Reply #6: There are so many images of that day that immediately come to mind [View All]

[karynnj]

Two of my kids were home with bad viruses. My other daughter had switched that year from the public middle school to a local private school. She was dropped off by my husband who then drove to work in a NJ town across the river from NY.

I had a car appointment and decided to keep it, because the two kids would likely not wake up until I got home. It was an extremely clear absolutely gorgeous day with the bluest sky imaginable. After about an hour, my car was ready and I left. Switching on the radio, I started to drive the 15 minutes home. The initial report was very matter of fact and it really seemed like it might be a disaster, but a very small one. As I neared the driveway, they reported on the second plane - and it was obvious it was terrorism, but the radio didn't say so.

I went to my room and closed the door (so I didn't wake up the girls) and put the TV on. Irrationally, I called my husband to make sure he was in NJ - his company is headquartered in NYC, but in midtown. Some people in his company had a view of the towers and while they were looking at the fire, many saw the second plane hit. My husband was lucky not to have. The company opted to close early.

Watching TV, the whole situation seemed unreal. I had worked in one of the small WTC buildings in 1975-1976, while a NJ corporate headquarters was being built. I had not thought of the building for decades, but suddenly I could see in my mind the PATH (NJ-NY rapid transit) terminal in the basement of the WTC that I used each morning and the jumble of stores and food places I passed on the ground level walking to 5 World Trade Center with such clarity I could have drawn an accurate diagram down to the place where I would get a coffee and danish to take up to my office. The horror of people following the normal routine of their work day suddenly being thrown into a war zone was beyond comprehension. (The death toll would have been much higher if it were a half hour later, because a large % of people started work at 9)

My daughter called from school, using another kid's cell phone, just wanting to check that everyone was ok. The school usually banned cell phones during the school day - but they encouraged people to share theirs. Many kids had parents who worked in the city and some couldn't be reached - they all ended up being safe - but many kids were terrified. My daughter's English teacher took the class to the arboretum adjacent to the school and sat with the class as they talked about their feelings. (The school had made the decision to stay open but let anyone leave, because they could provide a secure, caring place and some kids would be returning to empty houses.)

The elemantary and middle schools in our town used the emergency information cards to call parents (or the alternative contact if they couldn't reach a parent) before any of the buses left. The kids whose parents couldn't be reached were kept at school until someone could pick them up -several teachers stayed with them. One of the kids in my youngest daughter's grade lost her dad. (there were 4 people from my town who died - but I knew none of them. I had met the wife of the one whose son was in my daughter's grade, because we had both volunteered to help on the same science project for the then 5th graders.)

The oddest thing was driving around on an equisitely beautiful day where every thing looked the same as it did the day before - except for one thing. On the main road out of the area I live in going towards the east (Morristown), when you approached the crest of the hill, you could see the towers way in the distance on a clear day. I saw them that morning, afterwards I tried not to look because the nothingness hurt.