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Five years ago...
Sep. 11th, 2006 05:05 pmIt was a Tuesday morning in September. The sky was clear, much like it is today in New York. I had just started my senior year in the business school at NYU and I never would have guessed what terrible things I would see before the day was over.
At the time, my sister was going to Borough of Manhattan Community College, just several blocks north of the World Trade Center. And it was my father’s usual practice to drive into the city in the morning, dropping the two of us off at our schools before he went to work. Our route normally took us up West Street, right next to the Twin Towers, but not that day.
Traffic was slow going through the Battery Tunnel and once we got out at the Manhattan end, the radio came back on and the DJ announced that a plane had hit one of the towers. We then looked up and found that it was true; fire and smoke were pouring from a hole in one the towers and debris that looked like bits of paper was falling from the building. Traffic was clogged so we were stuck within blocks of the WTC while more of the tragedy unfolded. We had been sitting there for a while when I heard a crash and looked up to find the second tower was burning, too.
When traffic finally started moving again, we went up the FDR Drive and I got my last look at the towers as they burned. Maybe, we hadn’t realized how bad it was going to get or it hadn’t sunk in yet because we actually tried to continue somewhat normally that morning. My father dropped me off at NYU and then took my sister with him to work since it was out of the question for her to go to school. I did go to my marketing class that morning and then sat in the computer lab, typing an e-mail about what happened to my needlework friends. I can’t recall going to any other classes that day though so I suppose they must have been cancelled by then.
Later on, I walked down Broadway to Canal Street where my father and sister were since the subways were shut down. They hadn’t closed the store but of course, there wasn’t really any business with what was happening further downtown. We stayed there until the usual closing time, watching news reports, before attempting to make our way home. Since the downtown bridges and tunnels were shut down to traffic, we ended up driving to midtown and going through Queens to get back to Brooklyn.
It was a scary day, especially when I think about how often we were in that area. I had gone to high school at Stuyvesant, just blocks away, and still traveled past all the time on the way to NYU. And my sister had some of her classes in a building that was hit by falling debris in the collapse so I’m glad we didn’t have earlier classes that semester or leave the house a bit earlier since my parents were always worried about us being late to class.
A few weeks after, my father and I took a weekend trip to Pennsylvania for the Creative Arts and Textiles Show. My mother didn’t want us to go but I’d made those plans long before and didn’t want to miss it. In the dealers’ area, I found that many designers had created small 9/11 tribute patterns to be given away for free. The one that I liked best and actually stitched was a red, white and blue ribbon, designed by Terrence Nolan of Dimples Designs/Pangaea.
Although I certainly can’t forget the day itself, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I had forgotten about this piece of stitchery until I was trying to fall asleep last night. I wasn’t sure what to do with it after I finished so it had just sat on my desk with many other stitched bits until I dug it out this morning. I gave it a bit of ironing and it seems like a suitable image to add to this post.
At the time, my sister was going to Borough of Manhattan Community College, just several blocks north of the World Trade Center. And it was my father’s usual practice to drive into the city in the morning, dropping the two of us off at our schools before he went to work. Our route normally took us up West Street, right next to the Twin Towers, but not that day.
Traffic was slow going through the Battery Tunnel and once we got out at the Manhattan end, the radio came back on and the DJ announced that a plane had hit one of the towers. We then looked up and found that it was true; fire and smoke were pouring from a hole in one the towers and debris that looked like bits of paper was falling from the building. Traffic was clogged so we were stuck within blocks of the WTC while more of the tragedy unfolded. We had been sitting there for a while when I heard a crash and looked up to find the second tower was burning, too.
When traffic finally started moving again, we went up the FDR Drive and I got my last look at the towers as they burned. Maybe, we hadn’t realized how bad it was going to get or it hadn’t sunk in yet because we actually tried to continue somewhat normally that morning. My father dropped me off at NYU and then took my sister with him to work since it was out of the question for her to go to school. I did go to my marketing class that morning and then sat in the computer lab, typing an e-mail about what happened to my needlework friends. I can’t recall going to any other classes that day though so I suppose they must have been cancelled by then.
Later on, I walked down Broadway to Canal Street where my father and sister were since the subways were shut down. They hadn’t closed the store but of course, there wasn’t really any business with what was happening further downtown. We stayed there until the usual closing time, watching news reports, before attempting to make our way home. Since the downtown bridges and tunnels were shut down to traffic, we ended up driving to midtown and going through Queens to get back to Brooklyn.
It was a scary day, especially when I think about how often we were in that area. I had gone to high school at Stuyvesant, just blocks away, and still traveled past all the time on the way to NYU. And my sister had some of her classes in a building that was hit by falling debris in the collapse so I’m glad we didn’t have earlier classes that semester or leave the house a bit earlier since my parents were always worried about us being late to class.
A few weeks after, my father and I took a weekend trip to Pennsylvania for the Creative Arts and Textiles Show. My mother didn’t want us to go but I’d made those plans long before and didn’t want to miss it. In the dealers’ area, I found that many designers had created small 9/11 tribute patterns to be given away for free. The one that I liked best and actually stitched was a red, white and blue ribbon, designed by Terrence Nolan of Dimples Designs/Pangaea.
Although I certainly can’t forget the day itself, I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I had forgotten about this piece of stitchery until I was trying to fall asleep last night. I wasn’t sure what to do with it after I finished so it had just sat on my desk with many other stitched bits until I dug it out this morning. I gave it a bit of ironing and it seems like a suitable image to add to this post.
