Today is always a tough day. At least for those of us who remember what happened. A lot of people have blocked it out of their mind. They don't care and just minimize it because it is old news. Like Pearl Harbor. Or the Alamo. Or the battleship Maine.
But it is a lot harder for those of us who live in New York. The World Trade Center is not just a tourist attraction to us. It was part of our everyday lives. You were in it all the time as it was a transportation hub. I mean I used to take the train to the World Trade Center three or four times a week to meet my buddies who walked on Wall St for drinks at the Seaport. I would get out and walk across the lobby especially in cold weather and come out on Trinity Place. We would hit Branigans or the Pig and Whistle or Volks and start drinking before heading over to the seaport.
I would go the New York State tax office to get forms all the time. We didn't have the internet back then where you could download forms so you had to go get them to fill them out by hand. I had a couple of audits there as well.
They had a great bookstore in one of the lobby's on the North End. For some reason they had a great poetry department and I got a lot of Yeats and Seamus Heaney volumes there. I would always stop even on the way to get loaded. One of the clerks who was always so helpful was lost in the towers.
There is a joint on Court St that makes me think of 911 every time I pass it. It was owned by a brother and a sister who got in a big fight. He was the chef and she was the business end. They fought so much that she quit and got a great new job. Banquet manager at Windows on the World. She was working there for two weeks before the first plane hit. Her brother never recovered. This other restaurant guy took advantage of his grief and weaseled his way into the joint and ran it into the ground. Now it is a crappy sort of joint called
"Karloff's" which serves brunch and crap. Every time I pass that place I think of them and what happened.
So I try not to dwell to much on it. I mean you have to go live your life. You can't be obsessed with it. Just remember it. Don't forget especially on this day. Say a prayer for those who passed. Remember people like Father Judge who gave their lives helping others.
Downtown will never be the same for some of us. No matter how many years ago it was.
