remember on your blog 9/11 twin towers.................
"carp diem"
Yes, I remember that day. April and I were in London for the summer. My mum called upstairs, said she heard something on the radio about an accident with a plane into the twin towers. I turned on the TV, just as the second plane hit. My heart raced. This is no accident, I remember thinking. You don't accidentally fly into a massive building in the middle of NYC.
My Dad was napping at the time. You NEVER, EVER wake my Dad up from his sleep, he is a miserable old git (he would tell you that himself). But, I was waking him up for this.
The first words that came out of his mouth when I told him were "This is WAR". How right he was. I won't go into the fact about how it all go screwed up and turned into a war for other reasons (did I just say that? Opppsss, sorry) but you get my drift.
I took this photo in '93 or '94 from the top of the Empire State. Excuse the quality, this is a photo of a photo in a glass frame. I remember developing it in the darkroom and being really pleased with how it turned out (no instant digital gratification then). I loved how the towers rose up in the smogginess of the city...
The weeks following 9/11 were very strange. There was a sort of collective depression going around London and the world I am sure. I remember crying a lot. It was too close, too real, too horrible. It's funny how we filter stuff out in the news. This effected me, us, the western culture. Every day there is devastation in the world and often we will skim through it. 'Wow, 2,000 died in a landslide. Oh, but that was in India, etc.' Move on. It's sad, but you have the relevance filter. You can't take on everything.About a month after 9/11 I flew back from London to LAX. I have to say I was petrified. I had April (who was 18mths at the time) and I really did not want to fly. But we flew. We flew despite the fact that there was a London Daily Mail newspaper sitting on the seat in the waiting area with some blazing headline about more terrorism to come.
I was so paranoid. There was a man, tall, skinny, of East African looking descent. He had on a hideous grey shiny nylon suit. He sat opposite me and he kept playing with his socks. Every time the plane got held up he would get on his cell phone (like his was calling the other 'sleeper' to say 'don't set off the bomb yet, the plane has been delayed). Talk about stereotyping. Please forgive me. It was scary times.
We left back to London again 3 months later (My Mum actually came out for a week and then flew back with us to help me. What a Mum). I was 3 months pregnant with Loubie and Albert was sent to Iraq.
One of Albert's fellow Marines drew this for him. This guy can draw.
He knew Al was from NYC. He knew Al's best friend had just graduated from Fire Fighter training and his first assignment was the call to the Twin Towers. Al's friend, David, recovered ALOT of bodies. Imagine that for your first day on the job. David sent us all t.shirts that we usually wear on this day "FDNY". The kids are long grown out of theirs and ours are lost in transitions. But we will always remember. Who could forget?
2 comments:
I can't believe it has been seven years. My sister has been to NYC many times (to the WTC) before the attacks and a couple since. She said it is just so empty now. I remember while America was grieving how much nicer people were, it changed us. I am still in awe of the Oklahoma City bombing, 9/11, tsunami, war in general....it is hard to deal with. I wish there was such a thing as world peace.....even with mother nature.
I will never forget. I was living on 10th street off 6th Avenue, in a little studio. My mom called, this was before voicemail, and I could hear the answering machine if I didn't pick it up...she called right after the first one, and screetched me into picking up the phone, (I think it was 9am?) and I did, and then turned on my little TV to watch plane #2 hit tower #2 live, on tv, then a tad later crawl outside to get water and food from nearby grocery store, in case more things happened and I'd be holed up for a while. What happened, was Marshall Law, and throngs of downtown workers walking up 6th avenue to their homes or trains in mid-town, or rides, or just to get out of downtown, which by the afternoon was only walk-out-of-able. Every 4th person was broke-down-crying as they were walking. I spent the night that night with a friend and her husband, and another girlfriend, at their place in the E. 50's... we walked there, from downtown and midtown. We comforted each other, ate various junky foods, and lived in comforters for 6-10 hours, before picking up the day next day to see what was what. What was what, was missing firemen, a stricken city, and general shock and anger. But New Yorkers, so, realistically encountering what was what, as it came.
Sorry, had to respond to this. Hope all that lost loved ones find peace today, even in the midst of sadness and remembrance.
Miriam
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