This weekend is the 10th Anniversary attacks on 9/11. On Talk of the Sound Radio tomorrow we will take a look back and look forward. I usually try to keep to myself on 9/11 because it is a very emotional day and I usually end up wanting to punch someone. At least this year we can celebrate the double-tap performed on Osama bin Ladin by our Seal Team Six. Not sure we can avoid the weather, floods and power outages. The Iona College framework is out so we can talk about that too. And there is always Notre Dame football and what was a tough week for the Irish after a terrible performance against South Florida. Up next, Michigan.
Above and below are photos of my family at the World Trade Center site a few days after the attack. My son’s teacher at Barnard lost her daughter that day; that’s Collins with the blonde hair looking up. Like many people, there were many direct connections from my family to the 9-11 attacks: my classmates from Iona Prep, Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, neighbors from Westchester and many of my former work colleagues from my days working as a bond and forex trader on Wall Street. I was on the phone talking to a client, at the New Rochelle train station boarding a train into Grand Central, when he told me a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. I looked up at the clear blue sky and said “That doesn’t make any sense, it is perfectly clear sky here.” By the time I got into Grand Central everyone in my car knew what had happened. I walked South on Park Avenue to get to my office at Penn Plaza when I saw the smoke trailing off the top of a tower not realizing one had already fallen. As I walked along 34th Street towards Herald Square I heard and felt a noise I will never forget — it sent a chill down my spine that I still feel from time to time. When I got to the corner of Herald Square people were looking towards downtown. I recall saying aloud “I should be able to see the towers from here”. It did not register that the towers had collapsed until I got to my office and my staff was in a panic. I made arrangements to help get them out of the City but was stuck there for hours, without a phone, until later that evening Grand Central was re-opened. I was angry about it then and I am angry about it now but at least feel a little better knowing our guys finally took out Osama bin Laden and his body is rotting at the bottom of the ocean.
