I Was There

Tawiskaro | 9/17/01 | Tawiskaro

[Tawiskaro]

I wasn't so sure, either.

[Tawiskaro]

bttt

[GretchenEE]

In reply to your last post, I want to repeat what I wrote in my last post:

I do not want to get into a debate, and post this for the sake of those who may follow after the earlier post.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thank you for sharing your experience. We can not know the horrors you witnessed first hand that day, but please know how many are praying for you and all who suffered in the WTC attack. Beautiful, heart-wrenching...thank you.

[Le-Roy]

Thank you for taking the time to write this...and I am glad that you were able.

Bttt.

[Budge]

Beautiful, powerful, and horrifying tale, old friend! Thank you.

[summer]

Thank you so much for flagging me on this. Incredible writing!!! Best, summer :)

[summer]

Tawiskaro, my above post to Ragtime Cowgirl was for you too. Thank you for this incredible essay.

Best, summer :)

[austingirl]

Thank you for your story

[Budge]

Luis, I didn't realize he had already posted this expanded version.

[cmsgop]

Welcome back from Hell My Friend.........

[Tawiskaro]

Share it, Budge. And Bump it.

bttt

[Exit148]

I can't even imagine what it must have been like to look up and see that horror --- knowing that it was not just concrete and steel, but humans, just like you and me, who had to endure that terrible and terrifying life-ending ordeal.

Thank you for your story. I hope that writing it has helped to come to grips with what you saw, heard and felt.

[Tawiskaro]

How did I hook up with Mario again? Sorry, I tried to post a response earlier, but my computer took a nap on me. Then I just plain forgot.

Mario had a cell phone. He finally managed to call our boss, who called my wife. We both walked (about half an hour apart) to W. 71st street to a hotel at which our travel agent had supposedly reserved rooms for us. The hotel turned out to be a $60 dollar per night flophouse with no telephones or televisions. Shared bathrooms. Loitering homosexuals--that sort of thing. It came almost as a relief to learn that they had never heard of me or Mario. We had no reservations.

My wife had given me Mario's cell phone number, but I had taken it down incorrectly, I guess. I tried the bogus number repeatedly without success. I ended up in a room at the Roosevelt on 45th at Madison. Mario lucked out, I learned later, by benefitting from a cancellation at the Comfort Inn at W. 71st Street near Central Park. I still have blisters on my blisters.

My wife made sure I got the number right when I spoke to her that night. Mario and I had a subdued reunion at about 7:30 the next morning in front of the public library at 42nd and Fifth Avenue.

While waiting at that intersection I couldn't help but watch a beat cop who was stioned there. The look on his face reminded me vaguely of the face that had stared back at me in the mirror the day my mother died, but his was much grimmer. This guy had steel in his spine, I could see, but his expression suggested he'd just lost many brothers. I felt bad for him.

[Tawiskaro]

Make that "stationed there" and "from the mirror".

bttt

[error99]

The people of New York City have been put through hell.
What meaningful words can I say from here?
...there are none...
Y'all are going to just have to try to hang in there, brother.
And if there is any consolation in it, know that the whole nation grieves with you.

[Budge]

The horror is world-wide.

BTTT

[Luis Gonzalez]

Thanks for sharing this with us, it's unimaginable that these accounts that I've been reading come from Americans in America.

These unspeakable bastards must pay, and pay dearly for their actions.

I am glad that you are OK, I couldn't imagine having gone through what you all did.

God Bless the dead, their families, and friends.

God guide and protect the rescuers, and our troops.

God Bless America.

[NYC GOP Chick]

I was most afraid when the F-16s were overhead and people started screaming that they (thinking the F-16s were hijacked planes) were going to take out the Brooklyn & Manhattan Bridges. I really thought I was going to die right then and there.

[PoisedWoman]

You're a lucky guy! Not only escaping the WTC but also the flophouse hotel.