Planes and memories
Yesterday I posted a photo that included an airplane, and Alana remarked that she didn’t miss all those planes. It sparked a memory.
Long Island sees a lot of air traffic. We’re on the flight path/ landing routes for JFK and La Guardia, both in Queens. We also have our own commercial airport, Islip-MacArthur. And we have Republic Airport in Farmingdale, a regional airport originally built to service the Republic Fairchild company and later Grumman. I work just a short distance from Republic, and I frequently see planes coming in for a landing. So there’s nothing remarkable about seeing planes overhead.
But in the aftermath of 9/11, all non-military aircraft were grounded. I remember noticing how quiet the skies were. And how I didn’t need to look up to know the planes over my bead were military aircraft.
9/11 came up in conversation yesterday. I went out for happy hour with some of my coworkers. We discussed someone who recently interviewed for a job with my company. One of my coworkers worked with the potential new employee at another company; they were in a training class together on 9/11. Later that company moved its operations out of NYC.
We tend to play “workplace geography” around here, i.e., “Where were you on 9/11?”
My story? I was working on Long Island, saw the whole thing unfold on television. But I’d spent most of my professional life either in lower Manhattan or across the river in Jersey City, so when I saw reporters doing their thing in the streets around the Workd Trade Center, it felt like I was watching chaos envelope my home.
And when I visited the 9/11 museum in the rebuilt World Trade Center ... it was a very emotional experience.
Funny story ... when Becca was in college, she had an internship with a publicity company. One of the first events she worked at was a charity fundraiser on 9/11, sponsored, she said, by some financial company. She couldn’t remember the name of the company, but it was a huge event, and she escorted several celebrities into the party.
The next day I saw an article in the newspaper. The party had been sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald.
Cantor Fitzgerald was on the top floor of one of the towers, lost 600 employees that day. Who could forget?
But then I realized that Becca was in 4th grade in the fall of 2001. How would she have been aware of that loss, horrific as it was?
2001...so long ago. The high school students Drew teaches weren’t even born yet.
And yet the events of that day, 17 years ago, seem so recent ....
It was a year or two ago on 9/11, I was covering some class or other, and some students wanted my 9/11 story. I guess every teacher had one that they'd tell. And yes, the kiddos weren't even around when 9/11 happened. (My niece, who is going to be a senior this year, was a few months old when it happened.)
ReplyDeleteI informed the class I had no story. I was at home, watching everything unfold on TV. I don't think that qualifies as a story.
It’s a story. Not a detailed one, but a story.
ReplyDeleteMy late best friend, who (at the time) was an elementary school teacher in the Coney Island area, obeyed her building principal's instructions to hide what was happening from the students. But the teachers would take turns climbing up on the roof of the school to see from afar. There are other stories I have told (well, some of them) on my blog. Someone who worked at my company in Binghamton lost his son, who worked at Cantor-Fitzgerald. 12 people who went to my high school died, and I believe at least one of them was a Cantor-Fitzgerald employee. And, finally, I knew someone whose brother was en route flying when it happened. He ended up being diverted, I believe, to somewhere in Central America. I forget where he was supposed to be going.
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