Looking Back

It doesn't seem as if four years have passed since the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.

I was at work when it happened, and got the news of the first attack when I went on my first break at 9:15. One of the guys who sat at my table came in and told us that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, that it was a deliberate attack. At first, I didn't believe him, as he was given to exaggeration. I remembered hearing about a plane that had crashed into the Empire State Building in heavy fog during World War II, and reasoned that this had been a similar kind of accident.

Not overly concerned, I returned to work fifteen minutes later. But as the morning wore on, people in the plant were getting bits of information funneled in from the guys in the warehouse, who were listening to reports on the radio.

When I heard of the second plane hitting the other tower, I realized then that it hadn't been an accident, and that it had to have been terrorists from the Middle East.

I finally realized the full magnitude when I heard that the towers had collapsed. I'd visited the World Trade Center in 1976 and had seen the view from its roof. I knew from having seen and been inside one of the towers just how large they were and that it had to be a very carefully planned strike in order to make the buildings collapse as they did. I was amazed that the collapse didn't bring down other nearby buildings with them.

The twin towers had dominated the New York skyline since my early teen years, easily visible fifty miles out on the Jersey Turnpike. I could only imagine what drivers on the Turnpike witnessed and felt as the buildings came down.

As more detailed reports came in, telling us of attacks in Washington and Pennsylvania, I kept expecting the plant management to send us all home. I remembered when my father was sent home from work and my sister from school when John F Kennedy was assassinated, and fully expected the same thing to happen in response to this tragedy.

Not only did they not send us home, there was never any official announcement from them telling us what had happened. If the men in the warehouse had not had a radio, none of us would have known of it until 5:30 that afternoon. Then, as now, their only concern was making money, no matter what. It could have been the second coming of Jesus Christ, but they'd have had us there busily meeting our shipment quotas.

Where were you and what were you doing on September 11, 2001?