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9/11
Sept 9, 2011 19:13:44 GMT -5
Post by humbird on Sept 9, 2011 19:13:44 GMT -5
I can't believe it has been 10 years. I will always associate 9/11 with XT and the Pilacrats. I stayed on XT for a full 24 hours, awaiting Bonita and Czar to check in. Later I learned that RedEagle was there too.
(I can't look at a ball of yarn without thinking of Pila)
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9/11
Sept 10, 2011 9:50:37 GMT -5
Post by pila on Sept 10, 2011 9:50:37 GMT -5
Thanks, Boid.
Tough day, that Tuesday. I worried a lot for my friends trying to get out of the city that day. The one recurring dream I have is picking up Pilinha from daycare very late Tuesday. There were 3 children left when I picked him up and later in the week I found out two were never picked up and had lost both parents. Their faces have never left me despite not seeing them again.
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dae
Youth Player
Posts: 50
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9/11
Sept 10, 2011 21:41:13 GMT -5
Post by dae on Sept 10, 2011 21:41:13 GMT -5
Oddly. Enough I remember those times as the heyday or maybe culmination of XT and the chop forums and our "greatness". It was not terribly later that the FF split happened. I think.
Ad for the events; it was definitely a terrible day for everyone including our XT family. Glad we are all still here. I never had the privilege of reading Red's letter (orwhatever he wrote regarding that time) but I know he was pretty there on the spot when te plane hit. Unreal.
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9/11
Sept 11, 2011 8:42:45 GMT -5
Post by humbird on Sept 11, 2011 8:42:45 GMT -5
I don't think RedEagle would mind. This is a historical record and a true testimonial to that day. Thank you RedEagle for sharing this with me for 10 years.
September 11, 2003
Remembering September 11, 2001
It’s funny, but any details prior to what I experienced at 8:46 AM that fateful day are kind of fuzzy. I remember it was a beautiful morning, the kind that when you wake up, you think you have to do something important with. I remember my routine, simply because it was a routine. Walk the two blocks to Newark Penn Station. Hop on the first PATH train waiting at the platform that is heading to the World Trade Center. Read a book, a newspaper or a magazine, I don’t recall which I did that day. The thing that I remember, that resonates with my being every day to this day, is that I was early. I almost always got to work after 9:00 AM, and work being a 5 minute walk from the WTC, I almost always got off the PATH train at either 9:00 AM or a couple of minutes after. Almost never did I get to the WTC before that time. Except on September 11, 2001.
Routine. The PATH train pulls into the WTC platform. Walk with the masses to the first and smaller escalators. Walk through the turnstile, smell the coffee brewing, look in amazement at the long escalators that lead you to the ground floor of the WTC. Prior to taking one of those escalators tip the violinist playing some classical overture. I don’t remember if I saw him there that day. But that was the routine. Get off the escalator and make a right. Look at the Banana Republic window. Keep walking. Look at the Victoria’s Secret window. Keep walking. Take yet another but much smaller escalator to the south exit doors. Keep walking.
The millisecond I walked through those exit doors from the South Tower, time seemed to have stood still. I felt a strong gust of wind, and at the same moment I heard a loud and thunderous noise. I shake. I looked up, and I saw smoke and paper. Tons of paper just floats down towards me. I stood just outside the southern doors of the South Tower. I continued to stare at the sky and at the South Tower, my mind racing to absorb the absurdity of what just happened. The first concrete thought was that a bomb just went off some 100 stories up in the South Tower. The second concrete thought was to seek protection from whatever else might fall. I managed to stop looking up and to observe my surroundings. I saw people running and people staring in awe. I saw a small truck across the street near the Burger King. I walked towards it and ducked beneath its back edge. I had a clear view of the South Towers exit doors. People walked from them looking puzzled, confused, and in shock. I continued to stare at the billowing smoke trying to figure out what is coming down from so high.
I finally came to the conclusion that I should move away as quickly as I can from the area. I walked across Church Street into the Liberty Plaza. All the chess players there had stopped playing. All of them just seemed paralyzed while they stared at the South Tower. I continued to walk towards Broadway. I noticed people on cell phones describing what just happened. I crossed Broadway and walked towards Wall Street. I just wanted to get to my office. I didn’t get my regular coffee. People stared at me as I walked into my office building. I showed the guards my ID and take the elevator by myself, I think. I remember a colleague asking me what happened? I remember telling her, a bomb just went off at the World Trade Center. Her husband worked there.
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9/11
Sept 11, 2011 8:43:38 GMT -5
Post by humbird on Sept 11, 2011 8:43:38 GMT -5
The moment I arrived at my workstation, I have a direct view of the South Tower and the smoke that is being generated from near its top. I work on the 26th floor. My manager and co-workers ask me what happened, and I tell them it was a bomb. They say they heard it was a small plane. I looked at a mirror in my desk. My face was ashen gray. Literally. My arms were ashen gray verging into black. I continued to stare at the South Tower from my window, thinking of my yet to be born son and my co-worker’s husband. I needed to get cleaned up. Then all of the sudden, out of the corner of the window I saw a plane. A very, very large plane flying extremely low and close to the downtown skyline. It was fast, and it turned straight into the World Trade Center from the North East. It flew straight into the North Tower, ripping right through the building, almost at midlevel. Dust and smoke erupted from the South Tower at midlevel. The plane had dissected the North Tower almost in half and managed to still penetrate the already damaged South Tower. I heard screams of pain that I wanted to shout, from my co-workers. I remember saying a short prayer for those who just died. I then picked up the phone and called my wife.
I told her that I loved her very much, that I loved our yet unborn son very much, and that everything would turn out OK. I called my sister. She works for a news agency. She informed me that there were 6 to 8 other planes in the air unaccounted for. I told her that I would be fine. However for the first time, pure fear ate at me. I remember telling my co-workers that we were all going to OK, more to convince myself. Everyone was either on the phone or staring at the window crying. News and rumors spread like wild fire. The Pentagon was hit. Another plane crashed into Pennsylvania. It was all a blur. I found myself glued to that office window. People began to discuss getting out of the office building. I kept saying not yet. I didn’t know why.
Then to compound the absurdness of it all, the South Tower collapsed. A cloud of dust, smoke and paper enveloped the area. Shortly after the North Tower collapsed. The cloud of dust, smoke and paper turned the sky pitch black, you couldn’t see out the window. I tried to calm my co-workers down, just repeating the mantra, “we’ll be fine”. I blessed myself.
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9/11
Sept 11, 2011 8:44:00 GMT -5
Post by humbird on Sept 11, 2011 8:44:00 GMT -5
I called my parents. I attempted to tell them what had just happened, but they were able to see it all an ocean away on TV. I told them that I was going to get out when the smoke and the dust in the streets had cleared up a bit. I told them that I would call them when I got home, that I loved them. I called my wife and sister simultaneously in a conference call. I informed them that I was leaving soon, and I asked that my wife have the cell phone, in case I needed her to pick me up anywhere. I felt loved.
I had lost all track of time, but it felt like it was near noon when the Building Services began the evacuation for our office building. The New Jersey contingent of my floor all seemed to come together somehow. We had been informed that the only transportation out New York City was the ferries. We say good-bye and gave our sincerest wishes to our fellow co-workers who needed to get home to their families safe and sound using different traveling alternatives. We took the ferry from Pier 11. It left us in Jersey City. Then a bus dropped us off near Pavonia Avenue. On a normal day I would be able to catch a PATH train to Newark from this location. But that day, there were no trains running after the collapse of the WTC.
The New Jersey contingent from my company broke up at this point. Some had to go north of the state, and some had to go south. I was part of the group traveling south. There were 5 of us. I went to school in Jersey City and so I mentioned to the group, that I was familiar with the city. This kind of gave me the temporary leadership role for the group. We started looking for buses out of Jersey City into Newark. There were no buses, cabs, or anything running out of Jersey City one police officer told us. I figured the next the best option was to have my wife pick us all up at Journal Square (the central train station out of Jersey City). I called her, and informed her of our plans to meet and to take my co-workers home.
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9/11
Sept 11, 2011 8:45:05 GMT -5
Post by humbird on Sept 11, 2011 8:45:05 GMT -5
Pavonia Avenue is still a far walk from Journal Square. But with no other options available we began our walk. Ironically we had to walk through a Middle Eastern neighborhood that later I discovered housed one of the terrorists responsible for 9/11. A bustling city, Jersey City was eerily quiet, save for the sound of sirens. In the background you could only see dust and smoke as downtown New York City had disappeared. We had reached Journal Square when I my wife called to inform me that the police have sectioned off the whole city, and no cars were going in or out. She was stuck in traffic at a road that leads directly into the city. I informed the group and told them, that if they were up to it, we could walk to meet my wife at the edge of Jersey City. I neglected to tell them how far it was. I just wanted everyone to get home to his or her families. We walked, and walked. We spoke with our loved ones and told them where we were and what our plans were to get home. We rested and we continued to walk. We passed thousands walking home from their jobs to their loved ones.
That fateful day I finally got home at approximately 8:45 PM. I still had not cleaned myself. All the soot was still attached to me. It had been the worse 12 hours of my life. My wife and I dropped each of my colleagues either at home, or near their vehicles so that they could get home. I didn’t sleep. I spoke with my family and watched the news while I held my wife. I watched those planes crash into those buildings over and over again, as if what I experienced was some sort of nightmare that I to relive in order to convince myself that it truly happened. The next day I passed by a parking lot of mostly New York commuters near my home. One third of the previous morning cars remained there for at least a week after, some even longer.
I went back to work on September 18. My company made sure the structure of our office building was safe to return. I didn’t even think about the air quality. I just wanted to get back to work. I just wanted to say to whomever, that I was not going to be intimidated. I just wanted to contribute whatever I could to a city and an economy that badly needed it. Most returning felt the same way.
The devastation of the WTC was total. However the outpouring of love felt those early days was the antithesis of those attacks. It kindled a spirit of humanity that I had never before seen. The day I returned to work I inquired about my colleague’s husband. He made it out of the South Tower before it collapsed. Some co-workers lost family and friends. We cried for them and all of the others who perished that day. I remember all of them every time I walk by the WTC site, which admittedly is not as often as it used to be. A couple of months after, I saw the violinist from the World Trade Center, stringing along another classical overture, at a nearby subway station. And in March, my son was born.
RedEagle 9/11 Eyewitness
(and hero in my eyes -- Humbird)
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9/11
Sept 11, 2011 16:35:01 GMT -5
Post by Boyo on Sept 11, 2011 16:35:01 GMT -5
Reading that story brings back so many memories. Strange that a decade can pass so quickly, it seems like yesterday we were on XT and the Lazio Mania forum desperately trying to reach forum members from New York. The sense of unity was amazing. Not many posters from those days are still online today, but no doubt they all remember how the community came together and offered support in whichever way they could.
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luso
Youth Player
Posts: 45
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9/11
Sept 12, 2011 7:39:57 GMT -5
Post by luso on Sept 12, 2011 7:39:57 GMT -5
fascinating story, and an unforgettable day. My father had 2 construction sites going on that day, one in south manhattan and one in brooklyn, thankfully he was in brooklyn that day. He did not get home till about 8 or 9 pm.
I was at the top of the observation deck not 20 days before that happened with my entire family visiting from Portugal. unreal
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dae
Youth Player
Posts: 50
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9/11
Sept 12, 2011 20:21:17 GMT -5
Post by dae on Sept 12, 2011 20:21:17 GMT -5
Goddam, Red. I knew you were there but shit. Thanks for sharing and thank god you made it. Can't really say anymore.
Oh, looking forward to this weekend. Pick some good Portuguese places to eat. You are my official Portuguse food guide. The restaurant in Union where we ate tha time was awesome. So was the bistro place Pila me and Raj ate in I think Newark.
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9/11
Sept 22, 2011 11:43:45 GMT -5
Post by alcatraz761 on Sept 22, 2011 11:43:45 GMT -5
Man, that's some deep sh!t, dude! And well written!
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9/11
Sept 22, 2011 13:13:56 GMT -5
Post by alcatraz761 on Sept 22, 2011 13:13:56 GMT -5
Where is everyone? No one fvcks off and posts all day anymore? Or is there another site somewhere?
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9/11
Sept 22, 2011 14:41:27 GMT -5
Post by pila on Sept 22, 2011 14:41:27 GMT -5
No way - this ain't the badass we used to know before life interrupted and he disappeared, is it?
Alc? Is that really you?
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9/11
Sept 23, 2011 9:39:31 GMT -5
Post by alcatraz761 on Sept 23, 2011 9:39:31 GMT -5
Ya buddy it is... I always pop thru and read some stuff. Believe or not when I think back we had some fun times online and our junket in boston! U jersey cats were awesome!
I can't believe I didn't get fired with all the posting I did.
Now I'm far from office work I'm with N. Grid doing gas work in the street. I actually been down your way with the NY guys doing work. Main office is in brooklyn I'd love 2 pop by and see yous some ti me
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9/11
Sept 23, 2011 10:06:22 GMT -5
Post by alcatraz761 on Sept 23, 2011 10:06:22 GMT -5
Only dude I didn't get 2 meet was Dae at the time he was in maryland I think. Met razor once at a joint named atasca classy dude. Met yous at da garden then we went to sporting then we ate at the brazillian joint.
Boy a lot has changed. Sh!t, I got a gf and a wife on da side! 7 yrs married to same chick 3 kids
Married life is good but sometimes I think: man what was that stuff I used to get? It smelled but not in a bad way, u'd lie your ass off to get it, u wouldn't pay for it but sometimes you'd think you would pay cuz it was that good. OH YEAH PVSSY! Man that was some good sh!t!
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