9/11 -- again

it's been 10 years.


the media in inundating us with remembrances.  as if anyone could forget.

I've written about it before:

http://songbirdscrazyworld.blogspot.com/2009/01/sad-memory.html

http://songbirdscrazyworld.blogspot.com/2010/09/911-again.html

http://songbirdscrazyworld.blogspot.com/2010/11/makeshift-memorial.html


http://songbirdscrazyworld.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-mike-piazza-will-always-own-piece.html




I was driving to work, listening to WPLJ, and Scott and Todd were interviewing  a guy who'd seen the first plane hit the WTC.  The second plane hit during the interview.  I will never forget the shock in that man's voice. 

At work we huddled around the small TV in the gym.  that is, when we weren't phone trying to find family members, friends and coworkers.  Our firm had an office in lower Manhattan, and many of the lawyers in the Long Island office had court appearances in the city.Later I learned that one of our secretaries lost her firefighter husband that day.  At the wake she told us she was grateful to have a body to bury.

My daughters were at school,  Jen was two months shy of her 11th birthday, a newly minted 6th grader in her first year of middle school.  One of the teachers at the middle school later told me that they found out about what happened from 8th grade students  who were using their cell phones.  the principal asked students whose parents worked in the city to come to the auditorium --- he wanted to make sure they were going home to a living parent. 

Becca was in 4th grade.  the school district sent a teacher to ride on each school bus to make sure every kid had a place to go.  the 4th grade social studies curriculum is all about New York State, and her textbook featured a very prominent photo of the Twin Towers, a picture she really didn't want to look at.


one thing I can remember from the days afterwards....no music.  none of the local stations played music, they were all devoted to pubic information.  Scott and Todd fielded calls from relatives looking for the missing, from people who wanted to help the rescue/recovery mission, stuff like that.  the newswoman, Patty, actually broke down in tears while on the air.    when radio eventually returned to music, there were a lot of patriotic songs in the mix -- "God bless the USA" was the most popular choice.

today I will spend time at my synagogue. I'll be learning how to crochet lap blankets for cancer patients.

a fitting way to spend such a solemn day.