As times passes, thousands of memories become hundreds which then become just a few. It's always so hard to predict, in the moment, which will be the memories that survive.
I remember less and less about 9/11 but the few flickering images are vivid. I was in Washington and my family was here in NYC on 9/11. Here's what's left of my memories:
When the subway went near the ground zero, the stench of the destroyed building was still pronounced weeks later. I remember imagining that I was breathing particles of buildings, paper and, at some level, people....
The Armory, a few blocks from the Beliefnet office, was the holding area for relatives looking for victims. For months after the attack, the bus stops and walls in this neighborhood (23rd street in Manhattan) were papered with posters of lost family members. Every one knew these people were dead, not lost, but no one wanted to take down the posters. It felt like defiling a tombstone...
Hearing my wife describe how, when she picked up the kids in school in Brooklyn, the ash was so thick on the tops of cars that it looked like it had snowed....
My kids going to the local firestation in Brooklyn, which had lost several firefighters, and lighting candles....
Realizing that my borther had been scheduled to fly from Boston to New York that morning. The phones weren't working so it was several hours before I determined that he wasn't on one of the planes that crashed....
When I got to my appointment that morning in Washington and someone said a plane had struck the Twin Towers, I remember imagining a small bi-plane smacking it and bouncing off....
Blackberrying with the folks back at Beliefnet to find out whether any of our members had died, feeling profoundly proud of the editors working to provide comfort/wisdom to readers...
Crying in Temple as we sang God Bless America, in part out of vivid fear that my children's world would be ruined, infinitely more dangerous than the one I'd grown up in...
What are your remaining memories?
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My first reaction, and I'm serious when I write it, was, "Oh my God! We're at war with Japan again!"
Then when it became more obvious what was going on I did something that I never write about on this site. I downloaded a picture of Mecca, printed it up and set up a radionic box with the most lethal energy I could muster aimed at it and let it run. In effect putting a curse on everyone who entered the city.
Then for supper we did what we have done every 9/11 since then with one exception when I was ill, and that is have pork for supper.
Not very spiritual by some folks standards to be sure (my poor fellow Theosophists were horrified) but that is what I did.
I was on my way to the Beliefnet offices that morning. I was one of the recipients of the frantic blackberry messages Steve mentions in his post. I too remember less and less but still have some powerful images.
I remember the message boards on Beliefnet starting up immediately with people looking for loved ones, sending messages of hope and prayers. I remember standing at the corner of 23rd and Park with other Belifnet'ers watching the second tower fall down.
I remember walking home to long island from the Beliefnet offices that afternoon. I remember going to the Catholic Church in Manhasset New York that night and when the priest asked for a call for prayers, stopping counting at 75, the number of names mentioned. It was the first time our then 10 year old daughter had ever seen me weep.
I remember the heroism of NYC that day and for many days afterwards. The next day, the 12th, and for every day for 3 weeks I stopped by the fire station on 34th st each evening on my way to the train station. Stood there trying to say thanks these hero's who had lost so many colleagues but couldn't clear the lump in my throat to be able to do so. I Remember a couple of weeks later taking our daughter into visit that fire station with a basket full of home made muffins. We had breakfast with the chief and his crew that morning and they gave my daughter a station t-shirt. When we went to leave I attempted to tell the chief how I felt and to thank him and his men and I choked up. He hugged me and said he understood and thanked me. Beliefnet you did the world proud that day. And continue to.
T
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