were looking at the TV screens.

None of us thought we were under attack so my boss asked me to go to one of the other labels we worked in (J Records). As I walked from 45th street and Broadway towards 57th street and 5th I could see the smoke coming from downtown. The feeling was very strange but we still thought it was an accident of some sort.

Now that I'm in J Records more and more people are gathering in the conference room glued to the TV. The second plane had struck and now we were certain it was no accident. Everyone looked at each other with disbelief, and we all had a sense of fear. Perhaps it was fear of the unknown but nonetheless it was fear. We were told that we could go home and be with our relatives because this was now a national crisis.

Upon leaving the building I tried to use the subway to get home but soon found out that all the trains had stopped working. Amazingly enough as I'm heading down towards the subway platform I bump into a friend of mine who was with a couple of other people and she tells me, "The subway is out of service everywhere". We all get out of the subway and start walking home. We had no choice. My friend was gracious enough to let us stay with her for a few hours because all public transportation had ceased at that point.

After leaving her place I couldn't even get a cab to go home so I ended up walking all the way home. One of the memories that I have from that day that I have never been able to forget is the walk over the bridge. Seeing thousands of people without a clue as to what was happening sent shivers down my spine. It seemed like a mass exodus. After getting home my next concern was my immediate family. I wondered how they would all get home.

By night time we all sat around and continued to wonder in amazement as to how this could happen in New York City. We were all glad to be with each other and lamented the loss of life in one single day. We should never forget September 11 2001, but we should also move forward.


Where were you on that fateful day?