Monday, September 13, 2010

A Day We'll Always Remember

These days I almost never watch TV, don’t know why…not enough time, not much I want to see, my eyesight makes it so that it’s harder to see…but for some strange reason on this Saturday morning (forgetting that it was September 11th), I turned on the TV at 9A, only to see that it was the beginning of the September 11th Memorial…the reading of all those names, I turned on the TV just before they rang the bell to signify the crashing of the second plane into the World Trade Center at 9:03A, the plane that made us all know that it was no accident that the first plane had crashed, and that that day would never be like any other day. I remember that on that day I was sitting on an American Airlines flight that was supposed to take off at 8:45A to Los Angeles, when it was delayed for take off because the two gentlemen seated in front of me needed to get off immediately, and because no one can leave a plane without claiming their baggage, the plane was delayed. I later found out that those two gentlemen where reporters and that they had already heard about the crashing of the first plane into the Trade Center…so we sat. While we sat, the flight attendants on the plane I was on, started to receive upsettling phone calls from their friends about people that they knew, who had been on the plane that had already crashed. I decided to call my husband (he worked across the street from the Trade Center), and even though I was pretty sure he hadn’t left for work yet, I was thinking he probably shouldn’t. When I reached him, he turned on the TV, and for the first time he saw what was happening…that was about 8:55A. I sat on that plane waiting to take off...and then the Captain of the plane made an announcement informing us all about what was going on in the world, that an American Airlines plane had crashed into one of the Trade Towers just around the time we were supposed to have taken off, and that another one had just crashed into the Second Tower, all flight transportation had been canceled and that they were releasing us from the plane. As I walked through JFK, I heard through the hysteria in the airport about the third plane crashing, and I began thinking I might have to raid the vending machines because I would have to spend the night at JFK Airport, at the same time I was wondering if this could perhaps be the World’s Last Day. I made my way through the crowds, went outside and found a Transportation Cop and asked if there was any transportation out to Long Island. He said that there usually was a bus every half hour, but he hadn’t seen any in a couple of hours, and then he said “But wait, you’re in luck, their it is, that’s it, it will take you to Roosevelt Field Mall”. I jumped onto that bus, there were three other people on it; we drove very slowly through the crowds, street traffic, and panic. It took us over two hours to get to the Mall, when it would usually take a half hour. I was on the cell phone with my sister (which also was amazing because service was not easy to get), when she told me the first Trade Center had collapsed. My husband was able to pick me up at the Mall; he did not go into work that day...you were lucky if you didn't have to go anywhere that day. I got home around 1P; I got to see my family on that day. I lived to see another day. I’ll never forget that day. We should never forget that day.

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