Just like it was yesterday, cant believe its been 5 years. How many of you made that sureal walk up the FdR.?
I watched the whole thing on CNBC as it unfolded live. I called back and forth to my wife at work and gave her updates as the Twin Towers came down. I will never forget that day and it's as clear as yesterday. I will never forget where I was on that day as I have never forgotten where I was when Reagan was shot, when Challenger blew up, as well as Columbia later, and the Federal building in OKC. All tragic and memorable, but the Twin Towers the most shocking/moving of them all for me!
Working across the river in Hoboken. My boss took off from Newark that same morning on his way to Chicago. He got detoured right away, of course. But fortunately he wasn't going elsewhere that morning. A friend in Washinton called me and asked me if I had heard about the plane that hit the world trade center. I told him no, immediately thinking of some errant Cessna pilot, but then he said that someone had just crashed into the pentagon as well, and had to hang up. That's when I knew something was really wrong.
I was on a business trip in Dallas, TX. Everyone was standing around a TV in the lobby when we arived, watching the news from the first crash. It was supposed to be just for the day so we had no suitcases. Because of the nation wide airspace closure, I believe we finally made it home about four days later.
Mrs. Oberholser's mid-day homeroom. Sophmore year in high school. Remember it just like yesterday... was one signature away from joining the Marines.
I was going to a meeting in WFC, just gotten off the 4/5 subway (can't remember) when the 2nd plane struck. I remember the ground shook. Then I did probably the smartest thing I could have done, ducked into a satellite office (I was working for an ibank then), called my parents and then my gf (at the time), to tell / make sure they are okay. Then I did probably the stupidest thing (in a funny way) possible, I called the meeting organizer, and left a rambling voicemail like this, "I, ahem, will be late to the 9:30 meeting, some plane hit World Trade. I think the skybridge to WFC is sealed off. I think I will be 45 mins to 1 hour *late*." From that day on, everytime I go to this guy's office, he would play back this voicemail for me. It was unnerving and funny at the same time. I also worked from the satellite office until the cops / FBI literally started to going floor by floor to tell us to evacuate. Then I made the 3.5 hour trek up Broadway (I was living at lower UES then). I was a bit north of City Hall (on broadway) when the first tower fell, only I didn't know then it was the towers (you guys watching TV knows far *more* than people on the ground), for 3-4 mins, people was running full-steam, thinking it might be a huge gas explosion. There were people who thought the island might be sinking (!). It was a completely surreal day. I know that the ibank's bond desk was on the phone with some of the traders at Cantor, and heard the screams, and then, silence. And they saw the plane hit. I guess I am lucky since I didn't really see anybody die. One of the other guys who was going to the meeting was under WTC when the 2nd plane hit, and he walked outside, looked up, and saw jumpers. He was pretty traumatized for quite sometime. Yes, it seemd like yesterday. My heart goes out to all those who got their peace and hope taken away (not just those who dies, but also the widows, and the children) in the tragedy.
My office was a block from the WTC. I would always eat lunch outside in Merrill Lynch park (less than a block from WTC), watch the backgammon, chess matches and the girls. I exited the subway at Wall St, and got to the street level right after the first plane hit. I didn't go back downtown for 3 months after that day.
I remember watching a german news channel on the morning of Sept. 12th, where they interviewed the head of currency trading of commerzbank in Frankfurt. That guys eyes told you he didn't sleep at all, and at one point of the interview, he lost his composure and shouted into the camera that he was totally disgusted because he heard that other traders who had brokers from WTC on the phone actually opened short positions right after they heard through the phones the planes vaporizing their counter party...
I made a joke about the pilot being a major idiot, not even thinking people were dying. I was under thei impression it could have been a small plane. then one of our new traders who had been trading in the power markets before his firmed got d/k by enron, said this is no joke. He said I am getting emails from friends with whom he used to trade power -- saying they could not get down and they were sending out the emails before they died. I felt pretty bad for making the joke. After the second plane hit, my busiiness partner and I went to the bank and took out all the money from our buisiness account. Just in case it got worse.