Ageless1der "Barbara Rich" and her intrepid husband, Gordon give you two reviews of everything Entertainment, Enjoyment and Travel.
Gordon & Barbara in Paris
Here's Looking at YOU
Saturday, September 8, 2012
A Bifocal Review of 9/11
Sneak attacks can leave lasting scars. Most Americans who were alive at the time, can remember exactly where they were on September 11 (I don’t even have to write the year. You know what I’m talking about). So it was with Barbara and myself, just days after the 1st anniversary of the Twin Towers disaster, my wife and I attended the wedding of our niece in New York. When I started to make arrangements to attend Nicole’s wedding, my wife informed me that she, “would not fly, especially to New York.”
I pointed out that (as I’d heard but really had no statistics to back it up) that air travel was much safer than train travel. She countered with, “If a train crashes, some people might lose their lives, but in a plane crash it is unlikely that anyone would survive.”
It was hard to argue. Statistics still show that accidents are fewer on planes but that the likelihood of dying in those rare occurrences is very high. So, spending $1500 for a berth and traveling alone for three days each way did not matter to Barbara. I flew and my flight cost me only $300 round trip. I left the west coast three days after she did and arrived in time to see her train come into the station.
Little inconveniences, greater expenses and a relinquishing of Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms for the sake of security are examples of how our lives have been changed by the sneak attack of 9/11. My niece witnessed the first jet as it crashed into the Twin Towers. She was working in the Martha Stewart Building across the street. She took an elevator to a birds-eye viewing area in her office-building to see what she and her coworkers first believed was a tragic accident.
From her office vantage point, Nicole and her coworkers were in total disbelief as the second plane now crashed in a ball of flames. Everyone started to assess the situation and ran scurrying toward the exits. Two days later, in an email to family and friends,
Nicole described the events that followed:
“We were close enough to see the shattered glass flying and actually landing on the smaller buildings. We were all dumbfounded and then the buildings began to shed layers. We were looking through the telescopes, which are set up around the building for employees to enjoy the beautiful views. I could not believe my eyes! I was actually watching people leaping from the windows to their deaths!
“I could see one woman waving a white towel or some sort of cloth and screaming for help, and when no one heard her, she simply leapt out the window to escape the burning fuel that was consuming everything behind her.
“Our office informed us that the city was on lockdown. Therefore, they were securing hotel rooms for those of us who did not live in Manhattan. We were all scared.
“About an hour later the police came and told us that the Brooklyn Bridge and Triboro Bridge to Queens were open to foot-traffic only, but those were the only two options to leave the city. That was good enough for me!
“I started walking. There was soot and office papers covering everything, everywhere and the layers of ashes made the whole city look as if there had been a blizzard—it was so eerie. They gave us surgical masks and water as we got closer to the WTC—I felt like I was in a war-zone.
“When I finally made it home, I kissed the floor of the apartment and then sat down and cried. In my whole life, I never thought I would experience—from my window—hundreds or thousands of people losing their lives.”
NOTE FROM BARBARA: We’ve been back and forth to New York, New Jersey (where I was born and grew up) and Pennsylvania since that time. We’ve always had a great time, never a problem. Here is a Bifocal Review of one of those those fun trips to Central Park.
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