We all have stories to tell about where we were when those planes hit the twin towers on September 11, 2001. And when another plane hit the Pentagon. And yet another crash landed in Pennsylvania.
My story is this. Sometime during the summer of 2001, I decided that I had to leave my law firm in Austin, TX. I diligently searched for a new job, and Washington, D.C. was the best option. There were a number of reasons: I had some relevant experience for a job in federal regulatory work, I would not have to sit for another bar exam, I had a handful of law school friends in the area, I would be geographically closer to my family in Michigan, and I have been enamored with Washington, D.C. ever since my family visited in the third grade. I love history. I love what Washington, D.C. is all about.
I came here to interview in August 2001. It was a whirlwind tour. I was also interviewing in Atlanta, and I was trying to cram everything in one weekend. It was extremely tough to take time off my job in Austin. I had an interview scheduled for a Friday morning, but I was flying to D.C. from Atlanta Thursday night. So a few people from the Washington firm wanted to take me to dinner when I arrived Thursday.
The cab driver from Dulles drove me right down Constitution Avenue. I saw the Vietnam Memorial, the White House, the Washington Monument. I saw people playing soccer along the mall. I was immediately in love. I knew this was the place for me. It was kind of like a dream I never even knew I had. After my official interview on Friday, I walked around the mall, visited Ford's Theater, and dipped my feet into the fountain at the Sculpture Gardens by the National Gallery. It was sunny and beautiful. When I returned to Austin, I couldn't wait to hear whether I'd gotten the job. I did!!
My start date would be October 1. I gave my two weeks notice just before Labor Day and scheduled a visit to D.C. for the next weekend to look for an apartment. I would fly out to Dulles September 8 and return to Austin on September 11. I was staying at my law school friend Nancy’s in Alexandria. Because my return flight was not until the afternoon, I stayed at Nancy’s in the morning and was going to meet one of the partners at my new firm for lunch. That didn’t happen.
There I was, the morning of September 11, in someone else’s house. Nancy and her then-fiancé (now husband) had gone to work. I would lock up when I left. Because it was not my house, my routine was messed up. I did not turn on the t.v. I was sleeping in. Nancy called me sometime between 8 and 9 to tell me the news of the World Trade Center. My response was “Oh really?” It wasn’t that I didn’t care. But I honestly could not comprehend the gravity of the situation. I had not seen the footage.
I started to get ready for the day when I got another call from her. She told me, “Do not, under any circumstances, go downtown. The Pentagon’s been hit.” Even then, I still felt like I shouldn’t cancel on my lunch. I had promised to be there. I wanted to give a good impression to my new employer. Eventually, of course, I did cancel – understandably.
It took me three days to get out of D.C. The strangest feeling of all was that I was supposed to fly on September 11 – from an airport where one of the ill-fated planes had departed. It could have been me. But it wasn’t. I was very lucky that day. I was at a friend’s house. I had a rental car. I wasn’t in a hurry to get anywhere. But I’ll never forget wondering how I would ever get back to Austin.
When I finally flew out of Dulles on Friday, September 14, it was a ghost town. My flight back to Austin was only half full. It seemed so strange given all of the flights in the previous three days that had been canceled. But people were only flying home. If they didn’t have to fly somewhere, they didn’t. I was a little scared, but I’m glad I did it. I flew out on the day the airports reopened. And I wasn’t scared again.
A few week later, I got in my car with my unsuspecting cat and drove from Texas through the Deep South to stay with a friend in Atlanta and then on to Washington. It was a crazy time to move here. But I’ll never look back.
Washington, D.C. is still a dream to me.
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I was still living and working in New Jersey on the day of the crash. My office was close to the shore and my sister's office was right across the river from the towers. I couldn't believe it - it was so surreal to me. Whenever I went into NYC, I always went by PATH through the World Trade Center. To think that in a few short hours, it was completely destroyed was incredible. Those buildings were a staple in my life. I was actually on the observation deck of the first tower two weeks earlier, taking my friend around NYC.
ReplyDeleteMy boss at the time was a total workaholic. She didn't stop once to think about the situation - she kept working....I could see smoke from the towers drifting down the shoreline. I was bewildered if anyone couldn't stop and think that we were under attack....the situation itself seem to dwarf anything that we were trying to do at AT&T.
Of course, the metro NYC area was put under high alert and businesses closed by lunch. I remember going home and looking at my husband and thinking, 'Can you believe this?' We ended up watching the news the rest of the day. His company closed down early as well and he even had a disgruntled customer out of TX yell at him, saying that no one from their company was in either of the towers so why was there a need to shut down. Looking back on it now, I hope she feels like an ass for her comments.
No American will ever forget that day but my biggest fear was for you. And when I couldn't reach you on your phone I felt real panic set in. Once I talked to you and knew you were alright, I was okay until it was time for you to fly back to Austin. We got thru all of that and then the next year, we had the sniper month. That was even scarier. My biggest relief ever was when I had heard they got the guys in the rest stop. I stayed up until 2 in the morning listening to the news. Dad was out of town and that was the first good night's sleep I had had in weeks. I think there was a hurricane in there somewhere too - but still, I, like you, are glad you have lived there. It has been so much fun for us and if you have to leave, it will be sad for me too. But it is nice to read how special our Capitol is to you. I never realized how enamored you were.
ReplyDeleteI still remember that day as though it was yesterday. John had just started his MBA program so he away at school for a week of classes. I had to drop Kevin (who was 5 months old) at my in-laws house. As I was driving to work, I was thinking what a beautiful day it was. When I was driving across the Wittpenn bridge in Jersey City, I saw smoke coming from one of the towers. I was thinking -wow, that's odd. I knew that I could get a better view of the towers from my floor at work so I hurried into work and by the time I got to my floor, the second tower had been hit and a bunch of people on my floor saw it happen. We spent the whole morning watching the towers, getting updates on the internet and when the towers finally fell, it was so surreal. There was so much smoke and for a little bit, I think we all thought that the towers didn't totally fall down, just the top half fell. But when the smoke finally cleared, the towers weren't there. At the time, I don't think we knew what we had just witnessed. Our bosses let us go home early so I went home, listened to the news and gave my son lots of hugs and kisses
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