It is the eleventh anniversary of the World Trade Center being destroyed. What makes it more important then any of but the first is my daughters were required to write about it and Nastia asked me questions. It is interesting how it still brings me close to tears and for the girls it is history. In 2001 Nastia was coming up on her third birthday and Elena was just past one. And both were in Obluchya in the Jewish Autonomous region of Russia, with a mother who was not cooping too well, I guess.
My memories begin around eight-thirty on the eleventh. I had just left the Rockleigh golf course on Paris Ave, The radio reported that a plane of undetermined size had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. I thought about the story I read about the plane that hit the Empire State building and thought it was another idiot. I called Teri and made comments along that line. I continued toward Rockland to an unremembered next stop.
I think Teri calls me a little while later and says a second plane has hit the World Trade Center. I tell her it sounds like terrorists now. We talk some more and speculate about the size of the planes and Teri says the Towers are still burning.
I head to my Mothers house and turn on the TV to get a look at what is going on. The TV is showing continuous pictures of the fires. I could not believe how much smoke was coming from the buildings. I meant only to stay a few minutes, but I spent the rest of the day there. I was in front of the TV when the Pentagon was hit and when the South Tower came down the talking heads missed it and I'm yelling at the TV "Somethings happening, somethings happening!" I think they must of heard me because they noticed the building was no longer there and someone asked what happened to it.
When the second one went they took the time to notice.
The rest of the day is a fog. My next memory of any sort is almost a week later, 9-11 was on a Tuesday, like this year, I took my boat out with my friend on Saturday in the Long Island Sound and we could still see the smoke coming from the Towers.
When the fire finally went out and some predicted that it might burn months, they put up two spot lights where the Towers were and Teri and I drove down the Jersey coast and got in a line of car to drive by the nearest point to the site. We weren't the only ones with the thought.
Sometime the next Spring I took my boat down the Hudson to go fishing and we got up close and it was this big hole in the skyline. This huge hole it was just so wrong.
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It's interesting that every generation seems to have a monumental event in their lifetime that has left an impression on them. Each generation has a story tell their children on where they were and how they recall the events that are now part of history. 911 is ours.
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