***This is a repost from many years ago. I had considered retiring it this year, but I always get notes from friends thanking me for this. BTW - I still carry that Hale and Hearty Soup frequent buyer card. Weird huh?***
I thought my post from the other day would be enough for me, but with my kids asking questions while we are watching the football game I feel like making a post. Instead of the normal paragraph form, I'm just going to list out random thoughts that I'm having...
- No I never worked in the WTC and in fact the first time I even ventured into the Path Station was probably in the mid-90s
- No I didn't know anyone that was there that day
- When I joined CSFBdirect and had my office "downsized" I chose a cube by the window because at least when my AT&T friends called me I could say I had the greatest view in the world
- WTC became my beacon when I finally came out of the covered roadway after being stuck in traffic on my way to the Holland Tunnel
- I absolutely loved heading over to WTC during lunch to browse the Border's Book Store
- For some reason, I still carry a Hale and Hearty Soup frequent buyer card in my wallet, punched last on 9/7 at the kiosk that used to be in f
ront of the Path - I was supposed to have a meeting the morning of 9/11 in AOL's lower Manhattan offices that was canceled the day before - I still keep the copy of my calendar from that week
- We used to go for drinks in Moran's some times after work even though it had over priced drinks
- My last time through (9/7) I was in a hurry and didn't stop by the Warner Brother's Store to pick my son up a stuffed Bugs Bunny; 5 years later I don't let time get in the way any more
- My wife had a doctor's visit to determine whether she was pregnant (which she was); that still creeps me out when you hear about all of the people that didn't know they were pregnant that day and lost someone
- My last normal time in NYC was watching the ladies US Open Final between the Williams sisters on 9/9; I haven't watched tennis live since then
- It helped me to write down what little things changed that day so I could remember what it was like before 9/11
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
P.S. 2010 update. I think a lot of folks have wiped from their memory how horrific these attacks were. So I added this photo from my own personal collection of pictures. As you can read above, I worked right across the river and a week after the attacks I was down at Ground Zero while everything was still burning; 9 years later I can still see the flames, the smoke and remember the smell
P.S. 2011 Check back tomorrow. I will add a link to more personal photos I took a few weeks after 9-11-01 when I walked around ground zero. It was still burning that day and a week later I came down with my only case of pneumonia.
P.S. 2013 Reading this again is very interesting after everything I've been through in 2013. I look back and think - wow this really was a different world
P.S. 2014 I reminded Kaela this morning. I was supposed to have a meeting in lower manahttan that morning but the meeting was canceled the day before because my CMO wanted me in Jersey City on 9-11 to review budgets and plans. I never believed I would have been trapped in one of the buildings, I either would have been turned around in the path station or stranded in NYC. Still a little scary.
