I slept though the attacks. I was woken up by my house phone, it was my father who thought I was in the city that day. It was election day in NYC & I heard in his voice that somthing was wrong he said somthing about the elextion was cancelled. I got up, but he had alreadly hung up.
I called his office his assistant picked up & I asked what was wrong with him, I thought somthing had happened to my Mother who was ill at the time. She said to me he is very upset & the elcetion is cancelled. I asked her what happened, his phone call woke me up.
She paused & once she reliazed I had just woken up she told me what happened. I'll never forget the tone of her voice or the cadance she used; "Terriorst hi-jacked 4 planes & crashed them into the world trade center & the Pentagon, one plane crashed in PA the world trade venter collapsed."
Still half asleep I was confused by what she was saying, it did not register, I turned on the TV & NBC was on, Tom Brokaw was on the air & I saw the replay of the collapse. I made some type of audioble noise that I never heard myself make before or after. & fell into my couch.
All I could think of were all my friends that worked in the finacal center. The stories they would tell as the days went on about what they saw during there escape is mind numbing.
I don't re-call the rest of the conversation with my Fathers assistant after I saw what happened. He actually wasn't in the office. I cleaned myself up & left my apartment. I'm not even sure where I was going. I jumped in my car & the streets were very empty, I remember how nice of a day there wasn't a cloud in the sky. While waiting at a traffic light to turn green I looked up tough my winshield & I saw this huge ploom of black smoke i was sureal. I turned my cell phone on & saw that I had a bunch of voice mails from various people.
I finally caught up with my best friend Anthony a couple of hours latter he made it back to Staten Island on the ferry, he was covered in dust. I gave himam big hug & said man I thought I lost u. He looked at me & said I'm just glad my parents did not live to see this, 3 of there 4 kids in Manhattan as the world is falling apart around them. He had lost both his parents within a years of each other from 2000 to 2001.
His house became a meeting point for all of us. There must have been about 15 people there at one point. We were all Hungry & ordered acouple of pizzas, I remember the Pizzaeria being open in our neighborhood & myself & my friend Willie who joined us drove up there to pick them up. I don't think we said more than 3 words when we went to get the Pizza's
Later that night I hooked up with my Father & we continued watching the coverage, I hooked up with another one of my friends whom I saw the night before & we were just in shock.
When I finally made my way home that night I saw my neighbor that lived above me. At the time he was in the FDNY academy, he was freaking out they actually sent al the new recurits home because they had no idea what to do with them, He went back the next day. I did not see him much after that. The last time I saw him he told me he was thinking of droping out, it freaked him out that much.
This was an experiance that changed my life. I often wondered how I would have been had I lived though it in real time & not slept though it. 2 weeks earlier I had turned down a job in NYC that would have been at WTC 7. My Father was so annoyed I did not take the job.
