September 11, 2024 • 22 mins
Patty Steele talks about a 9/11 episode of her podcast, The Backstory.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, so, Patty Steele is here the smartest woman I know.
Do we know where the term dildo came from.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The exception of the other women in this room, I.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Accuse you of being the smartest. I'm hoping you will
answer the question. Yes, we google, we can't find.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
That's exactly what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
But never mind, we'll get into something else.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, some guy named Joe Dildo.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Joseph weird thing thinking Donnie Dildo or Donny Derek.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Those names don't sound as Joe Dildo sounds okay, Donnie
Derek Donny sounds CD.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Patty and I have been really good friends since nineteen
eighty at the end of the dy Yes, and uh, Patty,
of course and I work together here on Z one
hundred for many years. And I always knew that Patty
had this love and passion for all things history.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yes I do.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
And now your podcast, Yes.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's been doing great. Actually going to add and I
don't know if you know this, I should tell you
since it's your platform, what adding a third episode probably
next at the beginning of next month. Really yeah, yeah, well, hey,
you know there's a demand for eight minute history stories.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It's incredible. It's awesome, But once you get her started,
it's kind of hard to get her stopping, okay, because
she just loves history. For instance, I mean, we all
know about the night that President Lincoln and Mary Todd
Lincoln went to the theater to watch a play and then
he was shot and he passed away. But Patty's question is, well,
do you know who else was in the box with
(01:34):
The Lincolns never even cared there was anyone else in
the box, but it turned into a great story.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Who was it?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Just in a nutshell who was in the.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Box with him? It was Henry and Clara, who were
engaged at the time, even though they were step brother
and sister, And yeah, it didn't go well for them
after that.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
They didn't like Mary Todd at all though well.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
She liked Mary Todd, which is why they managed to
get an invite into the box because she was one
of the few people that did.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
No one liked Mary Todd Lincoln.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, she seems like a pill, a raging bitch. Just
it's a good word for woman. She had some issues.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
She lost, couple of our kids died, Yeah, depression back then,
she had some other issues.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Stop defending Mary.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
To say back then they didn't have you didn't go
to a therapist when things happened, you know, right, And
she was a really smart woman without any outlet for
that other than to you know, protect her husband and
and you know, try to push him into doing what
he eventually did.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Which President Lincoln gay or bisexual?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know, there's a lot of people that talk about that,
and there's certainly many books that have been written on it.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Did he share his bed with some guy?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
For some years? People did? In those days, you would,
you would.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Try, you did.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
That's a whole different story.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I'm sorry, that's right. We noticed for many.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Years, as you know too much.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
You know, you don't have a kidding anyway, go ahead.
People did cheer beds.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
It's oh sure, like you would travel and because they're
you know, there wasn't a million hotels around, you would
check into a little inn and they would say, yeah,
there's space in this bed. You would sleep with people
you didn't even know. Oh wow, god knows I have beds.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Why did I live back then?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Oh my god, I thought he was a vampire lady.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
Sorry, yeah it was vampire hunter.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yah, vampire hunter.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well I tell you what let's talk about, uh, you know,
something a little more serious. Let's talk about the significance
of this day. Yeah, and we were talking about how
it was twenty three years ago today that we were
all together doing the morning show, and it was the
weather was identical to the forecast.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
We have today, beautiful September day.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
In New York City. Yeah, And the day started out
like another typical you know, us talking about things that
really didn't matter.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And by the time you get to you know, the
time that all of this began, which was eight forty six,
was the first plane hitting you. You know how that
goes with morning shows. You're kind of gearing down, everybody's
getting ready to head out. And and I was alone
in the studio where I was working, which was w PLJ,
which doesn't exist anymore, and and this guy called and
(04:12):
he said, I think a missile just hit the World Trade.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Center and night God helicopter.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
And I said, okay, and I said, let me check.
And I went into the ABC newsroom WABC newsroom, and
I said, you know, I just got this call, and
they went nah. And literally at that moment, everything all
the phones started ringing. And so then they called and
you know, of course, it all began to unfold, and
we wound up staying on the air till nine o'clock
(04:39):
that night. I couldn't get home. I had little, tiny, tiny,
tiny children, and I kept looking at the Hudson River
and thinking, if I have to, I'll swim because I
wanted to get to my kids. I can't. It's so amazing,
all these years later, you still feel that emotion of
what you felt. And I was standing there and I
(05:00):
knew that Penn Station was below us, and the Empire
State Building a block away, and you just don't know
what's going to happen next. And I remember trying to
feel if there was any vibration in the floor while
we were standing there in those few especially that first
couple of hours before we knew whether there was going
(05:21):
to be more, you know, and we had people calling.
There was a woman who called from the tower that
hadn't been hit yet, and she said, and she said
to us, she said, people are going crazy over there.
She said, I just saw somebody throw a computer through
a window. And she said, they need to calm down.
(05:41):
It's going to be fine.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
She didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
She didn't and she was way up in the other tower, right.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, yeah, So we were in Jersey City watching the
whole thing. Our studios were built on the Hudson River
to showcase the World Trade Center. That was the center
of our.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So you had like a television.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, it was world It was wild, and you know,
we didn't we was first reported it was a helicopter,
then it was a small plane, then we reported it
was a passenger plane. And then by the time we're
putting all that together, the second plane hit the other tower,
and that's when it all became what it became.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And didn't you feel like, what are we watching?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Well, you don't know, because it you process it. Well,
if it's happening right in front of you, you feel
like you're watching a movie. You know, it doesn't seem
real because who would want to do that? Why would
two pilots make the same mistake in the same day. Oh,
then we quickly figured it out.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
It made me feel more like a movie. When I
was driving home and the first tower fell, and we
all stopped our cars and got out of our cars
and turned around, and everyone looked at each other like, no.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
What are we feel? How is this possible? Right?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And it was just right. I saw the second tower
fault in my rear view mirror as I was driving
away from Jersey City, Gandhi, where were you? I was
in school, you were This is twenty three years ago,
so you were only how old were you?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
I would have been sixteen fifteen.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So you were old enough to understand what was going on?
Sort of?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I'm like, kind of.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
I mean, I remember we walked into class and then
we saw our teacher had it on the TV and
we saw what was going on, and you couldn't tell
how big a plane had hit from just.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
The view that we were right, So everybody.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
Was kind of thinking, oh, this is a mistake. A
little prop plane ran into it. And my teacher I
remember him saying, no, you guys don't understand the size
of the plane that hit that building. That is a
massive building. A giant plane hit it. We saw the
second plane hit, and my teacher said, the world will
never be the same.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
He was right, wow, really right?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
What telling you? What city in South Florida? Right?
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Yees again?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
High school?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Easy?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Wow? So you know I'm getting the goosebumps. Yeah, I know,
And look what's happened. I was telling them. I was
walking around the city yesterday. It was a beautiful day
and I was noticing it in you know, the Hudson
Yards area, this and that. How the shape of the
city has so changed since that three years ago. We
lost those two huge towers along with all that life, right,
(08:04):
and then this one tower is erected, and then you
see other towers. The people who left us that day
may not recognize the city that we live in now,
because New York City is always always changing.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Oh well, you know, it's funny. I was just looking
on one of my many history sites. I got this
this thing that showed me a picture of this beautiful
old farmhouse sitting on a hill, and it said in
eighteen seventy nine, this was at the corner of Broadway
in eighty fourth Street. Wow, and you see this, You
see this old and it's it's like you're out in
(08:40):
the countryside and it's a farmhouse on a hill. And
that's not I mean, you think, okay, eighteen seventy long ago,
that long ago. No, you know, it's really it's really
pretty wild.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
So as far as history goes, and I know I
know that you want to I'm looking at the clock.
We were going to have to take a hard break
in like three minutes. But we but we'll come back
and do our own one of silence and we can
continue this conversation. Yeah, I know you're in a hurry
of lots to go on.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
No, no, no, I'm I'm good. I'm I'm looking at
every time someone walks in my house.
Speaker 7 (09:09):
At my house, it rings. I heard those little too.
But as far as history goes, I know, I know
that you sniff out all sorts of things that we
have no clue about. Yeah, give me a short something.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Oh, there's a million of them. I actually have a
podcast running right now that's really kind of fun. And
I did it because I wanted to not be too serious.
I didn't expect it to run today, but it did.
But it's about how teachers back in the eighteen hundreds,
things that were expected of teachers. And I'm looking at
(09:42):
this list, and these were posted in schoolhouses. They were
not allowed to dry dye their hair, they weren't allowed
to loiter at ice cream shops. What they weren't allowed
male teachers. They said that if you get a shave
at a barber shop, people will quest and your morals
and your honesty. Who knew that you couldn't go to
(10:03):
a barbershop or an ice cream store.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, ice cream stores back then were places where people dated.
That was a romantic spot in town. You I didn't
realize the fact I was alive then I should know.
And women weren't allowed to get married.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
They weren't. They were teachers and they do anything else
with men. So there was a lot of restrictions. And
it's really interesting because you look at what goes on
in schools today, it's a different scene. It is, you know,
God blessed teacher, a lot different.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
What about New York City? Here we are in the
middle of this incredible vibrating thing, right you know a
lot about the history of New York City.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, I've am fascinated by it because if you go
back in time, it was this beautiful, bucolic you know,
hilly trees, there were forests, there were farms right where
we're sitting right now, and it wasn't that long ago.
There's a couple of little places around the city where
you can still see remnants of that. There's a great building,
(11:08):
I think it's on sixty six on the east side
that's like a It was built in the early eighteen
hundreds as a as a farmhouse for one of I
think it was John Adams's daughter, and eventually turned into
a little hotel and it still sits there and it's
you can visit it.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
It's historic. It's not all steel and glass now.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
No, there's next door to it is all stealing class.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
It's funny. How well, it's all worth something, all right,
because it's all about the money. Tell you what we're
going to take a break in. Coming up next, we
are going to observe a moment of silence and play
some special music and Patty Steele's with us. Let's talk
more history, coming rights.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
What a beautiful song Casey Musgraves and Rainbow. What a
great a great song for this year's moment of silence.
Thank you, thank you, gandhi oh welcome that song is.
It's pretty amazing. And what a day. We're joined by
our friend Patty Steele. We're talking all things history, all
things nine to eleven and all things is whatever we
want to talk about.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It is emotional day. I got a little term of
my height.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, I know, it's hard. It's it's that time, you
know again we go back to these moments that changed
the world and for us, for those of us who
were here, and I think for those of us, for
those watching from without and further away, it was a
pivotal moment. Although it's kind of interesting. I know that
(12:34):
my husband was working at a nut yet another radio
station at the time, and about two days later somebody
called them and where have you been. I've been trying
to get a hold of you, somebody from a record
company in La right, And it was like, we have
you been watching the news? Yeah, but that was two
days ago. And it's funny how people, I mean, you
either really connect and you understand the humanity and the
(12:58):
human toll, or you think, wow, that's annoying, you know,
and I guess we have to move and we've got
to move on. But I think for those of us
who feel something as painful as it is, it enriches
your life in some way because you begin to empathize
with what other people are feeling. And that's like the
(13:21):
greatest thing we can do as human beings.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Well, and yeah, it seems like after twenty three years
have passed, a lot of us have gone out of
that habit and we should roll back in Yeah, no kidding.
So that day my friend Dennis was in town, and
we packed up the car and we headed out to
where I lived out in New Jersey at the farm.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We drove out there on the sunny day and so
let's go gass up the car because we don't know
what's next. Yeah, And people were just kind of going
about their day as if. I don't think anyone knew
what was going on in the city one hour in
our rear view mirror, you know, one hour behind us.
And then the next day, you know, we got up
early to drive to Jersey City to do the show,
and we were told, look, there's people with machine guns
(14:02):
on those roads that lead to your studios. It's you're
gonna have to show on my I DA and tell
them what you do and maybe they'll let you in.
Maybe they won't. Because it was right on the river, right,
and they are already on Route seventy eight coming east
toward New York City. There were already American flags hanging
off of bridges off And that's when we've found out.
And we lived through these days and months of feelings
(14:26):
we'd never experienced in our lives, this beautification, this pride
that we had in this country.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Is amazing that. Yeah, you know that it.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Was like that moment people were nice to each other.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I don't know well, because I was trapped in the city.
I was lucky to get a hotel room, although no
services in the hotel. And the next morning I had
to drive back down to and I had to go
through like a roadblocks, and I told them what I
was doing, and the guy said to me, what are
you doing in the city. And I started to cry,
and I said, I would rather be with my but
(15:00):
I can't get out of the city my babies. And
and then for how long afterwards I would have to
drive through the Lincoln Tunnel to go to work, and
I had I would I had a mom car like
this big suburban with baby seats in it. They searched
my car every morning going through the tunnel, and you know,
(15:22):
so that I could get to work. It was a
it was a wild time and you but you didn't
complain because you knew that they were just trying to
take care of.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Us there they were. Wow. Anyway, yeah, there you have
it it. We were all affected differently, like Danielle Yep.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
I just remember the next day like how much everyone
helped everybody. How we were on the air all day
for days, like right like hours, and someone would call
and we'd put them on the air and they'd be
at ground zero and they'd say, we need, you know,
food or water, and I was fifteen minutes later someone
brought it to them, Like it was just immediate. People
(16:00):
were just helping each other. Whatever you need, we got
you back.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah. They were lined up down the West Side yeah highway. Yeah,
just trying to bring supplies to people. The one thing
I noticed, and I don't know if you guys noticed this.
You know, people in New York are famous for you know,
you're walking on the street, you're walking fast, and you're
not making eye contact, and that is a thing about
how people maneuver through the city. Everybody was looking at
(16:25):
each other and you and you could see the pain
in some people's eyes. You could see just a connection,
but there was also a warmth there, like we're here together,
We're in this together. It was an interesting time. Then
we stopped looking at each other again.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, I remember the first day we laughed. Yeah, we
were doing the show. I don't even know how many
days after nine to eleven and someone said something funny
and we all laughed and we stopped because it was
we hadn't heard that noise in a while. And I'm
not kidding.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
We didn't know if it was okay to do it
was okay to.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Laugh, and then we realized, yeah, it's time to laugh.
It's time for us to be human here. And I
don't know, we don't want anything like that to ever
happen again. Will it happen, It will in our lifetime,
maybe not. But why does it take that for us.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
To come together?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Right, Well, everybody talks about how during World War Two
the country was so united, and it is a sad
testament to human nature that we have to go through
unbelievable pain and upset in order to find each other
and find the humanity in other people. But it seems
to be the way we operate.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Seems to be all right, Yeah, what's up, Nate? I
don't know where we are, Yes, Nate, what's up?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
It's a world that doesn't exist anymore that day, remember,
because technology, the information that we have at our fingertips,
getting text messages about things. I was going into a
class I was in college at the time and going
into the class and stuff had started happening in New
York and people are getting filtered information about it, and
the teacher, the professor goes, Okay, thanks for showing up.
(18:07):
I know there's some weird stuff going on. It's in
class for an hour and a half. Nobody knew what
was going on for that hour and a half. We
get out and the campus was empty, and I was
at Penn State, and that doesn't exist anymore. Everybody gets
that information so quickly on their phones. And there was
probably a lot of people in a blackout where they
(18:29):
were working. They're doing something, they didn't have anybody calling them,
and that doesn't exist anymore. You're right, we know when
something bad happens immediately now, right.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Sometimes we know when things are bad happening and then
we find out that it was all a lie. It
never happened.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
This is Do.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
You remember where we were the day before we were
we were playing games atters.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Yeah, and they had just rolled out this whole big
initiative for the that moving forward, this is what we
were going to do, and it was a whole big thing,
and the next day they scrapped the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Of course they did. Wow, we had different marketing orders.
I remember in our studios looking, you know, at the
right at World Trade Center. The smoke was still bellowing
out months from the pile. And then we saw smoke
on our side of the river where you lived, Gandhi.
I'm like, oh my god, there's a fire downstairs. We
look down there. It was out back steakhouts and that
(19:27):
they were grilling up things, guild up because it was
where the dogs were. All of the supplies left from
beneath our building. They were down there grilling up, you know,
maybe frying up step the feet, blumin onions everything, look,
you know, and then we're looking to today and forward
the positives that came out of something that was so
(19:49):
god awful. You can do things to help people. You
can look out for other people, you can find. You
can commit one day a year to going somewhere and
helping a bunch of people you don't know, put together
a meal for people who need food. There are a
thousand trillion things you can.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Do, and you can find the humanity and other people.
I keep going back to that because it's so easy
to just say you know person, person, person person and
just walk past them. And instead, you know, if you
stop and think that everybody has a story. Everybody has
something that they feel deeply about, something that's painful, something
(20:28):
that makes them happy. And when you can find that
little bit of humanity and other people, I think it
enriches all of our lives, you.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Know, well absolutely, and that's what might makes you want
to be of service, Yeah, for other people, yes, even
for you, Scar Yeah. Well look, you know, it's such
a gift. It's such a gift to be able to
be with each other and to talk about this and
you know, and how you observe this day is a
personal thing. Maybe you don't want to hear a bunch
(20:57):
of wackos on the radio talking wacko stuff, or maybe
you're in the mood for something fun and whatever. That's
you and we support you no matter where you are.
Patty Steele's podcast is called The Backstory with Patty Steele,
and I encourage you. Even if you've never really been
a history nut or slightly interested in history, she will
(21:17):
make you want to know more about things that have
happened before the moment you're in right now.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And that's history, thank you, that is history. It's once again,
here we go again. It's the humanity in people in
the past. They're not just dusty folks. It's not just
stuff in a history book. It's human beings that wanted
the same things and felt the same things you and
I feel. They just had a different set of circumstances
they operated in, and so it's sort of fascinating to
(21:45):
find out how they dealt with all of that and
reacted to that, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
So give it a listen. It's the backstory with Patty Steel.
And by the way, sometimes it's very racy.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, sometimes it is, So that's time for another racy one. Huh.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I think it's something I think so you can get
ranchi with it. Sure, we love you, Patty Steel, thanks
for coming in, Yello.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Patty in the Morning Elvis Durant in the Morning Show
Yeah, so, Patty Steele is here the smartest woman I know.
Do we know where the term dildo came from.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The exception of the other women in this room, I.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Accuse you of being the smartest. I'm hoping you will
answer the question. Yes, we google, we can't find.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
That's exactly what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
But never mind, we'll get into something else.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, some guy named Joe Dildo.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Joseph weird thing thinking Donnie Dildo or Donny Derek.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Those names don't sound as Joe Dildo sounds okay, Donnie
Derek Donny sounds CD.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Patty and I have been really good friends since nineteen
eighty at the end of the dy Yes, and uh, Patty,
of course and I work together here on Z one
hundred for many years. And I always knew that Patty
had this love and passion for all things history.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yes I do.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
And now your podcast, Yes.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
It's been doing great. Actually going to add and I
don't know if you know this, I should tell you
since it's your platform, what adding a third episode probably
next at the beginning of next month. Really yeah, yeah, well, hey,
you know there's a demand for eight minute history stories.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
It's incredible. It's awesome, But once you get her started,
it's kind of hard to get her stopping, okay, because
she just loves history. For instance, I mean, we all
know about the night that President Lincoln and Mary Todd
Lincoln went to the theater to watch a play and then
he was shot and he passed away. But Patty's question is, well,
do you know who else was in the box with
(01:34):
The Lincolns never even cared there was anyone else in
the box, but it turned into a great story.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Who was it?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Just in a nutshell who was in the.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Box with him? It was Henry and Clara, who were
engaged at the time, even though they were step brother
and sister, And yeah, it didn't go well for them
after that.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
They didn't like Mary Todd at all though well.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
She liked Mary Todd, which is why they managed to
get an invite into the box because she was one
of the few people that did.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
No one liked Mary Todd Lincoln.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, she seems like a pill, a raging bitch. Just
it's a good word for woman. She had some issues.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
She lost, couple of our kids died, Yeah, depression back then,
she had some other issues.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Stop defending Mary.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
To say back then they didn't have you didn't go
to a therapist when things happened, you know, right, And
she was a really smart woman without any outlet for
that other than to you know, protect her husband and
and you know, try to push him into doing what
he eventually did.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Which President Lincoln gay or bisexual?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know, there's a lot of people that talk about that,
and there's certainly many books that have been written on it.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Did he share his bed with some guy?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
For some years? People did? In those days, you would,
you would.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Try, you did.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
That's a whole different story.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I'm sorry, that's right. We noticed for many.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Years, as you know too much.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
You know, you don't have a kidding anyway, go ahead.
People did cheer beds.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
It's oh sure, like you would travel and because they're
you know, there wasn't a million hotels around, you would
check into a little inn and they would say, yeah,
there's space in this bed. You would sleep with people
you didn't even know. Oh wow, god knows I have beds.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Why did I live back then?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Oh my god, I thought he was a vampire lady.
Speaker 6 (03:19):
Sorry, yeah it was vampire hunter.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yah, vampire hunter.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well I tell you what let's talk about, uh, you know,
something a little more serious. Let's talk about the significance
of this day. Yeah, and we were talking about how
it was twenty three years ago today that we were
all together doing the morning show, and it was the
weather was identical to the forecast.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
We have today, beautiful September day.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
In New York City. Yeah, And the day started out
like another typical you know, us talking about things that
really didn't matter.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
And by the time you get to you know, the
time that all of this began, which was eight forty six,
was the first plane hitting you. You know how that
goes with morning shows. You're kind of gearing down, everybody's
getting ready to head out. And and I was alone
in the studio where I was working, which was w PLJ,
which doesn't exist anymore, and and this guy called and
(04:12):
he said, I think a missile just hit the World Trade.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Center and night God helicopter.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
And I said, okay, and I said, let me check.
And I went into the ABC newsroom WABC newsroom, and
I said, you know, I just got this call, and
they went nah. And literally at that moment, everything all
the phones started ringing. And so then they called and
you know, of course, it all began to unfold, and
we wound up staying on the air till nine o'clock
(04:39):
that night. I couldn't get home. I had little, tiny, tiny,
tiny children, and I kept looking at the Hudson River
and thinking, if I have to, I'll swim because I
wanted to get to my kids. I can't. It's so amazing,
all these years later, you still feel that emotion of
what you felt. And I was standing there and I
(05:00):
knew that Penn Station was below us, and the Empire
State Building a block away, and you just don't know
what's going to happen next. And I remember trying to
feel if there was any vibration in the floor while
we were standing there in those few especially that first
couple of hours before we knew whether there was going
(05:21):
to be more, you know, and we had people calling.
There was a woman who called from the tower that
hadn't been hit yet, and she said, and she said
to us, she said, people are going crazy over there.
She said, I just saw somebody throw a computer through
a window. And she said, they need to calm down.
(05:41):
It's going to be fine.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
She didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
She didn't and she was way up in the other tower, right.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yeah, yeah, So we were in Jersey City watching the
whole thing. Our studios were built on the Hudson River
to showcase the World Trade Center. That was the center
of our.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So you had like a television.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, it was world It was wild, and you know,
we didn't we was first reported it was a helicopter,
then it was a small plane, then we reported it
was a passenger plane. And then by the time we're
putting all that together, the second plane hit the other tower,
and that's when it all became what it became.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
And didn't you feel like, what are we watching?
Speaker 1 (06:20):
Well, you don't know, because it you process it. Well,
if it's happening right in front of you, you feel
like you're watching a movie. You know, it doesn't seem
real because who would want to do that? Why would
two pilots make the same mistake in the same day. Oh,
then we quickly figured it out.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
It made me feel more like a movie. When I
was driving home and the first tower fell, and we
all stopped our cars and got out of our cars
and turned around, and everyone looked at each other like, no.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
What are we feel? How is this possible? Right?
Speaker 1 (06:49):
And it was just right. I saw the second tower
fault in my rear view mirror as I was driving
away from Jersey City, Gandhi, where were you? I was
in school, you were This is twenty three years ago,
so you were only how old were you?
Speaker 6 (07:02):
I would have been sixteen fifteen.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So you were old enough to understand what was going on?
Sort of?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I'm like, kind of.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
I mean, I remember we walked into class and then
we saw our teacher had it on the TV and
we saw what was going on, and you couldn't tell
how big a plane had hit from just.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
The view that we were right, So everybody.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
Was kind of thinking, oh, this is a mistake. A
little prop plane ran into it. And my teacher I
remember him saying, no, you guys don't understand the size
of the plane that hit that building. That is a
massive building. A giant plane hit it. We saw the
second plane hit, and my teacher said, the world will
never be the same.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
He was right, wow, really right?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
What telling you? What city in South Florida? Right?
Speaker 6 (07:40):
Yees again?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
High school?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Easy?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Wow? So you know I'm getting the goosebumps. Yeah, I know,
And look what's happened. I was telling them. I was
walking around the city yesterday. It was a beautiful day
and I was noticing it in you know, the Hudson
Yards area, this and that. How the shape of the
city has so changed since that three years ago. We
lost those two huge towers along with all that life, right,
(08:04):
and then this one tower is erected, and then you
see other towers. The people who left us that day
may not recognize the city that we live in now,
because New York City is always always changing.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Oh well, you know, it's funny. I was just looking
on one of my many history sites. I got this
this thing that showed me a picture of this beautiful
old farmhouse sitting on a hill, and it said in
eighteen seventy nine, this was at the corner of Broadway
in eighty fourth Street. Wow, and you see this, You
see this old and it's it's like you're out in
(08:40):
the countryside and it's a farmhouse on a hill. And
that's not I mean, you think, okay, eighteen seventy long ago,
that long ago. No, you know, it's really it's really
pretty wild.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
So as far as history goes, and I know I
know that you want to I'm looking at the clock.
We were going to have to take a hard break
in like three minutes. But we but we'll come back
and do our own one of silence and we can
continue this conversation. Yeah, I know you're in a hurry
of lots to go on.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
No, no, no, I'm I'm good. I'm I'm looking at
every time someone walks in my house.
Speaker 7 (09:09):
At my house, it rings. I heard those little too.
But as far as history goes, I know, I know
that you sniff out all sorts of things that we
have no clue about. Yeah, give me a short something.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Oh, there's a million of them. I actually have a
podcast running right now that's really kind of fun. And
I did it because I wanted to not be too serious.
I didn't expect it to run today, but it did.
But it's about how teachers back in the eighteen hundreds,
things that were expected of teachers. And I'm looking at
(09:42):
this list, and these were posted in schoolhouses. They were
not allowed to dry dye their hair, they weren't allowed
to loiter at ice cream shops. What they weren't allowed
male teachers. They said that if you get a shave
at a barber shop, people will quest and your morals
and your honesty. Who knew that you couldn't go to
(10:03):
a barbershop or an ice cream store.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Well, ice cream stores back then were places where people dated.
That was a romantic spot in town. You I didn't
realize the fact I was alive then I should know.
And women weren't allowed to get married.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
They weren't. They were teachers and they do anything else
with men. So there was a lot of restrictions. And
it's really interesting because you look at what goes on
in schools today, it's a different scene. It is, you know,
God blessed teacher, a lot different.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
What about New York City? Here we are in the
middle of this incredible vibrating thing, right you know a
lot about the history of New York City.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, I've am fascinated by it because if you go
back in time, it was this beautiful, bucolic you know,
hilly trees, there were forests, there were farms right where
we're sitting right now, and it wasn't that long ago.
There's a couple of little places around the city where
you can still see remnants of that. There's a great building,
(11:08):
I think it's on sixty six on the east side
that's like a It was built in the early eighteen
hundreds as a as a farmhouse for one of I
think it was John Adams's daughter, and eventually turned into
a little hotel and it still sits there and it's
you can visit it.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
It's historic. It's not all steel and glass now.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
No, there's next door to it is all stealing class.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
It's funny. How well, it's all worth something, all right,
because it's all about the money. Tell you what we're
going to take a break in. Coming up next, we
are going to observe a moment of silence and play
some special music and Patty Steele's with us. Let's talk
more history, coming rights.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
What a beautiful song Casey Musgraves and Rainbow. What a
great a great song for this year's moment of silence.
Thank you, thank you, gandhi oh welcome that song is.
It's pretty amazing. And what a day. We're joined by
our friend Patty Steele. We're talking all things history, all
things nine to eleven and all things is whatever we
want to talk about.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It is emotional day. I got a little term of
my height.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, I know, it's hard. It's it's that time, you
know again we go back to these moments that changed
the world and for us, for those of us who
were here, and I think for those of us, for
those watching from without and further away, it was a
pivotal moment. Although it's kind of interesting. I know that
(12:34):
my husband was working at a nut yet another radio
station at the time, and about two days later somebody
called them and where have you been. I've been trying
to get a hold of you, somebody from a record
company in La right, And it was like, we have
you been watching the news? Yeah, but that was two
days ago. And it's funny how people, I mean, you
either really connect and you understand the humanity and the
(12:58):
human toll, or you think, wow, that's annoying, you know,
and I guess we have to move and we've got
to move on. But I think for those of us
who feel something as painful as it is, it enriches
your life in some way because you begin to empathize
with what other people are feeling. And that's like the
(13:21):
greatest thing we can do as human beings.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Well, and yeah, it seems like after twenty three years
have passed, a lot of us have gone out of
that habit and we should roll back in Yeah, no kidding.
So that day my friend Dennis was in town, and
we packed up the car and we headed out to
where I lived out in New Jersey at the farm.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
We drove out there on the sunny day and so
let's go gass up the car because we don't know
what's next. Yeah, And people were just kind of going
about their day as if. I don't think anyone knew
what was going on in the city one hour in
our rear view mirror, you know, one hour behind us.
And then the next day, you know, we got up
early to drive to Jersey City to do the show,
and we were told, look, there's people with machine guns
(14:02):
on those roads that lead to your studios. It's you're
gonna have to show on my I DA and tell
them what you do and maybe they'll let you in.
Maybe they won't. Because it was right on the river, right,
and they are already on Route seventy eight coming east
toward New York City. There were already American flags hanging
off of bridges off And that's when we've found out.
And we lived through these days and months of feelings
(14:26):
we'd never experienced in our lives, this beautification, this pride
that we had in this country.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Is amazing that. Yeah, you know that it.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Was like that moment people were nice to each other.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I don't know well, because I was trapped in the city.
I was lucky to get a hotel room, although no
services in the hotel. And the next morning I had
to drive back down to and I had to go
through like a roadblocks, and I told them what I
was doing, and the guy said to me, what are
you doing in the city. And I started to cry,
and I said, I would rather be with my but
(15:00):
I can't get out of the city my babies. And
and then for how long afterwards I would have to
drive through the Lincoln Tunnel to go to work, and
I had I would I had a mom car like
this big suburban with baby seats in it. They searched
my car every morning going through the tunnel, and you know,
(15:22):
so that I could get to work. It was a
it was a wild time and you but you didn't
complain because you knew that they were just trying to
take care of.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Us there they were. Wow. Anyway, yeah, there you have
it it. We were all affected differently, like Danielle Yep.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
I just remember the next day like how much everyone
helped everybody. How we were on the air all day
for days, like right like hours, and someone would call
and we'd put them on the air and they'd be
at ground zero and they'd say, we need, you know,
food or water, and I was fifteen minutes later someone
brought it to them, Like it was just immediate. People
(16:00):
were just helping each other. Whatever you need, we got
you back.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah. They were lined up down the West Side yeah highway. Yeah,
just trying to bring supplies to people. The one thing
I noticed, and I don't know if you guys noticed this.
You know, people in New York are famous for you know,
you're walking on the street, you're walking fast, and you're
not making eye contact, and that is a thing about
how people maneuver through the city. Everybody was looking at
(16:25):
each other and you and you could see the pain
in some people's eyes. You could see just a connection,
but there was also a warmth there, like we're here together,
We're in this together. It was an interesting time. Then
we stopped looking at each other again.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, I remember the first day we laughed. Yeah, we
were doing the show. I don't even know how many
days after nine to eleven and someone said something funny
and we all laughed and we stopped because it was
we hadn't heard that noise in a while. And I'm
not kidding.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
We didn't know if it was okay to do it
was okay to.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Laugh, and then we realized, yeah, it's time to laugh.
It's time for us to be human here. And I
don't know, we don't want anything like that to ever
happen again. Will it happen, It will in our lifetime,
maybe not. But why does it take that for us.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
To come together?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Right, Well, everybody talks about how during World War Two
the country was so united, and it is a sad
testament to human nature that we have to go through
unbelievable pain and upset in order to find each other
and find the humanity in other people. But it seems
to be the way we operate.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Seems to be all right, Yeah, what's up, Nate? I
don't know where we are, Yes, Nate, what's up?
Speaker 3 (17:45):
It's a world that doesn't exist anymore that day, remember,
because technology, the information that we have at our fingertips,
getting text messages about things. I was going into a
class I was in college at the time and going
into the class and stuff had started happening in New
York and people are getting filtered information about it, and
the teacher, the professor goes, Okay, thanks for showing up.
(18:07):
I know there's some weird stuff going on. It's in
class for an hour and a half. Nobody knew what
was going on for that hour and a half. We
get out and the campus was empty, and I was
at Penn State, and that doesn't exist anymore. Everybody gets
that information so quickly on their phones. And there was
probably a lot of people in a blackout where they
(18:29):
were working. They're doing something, they didn't have anybody calling them,
and that doesn't exist anymore. You're right, we know when
something bad happens immediately now, right.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Sometimes we know when things are bad happening and then
we find out that it was all a lie. It
never happened.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
This is Do.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
You remember where we were the day before we were
we were playing games atters.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Yeah, and they had just rolled out this whole big
initiative for the that moving forward, this is what we
were going to do, and it was a whole big thing,
and the next day they scrapped the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Of course they did. Wow, we had different marketing orders.
I remember in our studios looking, you know, at the
right at World Trade Center. The smoke was still bellowing
out months from the pile. And then we saw smoke
on our side of the river where you lived, Gandhi.
I'm like, oh my god, there's a fire downstairs. We
look down there. It was out back steakhouts and that
(19:27):
they were grilling up things, guild up because it was
where the dogs were. All of the supplies left from
beneath our building. They were down there grilling up, you know,
maybe frying up step the feet, blumin onions everything, look,
you know, and then we're looking to today and forward
the positives that came out of something that was so
(19:49):
god awful. You can do things to help people. You
can look out for other people, you can find. You
can commit one day a year to going somewhere and
helping a bunch of people you don't know, put together
a meal for people who need food. There are a
thousand trillion things you can.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Do, and you can find the humanity and other people.
I keep going back to that because it's so easy
to just say you know person, person, person person and
just walk past them. And instead, you know, if you
stop and think that everybody has a story. Everybody has
something that they feel deeply about, something that's painful, something
(20:28):
that makes them happy. And when you can find that
little bit of humanity and other people, I think it
enriches all of our lives, you.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Know, well absolutely, and that's what might makes you want
to be of service, Yeah, for other people, yes, even
for you, Scar Yeah. Well look, you know, it's such
a gift. It's such a gift to be able to
be with each other and to talk about this and
you know, and how you observe this day is a
personal thing. Maybe you don't want to hear a bunch
(20:57):
of wackos on the radio talking wacko stuff, or maybe
you're in the mood for something fun and whatever. That's
you and we support you no matter where you are.
Patty Steele's podcast is called The Backstory with Patty Steele,
and I encourage you. Even if you've never really been
a history nut or slightly interested in history, she will
(21:17):
make you want to know more about things that have
happened before the moment you're in right now.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
And that's history, thank you, that is history. It's once again,
here we go again. It's the humanity in people in
the past. They're not just dusty folks. It's not just
stuff in a history book. It's human beings that wanted
the same things and felt the same things you and
I feel. They just had a different set of circumstances
they operated in, and so it's sort of fascinating to
(21:45):
find out how they dealt with all of that and
reacted to that, you know.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
So give it a listen. It's the backstory with Patty Steel.
And by the way, sometimes it's very racy.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Yeah, sometimes it is, So that's time for another racy one. Huh.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
I think it's something I think so you can get
ranchi with it. Sure, we love you, Patty Steel, thanks
for coming in, Yello.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Patty in the Morning Elvis Durant in the Morning Show
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