9/11 Memorial

The first person I talked to waiting for the train into New York City was a retired nurse who worked for Blue Cross in One World Trade Center on the twentieth floor and was there on 9/11. Said she felt the tower move when the plane hit. Was in the stairway when the plane hit the other building. By the time she made it to the street there was debris falling everywhere. She started walking south towards Battery Park and saw the buildings fall. She hasn't been back since and had no wish too. It changed her and now says if she can survive that she's not afraid to die and can survive anything. She's a born and raised New Yorker and didn't take much before and now takes even less from anyone.

One of the first things I noticed on the subway was no two people looked the same. I only ended up in Brooklyn once.

Went to the 9/11 memorial site. The last time I was there around 2004 and it was a still a hole in the ground. Cleaned out. Parts of the sub floors exposed. Waiting for future plans.

The time before was October 2001. I was back in NY from Seattle for my 20th high school reunion. I stayed in the city a couple of nights and walked around ground zero. There was still dust everywhere and debris and a smoldering pile of wreckage where the towers used to stand. The smell of fires. Lower Manhattan was deserted around the site. Missing person posters everywhere. People going about their business as usual but New York was different. The view from the Empire State Building with the glow from the rescue lights and fires and smoke.

Growing up a 45 minute bus ride from the city we often had school field trips to visit the museums. In 1980 for my 11th grade physics class (only 5 of the 24 students in my grade took the class ) we went to the Twin Towers to do experiments. We were studying gravity and forces so brought scales with us and rode the elevators up and down a few times taking measurements testing the laws of physics. To my memories the towers where always there. The laws of Physics are still in force. Gravity wins.

9/11/2001 is one of those days everyone remembers what they where doing. I was on my way out the door to go downtown Seattle when someone called and said to turn the TV on. I watched the news and the second plane hitting. The caous and unknown events occurring. Live TV of what looked like people falling from the building. Disbelief.