Today there will not be one of my “This Day In Mets Infamy” columns. Honestly I really don’t even feel that I personally should be writing anything today.
You see today is a day of remembrance and reflection, and for me to put up one of my column that generally ends with a good nature jab at Mo Vaughn would be callous at best.
I consider myself “lucky” that I didn’t have any friends or family that perished among the more than three thousand civilians this day 10 years ago.
I remember the day as if it was only yesterday. I had a scheduled day off of work at my the job selling cars in Northern New Jersey. I was watching ” Good Day New York” When reporter, Dick Oliver broke into a report that a explosion had rocked one of the towers of the World Trade Center. No one at that time knew that this was going to turn into one of the worst attacks ever on American soil.
At frist reports were conflicting. Was it a a gas explosion ? Was it a bomb ? The the reports that a plane crashed into the tower starting flooding in. Channel 5 went off the air – as did many of the channels in my not wired for cable apartment . I was able to get channel 4 just in time to see the second jet hit . I was shocked, I felt a sick sense of surrealism, like my eyes were playing tricks on me.
I immediately called my girlfriend who worked as a pharmacist at what was then known as Victory Memorial Hospital to tell her what had happened.
I raced over there so that I could first of all volunteer my services should either survivors or emergency cases were needed.
As soon as I parked my cars on the Seventh Avenue side, right next to the golf course, I proceeded to scream at the people who were non-chalantly playing their 18 holes. I yelled ” YOU BASTARDS !!! HOW COULD YOU PLAY GOLF WHEN THOUSANDS HAVE JUST DIED !!” Looking back I was irrational because these men more than likely didn’t know of the attacks.
As soon as I got there I was told to stay in the hospital’s pharmacy until I was needed…. But with the exception of a few people who were suffering from respiratory distress from the ash, there was nothing.
I later donated blood because I knew if there were survivors the blood supply would be taxed.
I believe my then girlfriend and I stayed until about 5 or 6 o’clock when we were told that we might as well go home. I stayed with my girlfriend that evening , and never spent another night in my mother’s apartment. My girlfriend and I decided that life was to short, and we decided that we were never going to spend another night apart – intentionally. Ten months later we were married.
Today is a day to remember the men and women of the N.Y.P.D, F.D.N.Y, P.A.P.D, O.E.M as well as the thousands of civilians that died that day. I feel for their families, I grieve every time I see a memoriam in the paper, I get angry when I see all the our government trying to short change those first responders that are suffering from the fall out of this attack 10 years on.
I just wish 9/11/01 never happened at all.
3 comments
MetsFan4Decades
9/11/2011-2:51pm at 2:51 pm (UTC -4)
This generation found out the hard way what those Americans back in 1941 had chronicled for those that came after. The shock, outrage and grief we all experienced as a result of a direct attack on our own shores I’m sure mimicked what Americans in Dec 1941 were feeling.
I also didn’t know anyone personally who died that day as a result of the attacks. But even so, we all at least knew someone who knew someone. I believe that day forever changed the lives of most Americans. Gone I believe, was that little bit of arrogance we probably all felt of ‘not on our shores’ – especially since the last direct attack was almost 60 years ago.
As Americans though, we’re nothing if not a patriotic and resilient bunch. I hope we’ve emerged stronger and smarter than we were on that fateful day.
Looking forward to watching the pregame ceremonies for 9/11 tonight before the game.
Mets Merized Online
9/11/2011-5:10pm at 5:10 pm (UTC -4)
You’re the man, Ed. Well written.
Anonymous
9/11/2011-5:38pm at 5:38 pm (UTC -4)
Ten years ago I was employed by a company that now as a semi-retired individual for whom I perform consultant work. At the time I had a problem with my leg that required elevation so I was working at home on my bosses laptop (he forgot to erase all the porn links he had on the computer before he gave it to me) when my gf ran into my room and told me what was unfolding. I turned on a cable news channel and stared in disbelief as the 2nd plane crashed into the other tower and then in horror as the 2nd tower disintegrated. I bring this up because the Navy project I was working on at the time is now being upgraded. It’s ironic that ten years later I’m working on upgrading the very project I was designing ten years ago to this day. I found later that my niece’s husband was scheduled to be at one of the towers that day but at the last minute his schedule was changed.
My mom used to tell me that while she was pregnant with me she was an Air Raid Warden (1942) and one time they were called out because a German U-boat was spotted off of Montauk Point, LI. At the time they were afraid of a Nazi invasion.