Memories of the World Trade Center
Click here for a firsthand account of September 11, 2005. (Please note - there may be some graphic content that is hard to read.)
I loved working in the World Trade Center. I felt at home. For months after it was gone, my heart was still there. I would say, "I need to go to the bank tomorrow - I'll just go downstairs and...oh."
Here are some of the good memories.
Evenings after work at the Marina and Eddie Moran's.
The bus ride.
An express bus used to go from the Upper East Side to the World Trade Center. (It still goes there, but I don't ride it any more, since I work in midtown.) It was a little community on wheels. The drivers said "Good morning," and "Have a good day" - and meant it. We knew most of the drivers, and sometimes each other, by name. The bus was comfortable (most of the time) and the atmosphere relaxed.
In the winter, it was dark after work. The bus went up the FDR drive, and the lights of the city were beautiful.
I'd just started learning tai ch'i, and every Thursday morning I took the subway instead of the bus, so I could take my morning class at the Y. So, in the summer, I watched people doing tai ch'i in the parks in Chinatown. (They did it in the winter, too, of course.)
The Orchid Show at the Financial Center.
The first orchid show I saw was in the World Financial Center, spilling over into the bridge across to the World Trade Center. It was the spring of 2001 - my first (and only) spring in the World Trade Center.
I'd never been interested in orchids before, but this just blew me away! A riot of color and shape - everything from tiny green and white ???? to splashes of pink and yellow 5 or 6 inches across. I came back from lunch that day drunk on color. I didn't take photos then, though, so I'm including some I took this year in the show at Rockefeller Center, just so you get an idea of what I saw.
My colleague in the office next door was growing orchids in a pot in his office. We watched it day after day, as a bud started to open up under the light. There was something very positive and optimistic about it. One of the little sadnesses afterwards was that the orchid, like everything else, was gone.
Peter Noone (Herman's Hermits), performing in the Plaza.
Click a thumbnail to see a larger version.
For more photos of 9/11 and the days that followed, click here.
To see or download full-size size versions of the photos below, click here.
|
||||
