Firefighters, police and first responders across Greater Lafayette joined mayors and an early morning crowd at the Tippecanoe County Fairgrounds Coliseum Friday to honor those who lost their lives in the Sept.
I was working at Warren Paper at the time. I remember my wife calling to tell me there had been a plane crash in NYC, and then a second plane hit. We found a TV in our conference room. It was on a cart, like the ones we had in school. We turned on the coverage. The conference room looked out over South and Earl Streets.
I remember the gas station on the opposite corner getting progressively busier during the day with cars lining up for gas. I even remember the price going up.
The internet was pretty new and I remember refreshing the NYTimes website and it literally not loading, I suppose from so many others trying to access it and maybe lines being down in NYC.
We had four or five employees in NYC that day on business. No one knew where they were. There were no cell phones. As I recall, one of them had rented a car to visit a client in the suburbs, while the others were in the city for meetings. At some point, they realized they needed to find a way out of Manhattan and meet up with the coworker who had the car. They walked across the bridge the next day, I think. They somehow managed to find each other. They ended up driving all the way back to Lafayette.
Another thing I remember is the next few days, not seeing or hearing any airplanes in the sky. No contrails. That was such an unusual thing to notice, but I remember it clearly.
We did our best during those days to shield our young kids from the TV coverage, while stealing every chance we could to watch it ourselves.
Such a surreal time. It still feels strange to realize it was 25 years ago.
I was in NYC that day staying with my brother, a Physician Associate who cares for the Manhattan's homeless.
On that morning his medical van was on the Eastside/Alphabet City. His driver yelled to Dave about seeing the first plane, he stepped outside to see the second crash.
They wrapped up and drove to the remains of the Twin Towers.
One of the issues for the media was that many antennas were on the towers' roofs. Likewise, for cell phone antennas.
I was scheduled for a business meeting in Manhattan, which was obviously canceled.
That said, my sister-in-law, Cathy, and I couldn't connect to him.
Finally, at 5:00 PM Cathy received a landline call from Dave at ground zero. He explained his day and said he would be home in a few hours.
When he returned there was a strange look on his clothes --- a light dusting from destroyed wallboard covered his clothes.
A side story: during Dave's years with the homeless, he became close with two Franciscan priests at their homeless mission near Madison Square Garden.
Fathers Mychal Judge and Christopher Keenan were also FDNY Chaplins (can it get any cornier?? Irish-American priests and a fire department).
Unfortunately, Mychal was considered Victim #0001, killed by falling debris in the lobby of a tower.
[When I visited the Memorial site, and walked by the memorial pools, the first name I saw was Fr. Mych's name.]
Within days, Fr. Chris was elevated to Head Chaplin, retiring only recently to a Friary in New Jersey.
Perhaps, with the scenes he saw and losing a close friend may be the reason Dave has never been to the memorial Ground Zero memorial site.
We spoke on Friday...and he still has not returned.
"Come From Away" is another reminder of how lucky we are to have Canada as our neighbour.
It is hard to believe it has been 25 years.
I was working at Warren Paper at the time. I remember my wife calling to tell me there had been a plane crash in NYC, and then a second plane hit. We found a TV in our conference room. It was on a cart, like the ones we had in school. We turned on the coverage. The conference room looked out over South and Earl Streets.
I remember the gas station on the opposite corner getting progressively busier during the day with cars lining up for gas. I even remember the price going up.
The internet was pretty new and I remember refreshing the NYTimes website and it literally not loading, I suppose from so many others trying to access it and maybe lines being down in NYC.
We had four or five employees in NYC that day on business. No one knew where they were. There were no cell phones. As I recall, one of them had rented a car to visit a client in the suburbs, while the others were in the city for meetings. At some point, they realized they needed to find a way out of Manhattan and meet up with the coworker who had the car. They walked across the bridge the next day, I think. They somehow managed to find each other. They ended up driving all the way back to Lafayette.
Another thing I remember is the next few days, not seeing or hearing any airplanes in the sky. No contrails. That was such an unusual thing to notice, but I remember it clearly.
We did our best during those days to shield our young kids from the TV coverage, while stealing every chance we could to watch it ourselves.
Such a surreal time. It still feels strange to realize it was 25 years ago.
Thanks for the report on the 911 remembrance in Lafayette. Does anyone know why people are driving through the fairgrounds. people in white shirts...?
Dave,
As always, your work hit it out of the park.
I was in NYC that day staying with my brother, a Physician Associate who cares for the Manhattan's homeless.
On that morning his medical van was on the Eastside/Alphabet City. His driver yelled to Dave about seeing the first plane, he stepped outside to see the second crash.
They wrapped up and drove to the remains of the Twin Towers.
One of the issues for the media was that many antennas were on the towers' roofs. Likewise, for cell phone antennas.
I was scheduled for a business meeting in Manhattan, which was obviously canceled.
That said, my sister-in-law, Cathy, and I couldn't connect to him.
Finally, at 5:00 PM Cathy received a landline call from Dave at ground zero. He explained his day and said he would be home in a few hours.
When he returned there was a strange look on his clothes --- a light dusting from destroyed wallboard covered his clothes.
A side story: during Dave's years with the homeless, he became close with two Franciscan priests at their homeless mission near Madison Square Garden.
Fathers Mychal Judge and Christopher Keenan were also FDNY Chaplins (can it get any cornier?? Irish-American priests and a fire department).
Unfortunately, Mychal was considered Victim #0001, killed by falling debris in the lobby of a tower.
[When I visited the Memorial site, and walked by the memorial pools, the first name I saw was Fr. Mych's name.]
Within days, Fr. Chris was elevated to Head Chaplin, retiring only recently to a Friary in New Jersey.
Perhaps, with the scenes he saw and losing a close friend may be the reason Dave has never been to the memorial Ground Zero memorial site.
We spoke on Friday...and he still has not returned.