So True

Source: The Slab

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Paul Simon Performs At 9/11 Ceremony

You can't go wrong with Paul Simon singing "Sound of Silence". Ever.

A Somber Bunday

2,753 Empty Chairs

From DNAinfo.com (via Towleroad):

MIDTOWN — Bryant Park’s normally bustling lawn was transformed into a solemn memorial Friday ahead of the 10th Anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Midtown office workers looking for a place to soak up the sun instead found the lawn lined with 2,753 empty chairs facing south toward the fallen towers — one to honor each person who died in the attacks.

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September 11 - What Do You Remember?

Ten years later, most of us remember much of what happened on September 11th, 2001 - but some memories are more vivid than others. Please share in the Comments section what you remember most vividly about that day.

I have two:

1. Walking past St. Vincent's Hospital and seeing the doctors and nurses set up outside for triage.
2. The military fighter jets rumbling overhead.

If you haven't already, you can read my entire remembrance HERE.

What do YOU remember about 9/11/01???...

Last Night's "Tribute In Light"

I have always loved the annual Tribute In Light which illuminates the night sky every 9/11 in honor of the people we lost that day.  When I lived in Manhattan, the lights were visible from my roof and I always make a point of taking the time to observe their simple beauty. Now that I live in Queens, all I could see was a bright reflection in the clouds - but for some reason it's still comforting to know the lights are there shining brightly every year.

This year, according to Gothamist, they had to shut the lights off for about a half-hour because it was becoming a bird-magnet...

The lights had to be shut off around 11 p.m. after a group of about a thousand birds flew into the lights. The New York City Audubon Society had warned the folks running Tribute of Light about confusing the birds, and ordered the lights to be shut off. The beams were turned on about a half an hour later, and not as many birds returned. A similar bird gathering happened in 2004, and the Audubon Society warned the birds were "seemingly unable to break away - and in danger of depleting crucial fat reserves needed to carry them to their southern wintering grounds."

Next year - the tenth anniversary of the attacks - will be the last scheduled showing of the Tribute - although there is talk of making it permanant.  To do so they would need a long-term commitment of open space or a rooftop - such as the one they use now...

I really hope they can figure out a way to keep those lights shining into the heavens for many years to come.

Truth

Allison Low of Fayetteville, Arkansas, holds a picture of her sister, Sara Low, during a memorial for 9/11 victims near Ground Zero

Source

Memories of September 11th

Those of you who have been Dustbunnies for a while know that I repost a couple things each year, and my recollection of the events that happened on September 11, 2001 is one of those posts.  And, as always, I ask that you share YOUR story of what happened to you on that day - no matter where you might have been or how inconsequential it might seem.

As we always learned from our History/Social Studies teachers - those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

September 11, 2001(originally posted on 9/11/07 - updated on 9/10/10)

It was such a beautiful day...

That is the way so many remembrances start when describing September 11, 2001. And the reason is because it was so true. It was a glorious, gorgeous day - until people started dying.

That morning I was in the shower - earlier than usual, for some reason - listening to 1010 WINS, the local all-news station, when I heard them announce "BREAKING NEWS NOW!". The announcer, in a VERY startled tone, said a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I don't know if it was his tone or what, but I gasped and backed up against the wall of the shower. I had no idea of any details (it could have been a little plane for all I knew), but I had a HORRIBLE feeling, and started to cry. To this day I can't explain my reaction to such a little bit of information, but it was almost like I could tell this was only the beginning.

When I got out of the shower, I turned on the TV, and tried to call my then-roommate. He was a flight attendant with United Airlines, and was on a trip, so I wanted to make sure he didn't have any connection to this. He picked up the phone - he was on a layover in Chicago, thank God - and was asking me questions like - "Was it a big plane, little plane, or what?". I had NO idea, and based on the pictures I couldn't tell. It was hard to get a good perspective when they were just showing a smoking hole in the building on TV.

Much later we learned that United flight 93 had gone down in Pennsylvania. My roommate had worked that flight many times, and knew one of the flight attendants who died. They held her memorial service at a church a few blocks away from our apartment at the time, which he went to with some of his co-workers.

After speaking to my roommate, I called my coworker and good friend D. As we talked on the phone and watched the news together, the other plane hit. I remember saying it was definitely an act of terrorism. Meanwhile, we were still discussing getting to our job at the restaurant, which is located downtown in Greenwich Village (between Midtown and Lower Manhattan where the WTC is/was). D finally hung up the phone because she had to get going. We knew our bosses would be mad if we didn't come in.

I continued to watch the news, and it suddenly dawned on me that D and I should NOT be heading downtown (toward the WTC) to work - we should be staying home. I still didn't have a grasp on the fact that there were actual people dying in those buildings - it seemed so abstract - but something told me it would NOT be smart to go toward the emergency. I tried to call D back, but she had already left.

I decided I would go downstairs and try to catch a cab or bus (they had already shut down the subway). I thought if D got to work, and I didn't at least try, our bosses would really be pissed at me (especially considering she lived farther away). I walked out of my building and onto 9th Avenue and got a cab immediately. At one point, while stopped at an intersection, someone in the back of a cab beside me said through our open windows - "They just hit the Pentagon and the Sears Tower in Chicago!!". News that day was all over the place - and unconfirmed reports were announced constantly.

While riding downtown I could see smoke, but at one point 9th Avenue makes a little curve left, and I was faced with a FULL VIEW of the smoking buildings. I remember gasping - all of a sudden it was REAL and right in front of me. The traffic started getting really congested - so I decided to walk the rest of the way.

People were all over the streets, just watching the burning buildings. I was walking down one of the side streets in the Village toward my restaurant when I heard everyone scream. The first building had just collapsed, although from where I was I couldn't hear or see anything other than the people around me screaming.  This was the only time I heard yelling - throughout the day I noticed that most people were eerily calm - I think we were all in shock.

By the time I got to my restaurant on 7th Avenue, which previously had a perfect view of the World Trade Center, all I could see was a ton of smoke/debris, and ONE smoking tower. It was unreal. Hundreds of people were walking uptown - it looked like an army of office workers walking calmly away from Downtown.

Even though the restaurant was closed, some random people came in through our unlocked side door - asking to use the restroom or phone, and ended up staying to watch the news. D finally made it in - she was on a subway train when they shut down the system and had to walk from 34th Street. By the time she had arrived, both buildings were gone.

I tried to call my family in Pennsylvania and couldn't get through (all regular circuits were busy and/or damaged). I finally got through to my friend Carl's 800 number at his job. He was in the break room watching the news, but I explained to his coworker who I was, and that I was in New York City, and would she please tell Carl to call my family and let them know I was OK? She was SO helpful and concerned - just like any good Central Pennsylvania resident would be. Carl was able to let my parents know I was OK. Apparently his coworkers went RUNNING around the office looking for him to give him the message.  Throughout the day I got many calls/messages from friends and loved ones making sure I was all right - even though I had no connection to the World Trade Center and didn't go there often.

It soon became obvious that the restaurant wasn't opening that day. So D and I started walking uptown with everyone else (our boss had come in and taken all the money out of the safe in case there was looting - which there wasn't - and padlocked the gates). There were people lined up at payphones, which seemed to work - people's cell phones were hardly working at all.

One of my most vivid memories of that day is walking past St. Vincent's hospital - which was a huge hospital and trauma center located a few blocks north of the restaurant [Note: This historic hospital went bankrupt a few months ago and is now closed]. The St. Vincent's staff were in "emergency mode" - with doctors, nurses, etc., posted outside to take care of the incoming wounded. And they were all just standing around, waiting for injured people who never came. Unreal.

D and I stopped at the Conway store in Herald Square to get her some comfortable shoes - because of course she had her usual "cha-cha sandals" on. We also stopped to get something to eat at a Pizza place on 7th Avenue and to rest a bit. When we finally got to Times Square it was eerily quiet - the thing I remember hearing the most were the fighter planes screeching by overhead. We parted company - she continued to her apartment on the Upper East Side - and I headed to Hell's Kitchen. By the time I got home, I realized I needed a drink - so I ended up walking ANOTHER 10 blocks to find an open liquor store.

Needless to say, that bottle of Bacardi Limon didn't stand a chance............

What do YOU remember from September 11th?

September 11th - Where Were YOU?

Last year on September 11th, I posted links to two posts I did shortly after I started my blog - one about my personal experiences in NYC on 9/11 (HERE), and another about a smiling Firefighter who died on that horrible day (HERE).

I also asked you to tell about your experiences - and I'd like that tradition to continue. Please tell us what it was like for YOU on September 11, 2001 in the comments section.

In Memoriam: NYC Firefighter Angel Juarbe, Jr.

Today is September 11, the day we remember those who died at the hands of terrorists back in 2001. This year I would like to highlight one of the many heroes of that awful day.

Angel Juarbe, Jr. was a firefighter with Ladder Company 12 on September 11, 2001 – and he and his fellow firefighters were working feverishly to get people out of the Marriott hotel at the World Trade Center. Here is an account of Angel’s heroics, published online shortly after the disaster (it refers to him as being “missing”, even though his body was eventually recovered):

Ladder 12, it seems, was not one of the first to arrive at the disaster in the WTC, as was reported last week. Instead the firefighters from Chelsea arrived just after the first tower fell. With the second tower still standing but leaning, Angel and his company entered a hotel connected to the Trade Center. There he and his fellow firefighters slowly made their way up the levels of the hotel, escorting people down out of the building and onward to safety as they went. When some people on one of the higher levels needed actual physical assistance, the firefighters knew that they needed to become less encumbered. They elected to discard some of their emergency equipment. This included the entirety of their supply of rope.

Sometime later, when the team was rescuing people from the 14th floor, the call to evacuate was given. As Company 12 made their way down the stairs of the assaulted hotel, the building lost much of its structural integrity. The building began to groan under the stress, and the stairwells began to evidence this. When Ladder 12 was on about the 4th floor, the stairs below them began to collapse. (This apparently split the company, as some of the firemen were already out of the building.) When the stranded rescuers realized that they were going to need to rappel down the now ravaged stairwell, it became evident that they were going to need their supply of rope. Angel and another of the firefighters in his company were quick to volunteer.

As the two brave men began the long trek back up the stories of the hotel, they came into contact with another firefighter who was in trouble. Angel radioed back to the stranded men on the 4th floor that there was a firefighter who needed assistance. In response, a lieutenant from Ladder 12 left the 4th floor and began his own journey up the stairs of the hotel. At this point, the unimaginable happened. The World Trade Center's north tower collapsed. This was at 10:28 AM.

Amazingly, the firefighters stranded in the 4th floor stairwell all survived and are now accounted for. Apparently the stress caused one of the walls in the stairwell to collapse before the building proper, allowing the firemen to fall to the street below. Four stories, but all are apparently okay. Sadly, Angel and the two other rescuers from Ladder Company 12 are still unaccounted for. They were willing to pay the ultimate price for their firemen brothers, and they may have done just that.

Less notably, Juarbe was the winner of the Fox television reality competition, Murder In Small Town X. They announced him the winner on September 4th, and exactly one week later he was dead.

Juarbe also once posed for an FDNY calendar…

May he rest in peace.

Tiles For America

In the days after 9/11, many impromptu memorials sprang up around New York City. Some were simply pictures of the "missing" (which always made me sob) - but one tribute in particular was very unique. A few ceramic tiles, made by children, were attached to a chain-link fence surrounding a small NYC Transit utility shed. As time went on the number of tiles grew. Eight years later, this corner in Greenwich Village has become a tourist attraction.

I pass the Tiles For America memorial every day I walk home from work, and it always moves me. Last week I took a couple of pictures.

Check out there website HERE to learn more and see some of the individual tiles.

September 11th, 2008

Today is September 11th - which is still a very sad and solemn day here in New York City. There will be the annual tribute in light (pictured above) - along with the four moments of silence, the reading of all the names at Ground Zero, and plenty of tears. I listen to those same names every year - and every year they make me cry.

Last year, very early in the history of this blog, I did two 9/11-themed posts. One recounted my personal experience on that day (read it HERE), and the other was a remembrance of a smiling firefighter I used to see hanging outside his firehouse (read it HERE). Please take a moment to read them if you can - and feel free to leave comments on this post about YOUR experiences on that horrible day.

In Memoriam - Manuel Mojica Jr.

Manuel Mojica Jr. ("Manny Mo" to his friends) was a firefighter with Squad 18 and was killed on 9/11. Their firehouse is located a few blocks from my job, and I used to see him standing with the guys outside on my way to the video store or the tanning salon. He was big and beefy (with HUGE arms), and was always smiling - so of course I noticed him. When I found out he was one of the firefighters that died that day I was so sad. Even though I didn't know him, I knew OF him, and it really hit home. I even wrote a (really bad) poem and left it in front of the firehouse with all the flowers, candles, etc. I don't have a copy of the poem anymore, but the following memory is much better than my awful poetry anyway:

From the New York Times:


Manuel Mojica Jr.: A Motorcycle Man's Ritual

If you missed the muscle-bound guy with six tattoos, smirk tucked under his mustache, roaring around on a Harley-Davidson, Manny Mo — as Manuel Mojica Jr. was known — had one more way to announce himself. Without using his fingers, he could whistle so forcefully that he never had to ring his fiancée's apartment buzzer. One blast, and Anna Vecchione on the sixth floor knew he was waiting. So did people blocks away.After they married, moved to Bellmore, N.Y., and became the parents of Stephanie and little Manny, that whistle reverberated across Little League fields, where he coached with his firefighting buddy and fellow Yankee fan, Bernard Floody. Manny Mo was a confident, low-key guy with a big heart, a king of the backyard barbecue, Firefighter Floody said.Perhaps because Firefighter Mojica, 37, was the middle child between his sisters Vinia and Letty, he was a natural peacemaker. So when Squad Company 18 of Manhattan, a rescue unit, went to a call, he calmed the frightened. To calm his frightened wife, he never spoke of the harrowing fires. But even a Harley man with a screeching whistle had a comforting ritual: After a shift, no matter the hour, Manny Mo always had a bedtime snack of milk and cookies.

Manny, thank you for your bravery and sacrifice. God rest your soul.

September 11, 2001

It was such a beautiful day...

That is the way so many remembrances start when describing September 11, 2001. And the reason is because it was so true. It was a glorious, gorgeous day - until people started dying.

That morning I was in the shower (earlier than usual, for some reason) listening to 1010 WINS, the local all-news station, when I heard them announce "BREAKING NEWS NOW!". The announcer, in a VERY startled tone, said a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I don't know if it was his tone or what, but I gasped and backed up against the wall of the shower. I had NO IDEA of any details (it could have been a little plane for all I knew), but I had a HORRIBLE feeling, and started to cry. To this day I can't explain my reaction to such a little bit of information, but it was almost like I could tell this was only the beginning.

When I got out of the shower, I turned on the TV, and tried to call my roommate. He was (and still is) a flight attendant with United Airlines, and was on a trip, so I wanted to make sure he didn't have any connection to this. He picked up the phone - he was on a layover in Chicago, thank God - and was asking me questions like - "was it a big plane, little plane, or what?". I had NO idea, and based on the pictures I couldn't tell. It was hard to get a good perspective when they were just showing a smoking hole in the building on TV.

Much later we learned that United flight 93 had gone down in Pennsylvania. My roommate had worked that flight many times, and knew one of the flight attendants who died. They held her memorial service at a church a few blocks away from our apartment, which he went to with some of his co-workers.

After speaking to my roommate, I called my coworker and good friend Dory. As we talked on the phone and watched the news together, the other plane hit. I remember saying it was definitely an act of terrorism. Meanwhile, we were still discussing getting to our job at the restaurant, which is located downtown in Greenwich Village. She hung up the phone because she had to get going. We knew our bosses would be mad if we didn't come in.

I continued to watch the news, and it suddenly dawned on me that Dory and I should NOT be heading downtown (toward the WTC) to work - we should be staying home. I still didn't have a grasp on the fact that there were actual people dying in those buildings - it seemed so abstract - but something told me it would NOT be smart to go TOWARD the emergency. I tried to call Dory back, but she had already left.

I decided I would go downstairs and try to catch a cab or bus (they had already shut down the subway). I thought if Dory got to work, and I didn't, our bosses would really be pissed at me (especially considering she lived farther away). I walked out of my building and onto 9th Avenue and got a cab immediately. At one point, while stopped at an intersection, someone in the back of a cab beside me said through our open windows - "they just hit the Pentagon and the Sears Tower in Chicago!!". News that day was all over the place - and unconfirmed reports were announced constantly.

While driving downtown I could see smoke, but at one point 9th Avenue makes a little curve left, and I was faced with a FULL VIEW of the smoking buildings. I remember gasping - all of a sudden it was REAL and right in front of me. The traffic started getting really congested - so I decided to walk the rest of the way.

People were all over the streets, just watching the burning buildings. I was walking down one of the side streets in the Village toward my restaurant when I heard everyone scream. The first building had just collapsed, although from where I was I couldn't hear or see anything other than the people around me screaming.

By the time I got to my restaurant on 7th Avenue, which had a perfect view of the World Trade Center, all I could see was a TON of smoke, and ONE smoking tower. It was unreal. Hundreds of people were walking uptown - it looked like an army of office workers walking calmly away from the site.

Even though the restaurant was closed, some random people came in through our side door - asking to use the restroom or phone, and ended up staying to watch the news. Dory finally made it in - she was on a subway train when they shut down the system and had to walk from 34th Street. By the time she had got in, both buildings were gone.

I tried to call my family in Pennsylvania and couldn't get through. I finally got through to my friend Carl's 800 number at his job. He was in the break room watching the news, but I explained to his coworker who I was, and that I was in New York City, and would she please tell Carl to call my family and let them know I was OK? She was SO helpful and concerned - just like any good Central Pennsylvania resident would be. Carl was able to let my parents know I was OK. Apparently his coworkers went RUNNING around the office looking for him to give him the message.

It soon became obvious that the restaurant wasn't opening that day. So Dory and I started walking uptown with everyone else (our boss had come in and taken all the money out of the safe in case there was looting - which there wasn't - and padlocked the gates). There were people lined up at payphones, which seemed to work - people's cell phones were hardly working at all.

One of my most vivid memories of that day is walking past St. Vincent's hospital - which is a huge hospital and trauma center located a few blocks north of the restaurant. They were in "emergency mode" - with doctors, nurses, etc., posted outside to take care of the incoming wounded. And they were all just standing around, waiting for people who never came. Unreal.

Dory and I stopped at the Conway store in Herald Square to get her some "sensible" shoes - she had her usual "cha-cha sandals" on. We also stopped to get something to eat at a Pizza place on 7th Avenue. When we got to Times Square it was eerily quiet - the thing I remember hearing the most were the fighter planes screeching by overhead. We parted company - she continued to her apartment on the Upper East Side - and I headed to Hell's Kitchen. By the time I got home, I realized I needed a drink - so I ended up walking ANOTHER 10 blocks to find an open liquor store.

Needless to say, that bottle of Bacardi Limon didn't stand a chance............