September 11, 2001
Did I ever tell you that I am pathologically early? I was
working at Catholic Charities in Boston that day. I didn’t have parking in town, so I took the
train from Lynn to North Station then I walked to South Station. I needed to take another train south. It left South Station at 0824. I was sitting it the coffee shop at 0750 drinking
coffee and watching the planes take off from Logan Airport thinking what an
absolutely beautiful day it was.
My train got to Brockton at 0859. I was met by my contact at Hanson
Printing. They were printing our annual
report and I wanted to tour their print shop. He was listening to the radio
asking me if I knew what was going on. I
had no idea. The local radio station was
streaming the New York feed. They were
still trying to figure out what was going on. We just started driving when the
second plane hit.
We were quite stunned as I remember. We went to the print shop and started the
tour. I remember none of us was very
much into it. When I walked back to the offices
to get my things to leave, I saw that
the Pentagon was on fire. I kept trying to call my friends at the Pentagon, but
there was no service. I remember falling
to my knees on the train platform hitting redial futilely.
The few people on the train heading back into Boston were
very sullen but talking about what we thought was happening. One of them said that the World Trade Center
towers were gone. I didn’t believe him. How could that be??
We pulled into South Station and I finally realized that
life would never be the same. When they
opened the train doors, people started rushing the train to get on. I had to fight my way back into the station
where I had been sitting so calmly just two hours ago. I briefly went to work
but they sent us home. Now I had to
figure out how to get to North Station and catch a train back to Lynn. All of
the bars on Canal Street had their TVs on facing the street. People were watching every one along the
way. Maybe we thought the story would
change on a different TV? Maybe it was so unreal, we had to keep looking?
When I finally got on a train, it stopped at every
intersection so the police could make sure that someone wasn’t going to drive
explosives into us. Someone said that. It was probably bullshit, but who knows?
I went to my kids’ school – they were both in elementary school. The principal told me I might want to leave
them there for the rest of the day.
Wouldn’t you just be watching it over and over on the TV. I said “good point.” My son remembers that he
was one of the only kids left in school that day. I ended up walking back and
getting them early anyway.
I remember thinking that I was glad my Father hadn’t lived
to see this horrible thing.
