#269 – Voices of 9/11: Recounting Stories from New Yorkers (Re-release) - Spun Today with Tony Ortiz

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
I was 22 years old and I was working in downtown Manhattan by the
seaport. I was in gym class.
I was 17 years old.

(00:22):
We was driving normal down the street, and all of a
sudden, what I thought at the time, some crazy
lady ran out the house, flapping her on her hands
like asking for help. It was during the
home period of my high school. How old are you?
15. Ese dia. Yo recuelo que

(00:44):
me levante temprano ya mama que vivia
ake. And Queens Joe Bibia and San and Thomas
River, New Jersey. I was in high school, but I know
it was my first period class that I had a math class with Mister
Chan. That was his name. I was around ten,
so I was in 6th grade and we just

(01:06):
had started. I was in p's 90. I think I was in misses Cetron's class.
I think it was a math class. And I took a pass to go to
the bathroom. And while I'm coming back, somebody screams through the hallway, yo, did you
hear the towers got hit? Like what?

(01:29):
Cohesion and a sense of togetherness is often a byproduct of
turbulent times. That was the case on September 11,
2001. It remained the case for weeks and
even months after. But in time, the unity
faded, and in its place, what remained were the
seeds of suspicion and mistrust.

(01:50):
What is it about these situations that, in the longer term creates this
type of wedge? They create the visions amongst us
that splinter out from the very moments that initially brought us together.
I suspect it may have something to do with the sense
of humanity dissipating and
ideological gains becoming the metric by which we dictate

(02:13):
priority and measure worth. Is it just a function of time
passing, some period that varies in
length from person to person, where we realize that
we're okay with not caring as much anymore when enough
time passes? The resemblance between the creation of a
Volk community by the Nazis in pre World War two

(02:35):
Germany is indistinguishable from white
nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.
When enough time passes, the ineptly trained and overzealous
acts of the police officers that killed Eric Garner
looked nothing like the avoidable and relentless police
brutality experienced by Rodney King. In time,

(02:57):
the foreign policy decisions that led to the military intervention
that resulted in unstable regime changes and
unintended consequences in countries like Iraq and
Libya don't remind us of the same actions
taken in countries like Iran, Nicaragua,
Venezuela decades earlier. Maybe that's

(03:18):
why history tends to repeat itself. In this special edition
episode of the sponsor Day podcast, you'll hear a collection of first
hand experiences from New Yorkers that lived through the events of
that tragic day that is forever stamped in our collective
history and continues to make an impression on our day to
day lives. I'm convinced that it may be our

(03:40):
generation's duty to continue sharing these stories
to make sure that no amount of time could ever fog our
memories and that we never forget.
This first interview is also my first attempt at recording a telephone
conversation for the podcast. And the

(04:02):
quality isn't the best, especially in the first few seconds
where I'm trying to get the levels right. However,
it definitely is listenable and just wanted to give you guys a
heads up because there are a couple instances where being a phone conversation,
there's a bit of a lag, and I speak over her, she speaks over
me, etcetera. But

(04:24):
it's an important take from the youngest person that I
interviewed that experienced 911. And I just wanted to give you
guys a heads up on the quality.
Out of everybody that I've interviewed, you're the, the
youngest person, so obviously you are the youngest. Oh, of

(04:45):
course, of course, yeah. You're the baby of the podcast.
Yeah, that's good, that's
good. That's nothing bad. Yeah. So it's a different perspective.
So obviously you were the youngest. Yeah. When it actually happened
and. Yeah. How old are you on 911?
2001 or like what grade were you? So I was

(05:07):
around, I was around ten.
Like ten. I was going to be eleven in November. I
think I was around like 6th grade because I
remember the 911 happened like one year
before we moved to doctor. So
I was in 6th grade and we just had started.

(05:29):
I was in P's 90. Gotcha. Shout out to PS
90 back then. Yeah, yeah.
And so what I remember was that
day we were in class and so we were
in class, I don't remember what class we were in, but we were

(05:49):
there. And when we found out, it was
kind of when everything had already happened, so both towers
were already hit. So they kind of already knew
that it was a terrorist attack. They really didn't think it was an accident
at that point, so they told us.
And when we were in class, everybody, you know,

(06:12):
everybody wanted to know, the teachers, because they already knew it was a
terrorist attack, so everybody wanted to know. So they brought in
the tv, like from back in the day
when like the big tvs that were like on the
strolley with the VCR.
Yeah, in the middle and then they like

(06:34):
push it in like in a part. Yeah, I remember those. Yeah, so they
pushed it in and they were like, you know, let's see the news, because nobody
really knew. And I guess they had to determine at that time, too,
what to do with us because we were in the middle of class. Yeah.
So we thought we turned on the
tv and we were watching the news, and, you

(06:56):
know, it was, it was kind of everything happening at that point. So when we
were watching the tv, like,
one of the ladies, she was like, oh, you know, did, like, one of the
teachers, she was like, does anybody have, like, parents or
anything or anybody that works in the city, you know? And
everybody that did raise their hand and said, and there was one of the kids

(07:19):
that, um, that I don't know if both of the parents
or one of. I don't know if it was a dad or the mom that
worked in, in the Twin Towers, actually.
He was like, yeah, you know. Yeah. So. And then when
we were watching the tv, that's when they both went
down. So, you know, everybody was in shock. And that,

(07:41):
that kid that was in the classroom, he got really bad
because at that point, nobody knew anything, so he didn't know, you know,
where, where was his parent at? So he got
really bad. So when everybody saw that the towers
went down, yeah, because I want. Everybody saw the
towers went down real quick. They don't, like, obviously they

(08:04):
couldn't know at that time, like, the teachers and stuff, and everybody was trying to
get it out, but it was crazy. Yeah. Like,
just, you know, put it on team in front of all the little kids and
then, you know, obviously they couldn't know that. Yeah, that's
crazy. I must have been traumatizing. Yeah. So, yeah, at that time, nobody
knew that that was gonna happen. They just kind of wanted to get information themselves.

(08:24):
But, you know, like, who do you call when that's happening? You
know, to, like, figure out, like, oh, okay.
That, like, exact details? Nobody really knew. Exactly. And back then, it
wasn't like, now that, you know, you could just, like, google it or go on
your phone. Plane number one was American Airlines flight eleven
out of Boston, Massachusetts. It struck at 08:46

(08:47):
a.m. plane number two was United
Airlines flight 175, also out of Boston,
Massachusetts, and it struck at 09:03 a.m. the tower
hit by plane number two was actually the first to collapse, and
it collapsed at 09:59 a.m. the remaining
tower, which was the first to be impacted, later collapsed

(09:08):
at 10:28 a.m. yes.
And the teacher's like, and the teacher's like, are you sure? Are you sure? That
is your sister. I'm like, yeah.
You guys. You guys were inside, and then what? They made, like, an announcement or
something and said, okay, everybody line up outside. Or, like, how was that? Like, how'd
you get from inside? No. So we were. We were

(09:32):
told to stay in the classroom, and then while the parents started, because they
really didn't tell any parents to come and pick their kids up. I
guess parents were just doing that on their own, you know, because they were afraid.
So when, when they came, they would tell
you. So, like, when Soyla came, they went and they
got me. And they're like, okay. And they show me, like, they show me Soyla

(09:54):
from afar. And they're like, is that your sister? And I'm like, yeah, that's my
sister. And they're like, okay, so you could go with her.
And everybody was kind of afraid because at
that time, when someone wanted to pick me up, there was one other
plane that was still, like, flying around and nobody
knew where it was going to hit. The other plane that JC

(10:15):
mentioned was one of the other four planes that were in play that
day. It was United Airlines flight 93 out
of Newark, New Jersey. You all may remember that there was a movie made about
it. In short, the passengers realized that
their flight was hijacked. They tried contacting their families
through cell phones, and some were successful in doing so.

(10:37):
They learned of the attacks in New York earlier that morning. They
bravely attempted to take back control of the plane from the
hijackers, and the hijackers responded by deliberately
crash landing in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
Everyone on board died of just all. Day watching the news,
watching everything that happened, seeing

(11:00):
everything that happened. And my dad got home super late because he
wasn't in the city when that happened. So
he got home, like, at the night time and
that day. Do you remember, like, when you guys, like, spoke to him and, you
know, that he was like, good? I don't
remember that. I think at some point he called my mom and he was like,

(11:21):
oh, you know, I'm okay. I'm just stuck. Because, um,
I think he was just one of the people because, you know how they closed
down the bridge and everybody started walking on the bridge.
I think he just couldn't get past, you know? Yeah. So
he called and he told us. Yeah, he told us that, you know, that he
was fine. It's just that he was stuck there. So he's like, I don't know

(11:43):
what time, you know, we're going to get home.
But it was pretty much, you know, that.
And just, like, I remember that night,
like, you would. You could see that, like, New
York was just. It was just, like, totally black. Like, it was just,
like, sad. Like, it was a different

(12:04):
atmosphere to what New York city is
usually, you know, like, day to day. Yeah, it's usually, like, vibrant.
I guess. It really was. It's like you. Yeah. Like, it was, like,
the press and I, like, the entire. Yeah, yeah. You
could just feel everything. And at that point, you know,
like, me, I really didn't know about, like, terrorists or

(12:26):
anything. I think that was the first, like, time that
I kind of knew what it. What it was that I really
learned what it was. Like, I was never
in a place where that ever happened, you know? So, like, we kind of knew
about it, but we never experienced it that way.
Yeah, definitely not. So. Yeah, yeah,

(12:48):
yeah. But I know it was something really sad, you know, and to
hear all the stories. And I actually never went to
the World Trade center. Yeah, that's the
towers I never visited. And I was like, oh, damn. Like, I
never got to actually go and see it up
close, and so. It was really sad, you know,

(13:12):
Soto, because we take it, like, living in the city. Like, we take it for
granted, because I never went. Yeah, you
don't go and visit. Like, I always start from afar, you know? Like, if
we traveled and. And we saw from the bridge, and we're like, oh, look.
Look at it from afar. Yeah. Like, the sky. But I never actually.
Yeah, I never actually went. And, like, was like,

(13:33):
okay, I went inside of it or I visited or.
Yeah. You know, like, I had. Father has,
like, old school, like, a vhs tape of
one day when he took me, my brother, and my mom. Yeah. And we went
over there, and he has it on video, but I was, like, two or three
years old, so. And then. But that

(13:54):
was. You never went either? Nine. Everyone either. Tempoco.
Except for that time, which obviously I don't remember. And then, um.
Yeah, I went afterwards, and I could. There's probably a lot of people.
Yeah. To the memorial. Yeah, I haven't gone to the memorial
either. I really want to go, though. Yeah, you should. And
to the museum that they did. I really want to go to that.

(14:17):
But I bet you there's a lot of people that never went
and actually lived here probably for years and never got the chance to go.
Yeah, exactly. That's why after that, I wound up going to, like, the
Empire State Building and a bunch of places like that. Yeah.
Yeah. I know. It's good to go and see because, you know, you never
know. Things like this could happen. Yeah. And. And that's

(14:39):
something really big, I think, especially, like, in New York,
because even now where I work, like,
every time that they do a fire drill or any kind of
drill, they always mention 911. They always,
like, you know, remember 911? And, you know, don't wear
heels or don't wear flip flops because you never know because of, like,

(15:01):
look at 911. Yeah. You might have to run down the stairs. They always. They
always. Yeah, yeah. Like, every single
time, they always mention, I know, Devon. And I'm like, that's. And it's been
how many years now? And they still mentioning it. I think
that's always gonna stay. Yeah. That's, like, the biggest impact, especially with New
York, aside from obviously, like, all the lives lost and stuff. Like, it changed

(15:24):
how, like, we even, like, act and. Yeah. Like, in work, in everyday
life. Yeah. Yeah. And especially, you know, with all
the people that died, you never know in what situation you could be in.
The sound like you could choose it, you know? You know, it's always something
that's gonna be remembered. Yeah. That's really for sure.

(15:45):
You know that I was thinking, like, I was telling you the other day that,
um, that it's. It's something
that, you know, our kids are gonna be asking us
about. And I think, like, in Facebook, I read one
time, I don't know what year it was, but they were like, oh, this is
like, the first year that freshmen are going to

(16:06):
learn about 911 as something
that happened before they were born. I was like,
damn, I felt old.
Damn. I didn't mean.
I was like, damn, I'm old. No, but then I was like, you know, if
something, you know, like, years passed by and you kind of didn't

(16:28):
feel it, and you're like, wow, you know, it's been, like,
16 years already since then.
That's crazy. And it's still a big impact. Yeah.
If. If that made the. The
official baby of the sponsor a podcast feel old, then it did happen
a very long time ago.

(16:50):
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Thank you for coming on. I appreciate it very much.
My father, at 77, is the oldest person that I interviewed for
this episode. He has an interesting perspective in that when he first came to
this country from the Dominican Republic in the early seventies, he was

(17:11):
around and saw much of the World Trade center construction going
on. And he shares that with us here. And if you don't understand
Spanish, shame on you.
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Normal travador

(17:34):
et cetera.
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(18:05):
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(18:47):
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(19:08):
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(19:29):
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(20:02):
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(20:24):
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(21:57):
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(24:43):
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(25:15):
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(27:06):
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(27:29):
joje in.

(28:21):
All right, so tell me what you remember
from that day, from 911, what happened? You said you were
22. I was 22 years old,
and I was working in downtown Manhattan by the seaport.
And I was. What? I was a records clerk
at a law firm, a big defend a big law

(28:43):
firm. They did a lot of patent
laws. They did a lot of, like. A lot of the clients were, like, big
corporations, so. And it was downtown.
Where do you remember, like, the address? It was. It was downtown
by Water street. So that's, like, by the
seaport. By the seaport. So that's the building that has the

(29:05):
cubes. Like, it looks like. Like ice cubes. The
building, like the windows and stuff? No, it's a glass building.
Okay. It's a big glass building. They had to. They had
a few floors in a glass
building by water street. And
I don't remember the. I don't remember. I always thought,

(29:27):
for some reason, like, when I see. It's like a black building that has cubes
around there, I always thought for some reason that's where you used to work. Is
it a black building? Yeah. Yeah. And it's like
ice cubes? No, it looks kind of like. Like, in,
like, the windows. I think that might be it. I always can tell. Grid kind
of. I can always tell that building, because the building next to it, which

(29:49):
really worked, that was a gray
building. It was a gray building next door.
So the reason I'm saying it was a big law firm is because they had.
They had a few floors in that glass building, and it was, like, high up
somewhere, like, in the 40th floor or something like that. And then they had the
records department in the building next door, which is where I worked at on the

(30:11):
second floor. So you used to have to go between
both buildings? Well, I normally worked in the gray building, but that
week I had to cover somebody in the. In the
glass building, which is the higher up one. Yeah. Like dad says, you know, I've
always worked really hard, and, you know, my bosses recognize that, and they give me
extra work. Yeah, no, but to the

(30:32):
workhorse. Yeah, exactly. So it
was September 11, 2001, and this was when New York
had, like, bare minimum security guards everywhere. And it was,
like, one security guard in the building who. I never looked at him. He
never looked at me. There was, like, no relationship, you know? Yeah. You
know, I just walked into my building. They never stopped me. And I would. And

(30:55):
I went up to the second floor. It was like a different world before 911.
It was a different world. It was. We've even realized, like,
the impact of it. It was. It totally was. It was, like, a lot more
lax. And, like, security was just, like, not for
show, but it wasn't. It's like, now it's
like, proactive security. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

(31:17):
They're definitely, like, you know, watching out for stuff. Before, it was just
basically a warm body sitting in the front of the building,
you know, so you don't know basically who you would
ask information to. Yeah. It wasn't like a security desk
how it is now. So I walk into real
quick, I took. I remember once in high school, I

(31:39):
took. I cut class one day with a couple friends,
and we went to. We. One of them wanted
to take a. He had dropped out of high school, like, the year before, and
he wanted to take a security guard test. And me.
Essrin and him went to,
like, went with him, and we just signed up, and we're like, fuck it. We
cut school. Let's just take the course anyway. And we wound up. It was, like,

(32:01):
a whole day course. It was, like, staying in school. That's fun. But after that,
like, I gotta, like, they literally said, okay, you pass, go to the front desk
and they printed out certificate. And with that you could apply to like, any security
job. That's how like, I was like 17, I think, or something. Nobody cared.
Nobody asked you for anything. Yeah, yeah.
So, so you didn't know him. He didn't know you. The security

(32:23):
guard. Yeah. So I'm just, you know, like, setting,
mentioning, yeah. How you to be. And then, so I go up to,
um, I go up to the second floor and I started
work, I think, like around 830. And I'm, I was probably like a couple of
minutes late or something like that. I don't know. But, you know, if
I, if I was, it wasn't by much, but. All right, so I got there

(32:44):
like at 830. Then, um, you know, I'm starting my
morning, and then all of a sudden, this kid I remember, he
was like, he was like one of those, like, like general souls kind
of people. He was always, like, very, like, soft
spoken. So he walks in and he's like, oh, a plane hit
the twin towers. And he looked like, shooken up. And I was

(33:06):
like, man, this guy's
probably talking shit. I don't know what he's on right now. Whatever.
So I just keep going on with my business,
and then somebody else comes in and says, oh, a plane hit the Twin
Towers and then it starts spreading. And then, you know, it takes a
couple of minutes for, you know, like, the information to start

(33:28):
circulating. And then it was
2001, so it wasn't even, like, wasn't iPhone time yet?
No, it wasn't iPhone time. You log in the mornings and
there's no Twitter. There was no. Yeah, there's nothing like, as immediate
as now. Right? Like now, you, you hear of
anything? Like in, like, wait, and what happened in Virginia? Like, you literally typed the

(33:49):
word Virginia and videos pop up. Oh, you already get alerted. You get an alert
on your phone. But back then, I had, like, like one of the early
Nokias with the small screen. Yeah. Which wasn't a
smartphone, no millennial listeners. And the Internet was very
new, so. And I was young, so it's not like I was going on there
to read the news or anything like that. I remember I used to, like, chat

(34:12):
to one of my coworkers, you know, when I used to come in and it
was like, through email, you know, I never, I wasn't on the Internet as
much. So then all of a sudden, everybody, you know, whenever
the, whenever there's a panic, regardless of what it is, you
know, people just get nervous and they just start bouncing around, you know,
basically looking for direction or whatever. So I'm seeing, you know, what's going on in

(34:33):
there, and, and I'm just like, man, is this really
happening? You know, did a plane hit the twin, the
twin towers? And I was just like, you
know, I don't know why these, why everybody's so nervous. Because I
think a couple of months before, a
Yankee was flying up a little plane and he crashed into a

(34:55):
building. So I was like, oh, some idiot or something, huh? Like he
clipped it or something? Yeah, something like that. And I thought, I thought, you
know, that's probably what happened. That was a lot of people first
impression. My school, too. Like, the teacher in my school, a
teacher came in to tell our teacher, and then the teacher told us, and he
was like, it's probably just some rich guy that was, like, coked up

(35:16):
and hit, you know, a plane or something, clipped the
building. That's all I thought. Yeah. And then,
like I said, I had to cover in the other building, and
I'm not liking the energy in the floor.
And also, at this point, you're in the second floor building. I'm in the second
floor building, okay? So I'm not liking the energy, and I'm just seeing a whole

(35:37):
bunch of aimless people wandering around speculating what's going
on, and I'm just like, all right, let me just go. Let me go to
the other building and see what's going outside in the street to see if I,
if I, you know, if I get, you know, a little bit
of information on my way over to the other building. And, and when I'm
walking, I just see, like, like, I remember there was, like, a

(35:59):
lady crying and a whole bunch of guys just, like, frozen, looking up
in the street, in the street by my building. And
then I'm looking at everybody, and everybody looks again, like, really, like,
shooken up and nervous and sad. And then I
look up and I see, like, the building is on fire, and I'm like, oh,
snap, that looks pretty bad. And then how close are you?

(36:21):
Like, how? I would say, like, maybe like a good
eight small blocks away. Maybe something
like that. That was pretty close. I got a good view of it. Especially, like,
those buildings. Like, they're so high up you could see them.
They seem closer than what they are. Even if you're far away. Like, it's the
skyline. You can see it from, like, queens, you can see the skyline. So eight

(36:44):
blocks away, you like, right there. Especially those
two huge buildings. I mean, in downtown Manhattan, the buildings aren't that
high. As high as, you know, midtown. Mm hmm. So.
So I see everybody panicking outside in the street, and this is before knowing
it's a terrorist attack or anything, I'm just sort of like, all right. I'm. So
if I stay out here, it's just a whole bunch of panicked people. So let

(37:06):
me. Let me just go upstairs, see if I could get a better
view. Or. Let me just, you know, let me actually, no, I
said, let me just go upstairs away from, like, all this
commotion. And so I go upstairs, and.
You. Know, I start setting up in my room. There was no

(37:26):
windows in the office that I was covering. And then before you went
out, though, did you. Did you think, like.
Cause at that time, you still didn't think it was a terrorist attack? No. You
didn't have, like, reasons to think that, but you fell. No, everything was peaceful that
year. Yeah. And did you feel like, like, you know,
it's a. You know, obviously it's fucked up, whatever, but it's a fire, you know,

(37:49):
they'll put it out and whatever. Yeah, yeah, that's what I would have thought.
So that's exactly what I thought. And,
you know, that year was, you know, Bush's first term,
right? In
2001. I think so. Or was it his second?
I think it's his first. It's his first term. But I mean, was it his

(38:12):
first year? I looked it up. Thanks, Google. And
911 did happen during George W. Bush's
first year as president. He was inaugurated on January
20, 2001. Eight months later, we had
911. The rich guy who used to own a baseball team, whose
dad was the president, was the president. And, you

(38:34):
know, the Al
Gore elections or whatever, everybody was pissed off, but you know
that, you know, like, Al Gore's here in New York. Al Gore, you
know, lost his seat or whatever, but at the end of the day, it was
just, you know, some ex president son running. Running the country, and he was like
a, like, almost like a

(38:55):
lovable idiot in the office, you know what I
mean? This was before any problems were going on. You know, the economy wasn't
that bad, you know? Yeah. Like, a lot of
the negative connotations that Trump has now, like, in terms of, like,
incompetence, but minus the, like, hatred and bigotry, the
maliciousness of that. And there was nothing, like, times was good.

(39:17):
The economy was good. Yeah. Cause it was just
after Clinton. Yeah, the economy was good. I was 21. It was
like, the end of the summer, you know, it was like, early September.
Yeah. So it was just like the perfect time in New York.
And I forgot why I
mentioned that. That Bush was in president was his first year. Yeah.

(39:40):
So, you know, everything was like. Everything was pretty much
light hearted at that point.
So then, so then my coworker goes over.
Goes over to. To me. So you went up already? You. I went
up something. Floor. Then he's like, yo, you know, the twin
towers, you know, got hit and they're saying that it might be a terrorist attack.

(40:02):
And I'm like, really? And I'm like, all right, let's go see if we can
find a conference room. Try to see if we get a good view. So
then me. And there's no tvs and shit in the office. There was no tvs
and shit in the office? No, no, this was again
2001. There were. I don't think there were a lot of flat screens back then,
right? No. Or if there were, I mean, if flat screens existed, it

(40:22):
was like a new technology. True. Yeah.
So anyways, so I'm like,
let's go look for a conference room. And we look at the conference room. Are
you gonna edit this a little bit? Yeah. Okay, good. So
we go to the conference room. What? Like any. What? No,
I'm just like the conversation because I feel like I'm rambling. No, no. Good.

(40:45):
So. So we go to the conference room and we're looking at the building and
we kind of, like, see a little bit, but we can't see. We can't get
a good view of the building. I think we saw, like,
like a little bit of flame or something on one side.
And then me and him start talking and. And a lot of smoke at
that time yet? No, there was no smoke yet. So he's like a jittery

(41:06):
guy, I think you remember in Francois, he was like a little bit. Yeah,
he might have been slow or something. Yeah. And that might have been. He had
something wrong with him. So he's like, very jittery. And he was like this tall,
wiry guy, and he was like, you know, jumping around and stuff.
And then, you know. So me and him are talking, and then I look back
again and all I see is the windows, like, completely white. And I'm like, oh,

(41:28):
shit, something went down. I don't know. I don't know what's going
on. So I tell them, you know, let's
circle the floor. You go to the left, I go to the right, and then
we'll meet halfway and make sure that, you know, we. We tell
anybody who's in their office to go downstairs, there was one person there.
I think it was this one attorney that was there. And then we all

(41:50):
go down, and then that's elevator. We took the elevator
down, and then we go down to the main floor.
And there was no. At this time, there was still no, like, announcements. Like, the
security guard in the building. Like, nothing. This guy
barely had a pulse. Gotcha. Okay. You know, he didn't know what was going
on. And you got to remember, all the firemen in downtown

(42:11):
Manhattan were running over there. Like, I'm pretty sure, you know, they weren't
busy trying to communicate to the other buildings. You know, I'm not sure. I
don't know. Or if even if they had the manpower to communicate
to all the buildings. True. But all I know is that nobody told us anything.
And this was a new scenario. Yeah. Like, now. Like, now
they do. They have protocols. Your job to, like, fire drills and all

(42:34):
that shit. The warden, the light department comes. They make sure they tell us where
to walk in case something happens, blah, blah, blah. They have it. They have it
down to a point where, like, they're like, if you get chemical poisoning and you
walk outside the building, you're gonna have to take off all your clothes. And then
they're gonna. Have you heard that instruction? No. They. The fire
warden out says that, um, you know, we shouldn't leave the

(42:55):
building right away, because if we do leave the building and it's a chemical attack,
we're gonna have to get completely naked, and, um. And
we're gonna have to be hosed down in order for us to get back into
the building. I'm like, damn, if there's a chemical attack, that's, like, the.
The least of our problems. The last thing you want to do, get back to
work. Yeah, we're like, we're all dead at that

(43:16):
point. So then, um.
So then you guys walking around the building. So we walk around the building, we
grab the attorney, and then I don't like seeing people crying, especially when things
are bad, because I'm just like, yo, it's not helping.
It's not helping. Like, we're just sitting around fucking crying, and they could drop other
shit on us. So I'm just, like, trying to gather, you know, like, what are

(43:38):
we gonna do? So then. So then I see people in the street, like,
all disoriented. They must have, like, went through. How was that elevator write
down? Quiet. No, nobody said shit.
Nobody said shit. And, um.
So you walk it. We walked down, and then. And then,
you know, we didn't know who the attorney was or whatever, so we just left.

(44:01):
But me and Francois, we knew each other. So I was like, listen, you
know, let's go back to the office and see what's going
on. I see everybody, like, in white and, like, you know, they all
look scared, like that powder confused with all that power powder on
them any time. Let's go back to the second floor. Let's go back to the
second floor office and we go over there. And then when

(44:23):
I get over there, oh, I see a couple of other co
workers of mine that we used to, like, you know, hang out during the time,
so we, like, friends. And I was like, yo, listen, let's all, um.
Let's all gather all our stuff, and then, you know, we'll all leave together. Back
to. Back to.
Back home? Yeah, back home. And then obviously, by that. By the time I went

(44:46):
over, like, I don't remember, but I think I was walking. People were crying and
stuff like that. And then people were saying that the twin towers fall, you
know, so I already. Yeah. So
then when did the. You didn't see, like, when the second plane
hit or hear it or anything? No, no, no. I just saw that. The white
smoke in the conference room and that. That's probably, like, when the other one

(45:07):
hit, then. I don't know, but
I know I. I saw a whole bunch of white smoke. And then, um. Because
the white smoke was after they collapsed. And they collapsed after both them were hit.
Yeah. Oh, yeah, they both must have hit. And they.
They collapsed almost at the same time, right? Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
So. So then, you know, after

(45:29):
I gather my stuff and I. And I look for a couple more friends,
you know, I turned around and I'm just like. I asked somebody
for the original group of friends, you know, where they
were? And they were like, oh, they left a while ago already. And I was
like, all right, fuck this. So we're leaving, too. And I remember it was
me and. And two people, and

(45:51):
we crossed the bridge. The Brooklyn Bridge. Right, the Brooklyn
Bridge. We weren't too far from there. And
I remember when I left school, I was trying to call you because I know
you worked in the city, but I don't know where exactly. And, like,
none of the cell phones worked or anything like that. I was trying to call
you mom and dad, and then I went
home, and I think dad was the first one home.

(46:16):
And, like, we kept trying to get in touch with you,
or maybe mom was home already, too. I think I got home
before. Before them. I'm not sure. But I know
the. I think you were, like, the last one that we spoke to. And
then when we finally got in touch with you, we knew we had. We had
to drive to Brooklyn because you were gonna walk the bridge. Yeah,

(46:39):
I finally communicated. Like, I finally got in communication with
you guys, and I told you that I was, like, going to
Brooklyn. But again, like, during that time, like, I wasn't really scared that,
you know, that I was scared of was walking the Brooklyn bridge, because it always
scared me, you know, like, crossing the bridge, walking over
a bridge, you know, because of the height. But

(47:00):
at that point, like, I wasn't scared or anything. I was just like, all right,
let me. Let me just get home. And I know I knew you guys were
okay because none of you guys
worked in the city. Yeah. And I knew I was okay, so I
was, like, relieved at that point. I'm like, we're all
okay, you know? So I was just trying to get home, and I was just
thinking about, like, damn, this is gonna be a long ass walk.

(47:25):
And all the way to queens. So when I got through to you guys, I
was just, like, super happy, like, oh, great, I don't have to walk. Yeah. And
then. And then you pick. And then you guys picked me up on a friend
of mine. Right. And then we went. A girl. Yeah.
And we went to get, um. You know, we
came home. I changed, and then we dropped her off. Did you. You had

(47:47):
the white shit on you, too. No, because remember, I was up.
Up on the second floor, maybe I had a little bit, but I dusted it
off. It wasn't like, you know, a lot of it didn't get on me.
So then we dropped her off, and I remember my eye was bothering me
because two years earlier, I had a paper cut in my eye,
and that takes years to heal. Yeah, because you're always blinking, so it opens up

(48:09):
the wound. So I guess the dust and all that, like,
they fucked it up. Yeah, irritated up. So I was just like, I have to
go to the doctor and get a, you know, eye drops. So I went
to the same day. Same day. Yeah, same day.
So when. So I made the appointment with the doctor, and I went over
there and. And, you know, he said, well, you know,

(48:31):
he started talking to me. That's all everybody was talking about. What doctor?
The eye doctor on Liberty. And, like, past leopards. Like, 123rd.
And I guess he was being a doctor, and he was just sort of like,
you know, making sure I was okay. And he was like, you know, are you
okay? Aren't you nervous? And I was like, I remember I was just like smiling
a lot, you know, I was just like, no, everything's okay. You know, it was

(48:52):
crazy. You know, I didn't really see much. You know,
he switched the subject and started talking about
my, you know, my name because David Ortiz. And back then,
David Ortiz.
But basically I think I was in shock
because all I remember doing after that was smoking a lot of

(49:15):
weed all the, all fall and all, all winter.
Yeah, I remember that. Was that when Steve came from Florida
too? That was the summer after that. Yeah. After they
spent a while there. Yeah, after that summer. Yeah.
So, um, after that all
the coverage was like just 911 shit, non stop. So, so I

(49:37):
came home and I just remember like all of this was like all 911 and
it was, everything was all 911 on tv and it was all
speculation. You know, they were saying like, think Obama
Osama's name was being mentioned in al Qaeda. But at that point,
like, I don't think any American who the fuck those two groups
were, who that group was or who Osama was. Like, it wasn't in

(49:59):
like the zeitgeist, it wasn't. And there wasn't a lot
of information on them. So it was like basically like, like
CNN and all the other channels who, you know, nowadays you have a lot
of news channels but back then it wasn't as many. But everybody wanted to be
a news channel. So it was just like a lot of like
unprepared reporters trying to report a story about two

(50:21):
buildings falling and we don't know anything about what happened. Yeah. And
everybody, I remember waiting like anticipating Bush's speech
because at that time it's like, and even now, if something like that would go
down like the country looks to the president for. Yeah,
like, all right, you guys have the answers. Tell us what the fuck is going
on. Right. So at that point, like I said,

(50:42):
yeah. Especially at that time when information is less scarce is
more scarce. Yeah, yeah.
Everybody was unhappy of the fact that, you know, Al Gore lost the election.
So then at that point I was just like, oh boy, look, everything was okay.
You know, this guy won the election. We did. And um, you
know, I was sort of like thinking like, you know, it's

(51:05):
only gonna be four years. You know, he's, he's a bumbling idiot. There's nothing going
on in the world, whatever. But then September 11 happened and then I remember, I'm
just like, alright, we gotta wait for the, for the president to talk. What's he
gonna say? And then he started talking about like
he was gonna wave war on wage
war. Yeah, on Ondez. On

(51:27):
islamic terrorist terrorism or something like that. Or
something about. I forgot what his speech was, but it was very harsh on some,
like, shit's about to go down now, you know? I'm gonna try to find
it and drop it into the episode. I don't remember it, though. Good
evening. Today, our fellow citizens,
our way of life, our very freedom, came under

(51:49):
attack in a series of deliberate and deadly
terrorist acts. The victims were in
airplanes or in their offices.
Secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal
workers, moms and dads, friends and
neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended

(52:11):
by evil, despicable acts of terror.
The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires
burning, huge structures collapsing,
have filled us with disbelief, terrible
sadness and a quiet, unyielding
anger. These acts of mass murder were

(52:34):
intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat.
But they have failed. Our country is strong.
A great people has been moved to defend a great nation.
Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest
buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of
America. These acts shatter steel,

(52:57):
but they cannot dent the steel of american resolve.
America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for
freedom and opportunity in the world. And no
one will keep that light from shining.
Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human
nature. And we responded with the best of

(53:20):
America, with the daring of our rescue workers,
with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood
and help in any way they could. Immediately
following the first attack, I implemented our government's
emergency response plans. Our military is
powerful and it's prepared. Our emergency teams

(53:42):
are working in New York City and Washington, DC to help with
local rescue efforts. Our first priority is to get help
to those who have been injured and to take every
precaution to protect our citizens at home and around
the world from further attacks. The functions of
our government continue without interruption. Federal

(54:03):
agencies in Washington, which had to be evacuated today, are
reopening for essential personnel tonight and will be open for
business tomorrow. Our financial institutions remain
strong and the american economy will be open for business as
well. The search is underway for those who are
behind these evil acts. I have directed the full

(54:26):
resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find
those responsible and to bring them to justice.
We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed
these acts and those who harbor them.
I appreciate so very much the members of Congress who have joined me in strongly

(54:46):
condemning these attacks. And on behalf of the american
people, I thank the many world leaders who have called to offer their
condolences and assistance.
America and our friends and allies join with all
those who want peace and security in the world, and we
stand together to win the war against terrorism.

(55:08):
Tonight I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve,
for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for
all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened.
And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us.
Spoken through the ages in psalm 23.

(55:28):
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
fear no evil, for you are with me.
This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our
resolve for justice and peace. America has
stood down enemies before, and we will do so this
time. None of us will ever forget this

(55:51):
day, yet we go forward to defend freedom
and all that is good and just in our
world. Thank you. Good night,
and God bless America. Here we go. Well,
all I remember is after I heard him say that, I was just. Like, oh,
like, shit's about to get real. Yeah. Because I was just like, you

(56:14):
know, um, back. Back then, before
we started, like, the war on terror, it was basically like, all right,
a bad guy did something. You fucking grab the bad guy and you
lock him up, and that's it. It's over. But he was on
some, like, you know, we're gonna go after
nations or whatever that. That support terrorism.

(56:36):
It was more. Instead it. Instead of, like, a clear objective, it's. It opened it
up to, like, going after an ideology, which is a never ending shit. Right?
And then I was just like, wow, this is bad. And this isn't gonna end
for a long time because I just remember thinking that.
And, you know, back then I was smoking pot, so I just remember, like. Getting
high, thinking, like, going off into tangents and shit. Going off into, like,

(56:57):
tangents. All I remember was thinking was, all right, this isn't gonna be
one of those, like, clear cut. Like, 1993. There
were a. Guys try to blow up the. The twin towers, and they.
They got arrested and they're in jail. This was like, you know, the president's
talking about war. It's gonna be an open ended thing. Yeah. And I was just
like, oh, man, this is some fucking. And he's the one behind the

(57:19):
wheel, as opposed to Al Gore, which he more, like, composed and presidential. Yes.
That's exactly what I felt. And I was just like, this bumbling idiot is
talking about war, and this isn't gonna end for
a long time. And this is change the. Is gonna change the course
of everything, of everything. And that that's what I was, you know, that that's what
I was thinking. And then I was just like, so disappointed. And remember we went

(57:41):
to the rage against the machine concert. Yeah. So I was listening to them a
lot and I was just like, so anti government at that point because I'm just
like, these idiots are going to war on, on a religion and an
ideology which is like, you know, half the planet.
And it shouldn't have gone down like this, you know,
because Al Gore wouldn't have taken that stance. True. You know, Al Gore

(58:03):
was a pussy. Even when he was, you know,
campaigning, that was his problem. He was like, you know, no, not
an emotional guy or whatever. And Bush was almost
two measure. Yeah, Bush was like all, you know, like, cowboy. Yeah,
fuck this. Let's blow him up. You know, and that's
what I remember about, about, like, that day

(58:25):
and the following day just like, being very, like,
you know, disappointed and sad about, like,
where things were going. It definitely
changed, like, the course of everything. It did. It definitely did.
Oh, this is something I was thinking about today because I knew you were going

(58:45):
to record, but this is, remember that, that analogy
that Obama said
about, you know, being a president is sort of like
football. Not football, but like, sort of like a, like a ship
at sea where like, you hope to, you
know, turn. It like one or two degrees. One or two degrees and then

(59:08):
eventually it'll end up in a different, you know,
you know, it'll change the course of the ship, but only, but not by much.
And it doesn't seem like much initially, but in the long term, that one or
two degree difference is like, right. Is huge. So,
so I was thinking about that back in 2001 where, you
know, if Al Gore was in office, I don't, I don't

(59:30):
think we would have gone into those wars. And we ended up going into
those wars. And 15 years later, you know, there's
still the talk about, like, hating Muslims and,
and a lot of people, like, including our friends and,
you know, talk about to this day, like, you know, these fucking Muslims with
their ideology and so forth. And it's funny to see, like,

(59:54):
somebody like Trump now in office who's
still talking about, you know, negatively about groups, but now
he's expanding it to, like, blacks and Hispanics.
But it's, it's that same, that's that
ship that was steered a couple of degrees. Now all of a sudden, you know,
more people have problems with that kind of ideology because now he's talking about. You

(01:00:16):
know, he exacerbated it. Yeah, now. And like, Obama reined it in afterwards.
He did rein it in and then it just. And Obama, and Obama, you
know, you know, not enough is said about his credit of
absorbing a lot of racism because, you know, he, he took the
high road on a lot of, of things. You know, where he could have been
snapping, like Trump, you know, when they were calling him a liar during,

(01:00:38):
during his, his national, the national
address and, you know,
just all the races. I mean, even Trump when he was asking for his
proof of birth certificate. Proof of birth certificate. And so for. They always took everything
with a high. Road and, you know, just like the

(01:00:59):
Mitch McConnell, I want to say, like, whoever the leader of the,
the Republican Party was, like the
house, they literally said, our objective for the next three years is to make
sure that nothing, nothing. It was also Agent Orange.
What's his name? Damn, I forgot his name. That
hates him. He was a heavy smoker. I

(01:01:23):
forgot his name. But he was also very tanned. Yeah,
he was orange. Look, you notice how Trump is not as tanned anymore,
but, you know, that's. Supposedly makeup that he puts on and
everything. I don't know. Yeah, that's weird, though. Yeah, exactly. But I mean,
you know, he's like a celebrity. He's a celebrity.
He's not a politician, you know? So, I mean, are you surprised when

(01:01:46):
you see the Kardashians always putting makeup on and, you know, coming out
with their, like, colored, uh, eyebrows and stuff like that? Like, that's
just what they do. But, you know, again, back to, back to what
I'm saying, like, you know, what, what Obama said, like,
you know, definitely has relevance where now you have this president
in here, you know, not. Measured, he's not composed,

(01:02:08):
and, and he's. Still talking that, that hate shit
at. A higher level, too. Yeah, blaming, blaming blame groups for,
you know, the problems that we have in this country and so forth. Like, back
then in 2001, I think that was very responsible to say, like, all
right, Islam, we're going after Islam. Like, you
know, not all of them are terrorists, you know.

(01:02:31):
And again, like I said,
1716 years later, we have President
Trump over there, except now he's widening it up to. A lot of other minorities,
Mexicans, Hispanics, blacks, Muslim, still.
Yeah, so that, that's what I was thinking about
today. Yeah, that's true. It's a good point.

(01:02:53):
That's it. There you go. Thanks.
Okay. Miss Velez. Hello.
So say something. Let me just make sure it's working. Hello. All
right, so on 911, what
do you remember from that day? And like, where were you? How old are

(01:03:16):
you? If you remember? Oh, what year was that? I
think I was in high school.
Junior year. Senior year? Junior year.
Damn. For me, I think it was
junior. Junior, yeah, it was either for
me, junior or sophomore year. But I know it was my

(01:03:38):
first period class that I had a math class with Mister Chan,
that was his name. And I love
math, but I just didn't, didn't love it at first period.
So I asked to be excused to use the
restroom.

(01:03:59):
And as soon as I stepped out of the hallway, I saw my friend
Lewis. And he told me if I saw
the twin Towers. And
I told him, no, I didn't. And he was like, oh, come with me. He
goes, the twin towers are on fire. But I thought he

(01:04:20):
was joking because he's normally a jokester.
So I followed him into the staircase of a corner of our high
school on the fifth floor. And
as I looked out the window, I just saw one of the tall
buildings and it just looked like a puff
of smoke on top of it. And

(01:04:41):
what high school? New York high school. So it's by
Fort Hamilton down that it's
in what is that called? Bensonhurst.
Okay. And.
And all I saw was like a puff of smoke. And I only
saw one building. So I told him, I said, are you

(01:05:04):
sure it's not the Empire State Building and not the twin Towers? Because there's only
one building and it's on fire. So at that point had already fallen.
And I didn't realize that because. So I was
it all, was it black smoke or like that white? Okay. No, it was just
a, like a darken black smoke.
And I was. I was just like, you know,

(01:05:28):
I was in high school, so I was kind of naive and in vain. Like,
I was just like, oh, my gosh, man, that's crazy. That was my only
thought. And then I was just thinking, oh, I get to go back
to my class and announce it, you know,
because I didn't know how serious it was.
So I go back into my class

(01:05:50):
and I just kind of said, oh, by the way, the twin
towers are on fire. And my teacher, to the teacher, or.
Like the whole class. To the whole class, including the teacher, and my
teacher just was like, whatever. What the hell are you talking about?
And no more than 2 seconds after I said
that, over, the loudspeaker came on and they said

(01:06:13):
that there was a terrorist attack on America
and two planes crashed into the twin
towers. And all
I remember was looking at my teacher's
face and he was in shock.
And I didn't. You know, we,

(01:06:34):
as the students in the class, you know, we were young,
so we just. We didn't really understand exactly the impact. Of
what was going on. What was going on. So we were just like,
okay. But by the reaction of our teacher's face,
we knew it was something serious, but we didn't know how serious.
And after that period, everything was chaos in the

(01:06:58):
school. Teachers, did you guys finish the rest
of that class or that period or. We
did, but after that
happened, it kind of is a blur. All I know is that
no one could concentrate after that. The teachers
all looked kind of panicked. And all I knew

(01:07:21):
is that I was trying to find my way to my best
friend, because
after that, I had gymnast. So I made my way to the
gym, and it was chaos.
All I saw were children crying, like, my students
crying and teachers crying and other teachers

(01:07:43):
consoling. And my gym period became,
like, just an area for people to gather
instead of, like, classes. Presuming
as usual, I just took
that time. I actually found my best friend. And she said,
listen, her mom called the school and said she

(01:08:04):
wants her daughter, myself
and another friend of ours because we all lived around the corner from each other
to go home. She called your friend? Like she had a
cell phone or. No, she got in touch with the school,
and the school got in touch with Adibae. And
then Adiba found myself, and she's found our friend

(01:08:28):
Lavon. And she said,
listen, my mom said, we gotta go, so we need to
go. And I was like, all right, we're leaving school early,
then that's fine. And when we left
school, we were heading. The trains weren't working.
So how far was your commute? Like, normally, our

(01:08:50):
commute is about an hour.
Damn. So to get to our school, we
would have to take the bus to the train and transfer to
another train. So we have to take two trains and a bus. What trains? Do
you remember? I would take the 41 bus to
the two train or the five to Atlantic and then

(01:09:12):
transfer to the D train
or the m during that time, you know,
any of those to 79th street, new trick avenue.
That was the stop. So. But being that the trains
weren't working, we had to get on the bus.
Did they say the trains weren't working, or you guys, like, went in and waited

(01:09:34):
for. I forgot. I believe it was one of
the teachers or one of the security guards
at our school that warned us that there was no trains running at
the time and that our best
bet to getting home was to get on the bus. So
I know that when we got to the bus stop,

(01:09:57):
it didn't even look like a bus stop. It just looked.
The entire street was covered with people,
and buses weren't stopping.
They were just passing by us. Were they full or empty?
Some were full, some were empty. Everyone just looked

(01:10:17):
confused. There were a lot of adults there, and
we could see the smoke and the
debris from the
towers falling in our area. And
I started seeing that, and slowly, it was, like, hitting me, like
something serious is going on. But we didn't know, you

(01:10:39):
know, how serious it was. We somehow got a.
Got into a bus, and
as soon as I got home, it was a long bus ride home, but as
soon as we got home, I just remember
opening the door and seeing my older sister, Rosemary, sitting there. So you
want to go to your house and start over? Yeah. I just went to my

(01:11:00):
house. Cause diva lived around the corner, so
we just knew that we had to get home. So
when I went home, I saw my older sister Rosemary, sitting on
the couch watching tv and just crying.
And as soon as she saw me, she ran to me and gave me a
hug, and she was just like, it's so horrible,

(01:11:23):
Janet. And that's when I saw it on tv. And
they just were showing how,
like. The coverage of what happened. Yeah, the coverage of the. The building of
the people falling and the plane.
Oh, it was just. And that's when it hit me,
like, oh, my goodness. Like, something serious

(01:11:45):
happened where so many
people, like, are dying and are
injured. And so I was just.
I. At that point, I just was kind of shocked, and
I didn't know what to feel, and I just had, like,
a flood of emotions and thoughts of, oh,

(01:12:08):
my God, is my family okay? Like, that's when it became real
to me, and I was like, okay. And so me and my sister started
planning out, where's Michael? Where's Rosa? My. Where's my sister? Where's my brother?
Where's my mom, my dad, my aunts? Nobody else was home at that time.
No one else was home. It was just us. So we decided. And our
phones weren't working, and so we

(01:12:30):
decided to go to the corner payphone and try
to reach some. Some of our family members. And as we
went to the payphones, we were, like, trying to call,
and it was just like, damn, that's something. Else that you don't. You don't
see much anymore. Oh, like, payphones.
They were everywhere, and now they're practically nowhere that

(01:12:53):
you can really find them. And every here and there in the
subway. I see them. Yeah, for younger listeners, those were
phones that were in the street that you put a quarter in and you can
use, like, a landline. Public phones, phone
booths, they don't have that anymore, so.
And one. So. So while we were calling, I happened to look across

(01:13:14):
the street, and I saw this
Morena walking, and she was
covered in ashes and
dust, and her face, it just
looked dead. And that's when
I think that image of seeing her and seeing,

(01:13:37):
like, just her looking lost and
collapsed and zoned out, that bothered me
so much because it just looked like she saw
something horrible and unimaginable.
And we couldn't, you know, we couldn't figure it out because we're just
seeing what we're seeing on tv, and we weren't even there. So

(01:14:00):
I just. I. My sister was on the phone speaking
to, I believe it was my dad, just to make sure he
was okay. Cause he worked out in the city, and at that time,
I had no concept of where exactly the world Trade center was
compared to my dad's job in Harlem, you know,
so I didn't know the difference. I just knew it was in the city, and

(01:14:21):
I wanted to make sure my dad was okay. That's how I was with David.
Like, I know he worked in the city, but I don't know where or how
close or whatever. Yeah, exactly. So
after that, I don't remember really much of the rest
of the day. I just knew that everyone, that
all of my family were safe, and that's kind of what mattered to

(01:14:43):
me. But just the images on television
just over and over. Yeah. It's just like days and weeks in
our head that really bothered me,
and I. And I just. I remember
going. Coming home from school that.
That week, later on that week or the previous week or

(01:15:06):
after, and just remembering a guy
reading the newspaper, and you just see the twin towers and the smoke, and
he's just reading. And then he just
covered the paper. Yeah. On the COVID of the paper. And he just breaks down
and starts sobbing on the two train, like,
a few stops before the last stop, uncontrollably.

(01:15:28):
And that just send out, like, a ripple effect
of sobs throughout the entire cart. It was like no one was
saying anything. And you just heard cries. Like everybody knew what it
was about. Yeah, exactly. And
my school is pretty diverse, even though it was in
a very white neighborhood. We had a lot

(01:15:52):
of. We had whites, blacks, Hispanics, and we
also had a lot of Arabs, which were,
you know, it wasn't. It never seemed like a racist school.
Until that happened, then everybody started turning to people,
and then everyone who was friends with
some. One of the arab kids, like, just

(01:16:15):
completely blocked them off. And we had to have.
Because there were a lot of students who had parents
and uncles who worked at the World Trade center, and
so they all lost. A lot of. There were a lot of students who lost.
So they had to send therapists into our
school, and we had, like, therapy sessions during

(01:16:36):
class for the following month. And during that
class, they allowed students to experience, expressed themselves.
And there were a lot of, like, of the arab kids who were
just saying how.
How sad and hurt they are by the events
and also by how people have been treating them in the school and their

(01:16:59):
neighborhoods, and they had absolutely. Nothing to do with it. But, like,
Arabs as a whole, they got the brunt of, like, everything. Exactly. Even to this
day, like, people always, like, look twice a. Mm hmm. And
it was. That really bothered me just to see the.
The separation, and all of a sudden, it just
became, you know, segregated. And that was, like,

(01:17:21):
the beginning of the divide. Yeah. And we were all,
like, friends with them. Every, you know, everyone was friends and everybody
was friendly, and then they were just, you know,
sad because everyone started treating them differently, and then people were
voicing their opinions about how they feel,
what they think or. It was just. It was a hard

(01:17:44):
time because I was still trying to understand fully what exactly
happened and then also dealing, even though I wasn't
physically there, like, you still, like, we were still
impacted by the events that happened, you know,
it. Was like, our city, you know? Yeah, exactly. It happened to us. And
I remember I wrote a poem. Poem. I don't. I have it somewhere. Yeah.

(01:18:07):
Yeah. After I. Because it just bothered me so much, and I didn't
understand what was going on, and I didn't understand why.
Why we were attacked and why were people so angry, you know?
If you find it, let me know, and if you want, I'll read it. Okay.
It might be a little. It might be. It might be a little
religious. Yeah. Because, you know, I was

(01:18:30):
like, what was. I was, like,
16. Yeah. Yeah. So I just
had started going to church and found God and, you know,
so I was, like, very much into all of that, but I was at the
same time completely confused, lost and. Looking for a
direction. Exactly. And that really didn't help,

(01:18:51):
you know, so that time is just very
dreary and sad because. And for
the few years, even after that, because it was just like every.
Even till now, every year, they played the memorial
and I was getting it from in school, in the
neighborhood and church. You know, everybody

(01:19:13):
was talking about it because one of the ladies, the last survivors that they
pulled out of the rubbish, she went to my church. So
she was sharing her story and she was on tv and all that
stuff. And so we were constantly. What kind of things would
she say about it? She was, you know,
she. She. That experience for her was

(01:19:36):
how. What brought her to
church and made her. And began her
journey, like seeking God and seeking Jesus. Because
there was. She said that there was a voice
there when she was. I think I believe
she was going down because she worked in the world trade and she was going

(01:19:59):
down the stairs when the tower fell. And
it was just silence. And she was there for hours.
And then there was someone
there. I believe she said his name was Michael,
who was talking to her and holding her hand throughout the whole thing and
saying that we're gonna get trapped. Like, she was trapped under the

(01:20:22):
rubble. And she said that she heard a voice saying
someone was gonna. She was talking to someone
and saying. And he was just encouraging her to keep,
you know, holding on, that she's gonna get out. They're gonna
definitely get her out. And they actually did get her out. And
when she got out, she was asking for. For the guy,

(01:20:44):
and they're like, there was nobody here. Like, you know, we just got here. There
was no one else here. Damn. And because of that, that
got her to start going to church. So it was
everywhere, no matter where we were going. I heard
stories for years about what
happened at 911 and how it affected them,

(01:21:07):
how, you know, so it was just.
I don't. You know, I think it's a very sad
time, and it was also very disturbing at the same
time. So I really don't like to think about it. Like,
everyone talks about sharing 911 stories. Like, oh, man,
I was sorry for. Asking you to do this. No, no,

(01:21:29):
no, it's fine. I mean, I'm just saying, like, now, you
know, it's been years, so it's, like, easier to talk about. But during
that time, I just felt like a lot of people were just using it
as, like, a podium just to speak. Plus, it was, like, everywhere,
like, inundated with it, like, all around, 24/7 yeah. You
know, so, you know, that's kind of where I was and

(01:21:51):
what I was experiencing during that time, you know.
Thank you very much. No problem.
Yeah. Tamugara one. So, Judy Rosa.
No?
Okay. Excuse me. Azurdia. Judy

(01:22:12):
Azurdia. So
when 911 happened. Bueno. Esa di yo
recueldo temprano.
Yamama kevivia aquin, queens
Jobivia and Sentonse and Thomas River, New
Jersey. Ila Yamepara saludales

(01:22:33):
avecomos tabablando
congenital emerissa
momento Kermana,
Massachusetts. Yeah.

(01:23:32):
Parisia
televisor total mente
confundida no savia pasando
medionous.

(01:24:00):
But. Whoa.
Nopodo creto bueno mesante avela
lanoticia la
noticia bion
cavien is a treasure. Cola
no perica pasando.

(01:24:23):
Pero yundo

(01:24:54):
the New York
Montana
caroqueto
pasa al wasi

(01:25:14):
lamentable
primera
kefasa
Parliament

(01:25:48):
medolio peroquando
lapsaro fuecomoke
mepusa yoradika
mentero
isaber cavia tanta itra

(01:26:09):
bahando sernada
porade.

(01:26:33):
Familiarize
alahante
so regress la casa busal televisor

(01:26:55):
if we
pero de pocondo la primera to recolapso
esopha.
Wow. Et rible. You know, it
is la segunda.

(01:27:19):
Yada puerto, like the rest
of the. Yeah, just talking
about that. Yeah, pero.
Thank you very much. No problem.

(01:27:41):
So, Raul, what's up, Tony, thanks for having me
podcast anytime. Thanks for being on the podcast.
Where, what do you remember from 911, and where were you when you
heard? Well, the day that the event happened?
I don't remember much, but I remember how
the one, one thing I remember clearly about the day that I'll never

(01:28:02):
forget is how I found out it happened.
So I don't remember exactly
what I was doing, but I was driving with my,
one of my ex girlfriends. I was driving somewhere. I can't tell you
where, but the thing that I stuck to my head on that
day was driving normal down the

(01:28:24):
street. And all of a sudden, this what I thought at
times, some crazy lady run out the house,
flapping out her hands, like, asking for help.
So I'm sitting in Queens, right? In Queens, yeah, I live in
Queens. So this lady runs out, and she's like.
She's like calling out for help. So I'm like, you know, I pull over, lower

(01:28:45):
my window, and this to see what happened, maybe, I don't know. Something was
happening in her house. And this lady's like, screaming, like, oh, my. Oh, my God,
something's wrong. Come inside, come inside. Talking about
like, let's go inside and watch tv. And my girlfriend say, what the,
you know, she's looking as good. Like, she's nuts, but she was like an older
lady. So I'm like, but what's going on, you know, and she's like, no, because

(01:29:07):
the towers, there's a fire. And, you know, at that
time, the car that I had was big into, like, music and hooking
up a car. So my car had like, tvs and every, you know, in the
front, the. Back, like the fast and the furious things. Yeah, I had, like,
I think was like five tvs in that. In that car. But anyway, so I
put the tv on in my car and the ladies there is like,

(01:29:30):
looking at me like I'm crazy. I'm like, I could see tv right here. Now.
As soon as I put the tv on, I see that the towers are on
fire. The twin towers were, like, smoking. I'm like, oh, shit,
what happened? I have to go to work that day. And I worked
and downtown, man, so I'm like, you know, I don't know. I
have to go back home, you know, try to put a job and see what's

(01:29:51):
going on because I work in security, so somebody has to
be there in case some big event happens.
So I'm like, oh, my God, how am I gonna get to work? Do I
have to leave earlier? Because I did the night shift. So I'm like, do they
need me to come in now? I have to go back home. So me and
my girlfriend, you know, I told my girlfriend at, I forget where we're going, but

(01:30:11):
I'm like, forget about that. I have to go to work. Yeah, yeah. I turn
around, by the time I got home and I turned the tv
at home, the towers, one of them already fell. Damn. And
then everybody's calling or trying to call because it's very
sporadic, right? No lines, whatever. All the
cell phones are fucked up. All the cell phones are up. I don't

(01:30:33):
know. At the time, my job had like a two way
pagere that, and that was working. It's like the old
BlackBerry twitch pages. Because that shit was like on a. Different signal or
something, whatever. So that
was, that was the only thing that was getting communications
to and from work at that time. So, like, the

(01:30:55):
job was sending messages, like, we need to come
in. And it was like somebody else that was already there. That was already
their work. Yeah. So that when I used to work, there was 24 hours a
day, three shifts. So when that happened,
you know, I was like, there's no way trains are running. So,
you know, I put the news on, the second tower comes down, I'm like,

(01:31:18):
holy, this is terrorism. Right?
So there's no way, you know, they saying everything shut down.
No. In all traffic from the city. So I'm not going
to work. So that's out of the question. Yes, sure. Because they stopped. They
stopped trains. They stopped. I think they closed the bridges,
everything. Only emergency service to the city.

(01:31:41):
And even the people were. They were letting people out, walk of the city, walking.
Because my brother was there and he had to walk the Brooklyn bridge. Just walking.
But nobody could get back in. No bridge. Yeah. So
I was pretty much stuck. So at work,
the job became a 24 hours
shift, so the people that were there, they had to stay on that day.

(01:32:04):
They stood 24 hours into the
next ship, which was me, and another guy could
make it in. So I was there the next morning. The
next morning you were able to. Walk the next morning? Yeah, I was able to
walk into to work. How close were
you? You like to it? I want to say a

(01:32:25):
couple miles, 15 blocks.
Damn. For my building. I could see the twin Towers.
Walking distance, 15 minutes. How was it like when you went. To work in the
morning the next day? Like a lot of ambulances, fire trucks,
cops around, creepy man, or just like, silent, empty.
The next morning was the only thing I remember is

(01:32:47):
the two things, right? So I don't remember much that day
that it happened. I remember how. How I knew. Because the lady, right? So that
stuff. The next day, getting
to work, the train was running into the city,
one stop, and then everything was walking distance. So my
train to Chinatown, Essex street, the J line,

(01:33:09):
and then from Essex, it was a walk all the way down to the south
area. Damn. So.
And it's only like. It was only like critical personnel they were
allowing in. So you had to have, like, some type of id to
walk into the downtown, to the zone.
So don't. The thing I remember the next day, apart from, like, being

(01:33:33):
stuck at work for a whole day, was, you know, the
city's always busy, right? Yeah. No matter what time, it was solitude.
Just quiet at the time, normal ambulance was running
up and down. Cause everything happened already. Ground
zero was like, totally closed, so you couldn't even go near it.
Everywhere else, walking was just that quiet.

(01:33:56):
The smell was bad. It was like funky
barbecue smell when you cook meat. Uh huh. It was
fucked up. Fuck. And the floor,
that was what? That was probably just like bottles. Well, it's still foggy, right,
because the next day, the top was still burning. So it was just

(01:34:18):
a smell like. Wow. Like a barbecue smell. You
know, you put things to burn. The cold smells, you
know, I can't say, like, human flesh or. I don't
know. That was definitely part of it. Yeah, but, you know, but it was. I
don't know. I can't tell you how it smells. It was just like a.
Like a barbecue smell. Like a funky smell.

(01:34:39):
And the other thing is the floor was white,
so, you know, we knew it was ashes. Yeah. Like, you know,
debris. Right. Not human acid, but just ashes in general. The
concrete was the cloud of smoke when, you know,
blanketed everything. Right, yeah, I remember that. But the
weird part about it, though, the shit. To think I remember the most

(01:35:02):
was that they were, like, constantly washing it, right? So there was
the sanitation trucks that clean up the street, cleaning
shit with water, right. So everything was wet, but it was still
white. So as much as they try to brush it, it wouldn't come
off. I don't know how it was, like, baked into the ground.
Wow. All, like, gray. So when you

(01:35:25):
walk. As you walk, by the time we got to work your feet, like.
Oh, wait. Oh, white to soil. If it was so gray. Not white,
gray. It was like a powder. Like dawn. You know, it's
like. It wasn't like you could, like, sweep it. You like, sweep it off. It
was just like, baked into the floor. It was like that for, like a
good month. And all the buildings and all that. Everything. Everything

(01:35:48):
was like. But the floor was. Wow.
I still work doing basically nothing. Yeah.
Just like, being on watch just in case. Phone call. You know,
I've been phones. Because they use like that, like,
regular. Yeah. The following days, everything
was, like, coming back. Cell phone started working, everything. Yeah.

(01:36:12):
Yeah. But that's the only things I remember how I found out
that towers were, like, on fire or whatever because of that
lady that came out. Anybody remember that shit running in the middle
of the street? Well, some lady just telling you, come inside the
house. Come inside the house for, like, screaming. In the middle and then saying, hey,
come watch tv with me. Yeah. Thank you.

(01:36:33):
But because we didn't know. Yeah, yeah. And
the next day, getting to work, that,
like, smell with the quietness, it was eager. It was empty,
like walking. And there was cops in every corner. That way you go,
and you can't go that way. Go this way. It was like the whole city
wasn't shot. You have everybody. You had to walk down. But if you'd be surprised,

(01:36:54):
there's a lot of people going to work the next day because they needed to
go, like these people, like engineers. Those people had to stay in the
building. Yeah, that. The security people, they
were stuck there. Like, I remember my building. The security
supervisor, he lived there for like, three weeks.
He never went home. Wow. Because if he went

(01:37:16):
home, it would, like, who else wouldn't make it in? Yeah,
once he was like, covering everybody else that could make it. You know,
believe it or not. You know, people say, like, they're workers, but why I
worked was 85 broad, like
three or four blocks going towards the west side.
Left something city. I forget some rich people,

(01:37:39):
you know, condos and stuff like that. Those people always left
homeless. They have money, so they probably went somewhere else.
But maybe they didn't, right? So the whole condominium was
emptied out, saved. So I'd rather that lives than they would,
you know, most of them are. Wealthy, but that's like, put them somewhere else. Somewhere
else. Yeah. There was a lady that worked with us that

(01:38:01):
she said living. Living at work, but she was like
a big shop, so they took care of her, whatever. But
she stood at the building when there was no. Nobody
working there. But she lived in neighborhood. She stood there for like three
weeks. Damn. She wasn't even going to shower. So our building
had water. He. I mean, ac

(01:38:24):
and all that stuff. Or he or I don't remember, whatever it
was. So she was better off at work than her condo. Cause she
didn't have a second home or whatever. That's crazy. So she would have stuck
at work for like a month until they deemed her apartment safe.
Fuck. Yeah. It's two days. I was crazy, man. Hell yeah.
But that's, you know, out of everything that happened, those

(01:38:47):
two things was like, that's what sticks to me, you
know, the rest is history. But
those two events, like Mark, 911,
man, they stayed with you. Yeah.
Thank you.

(01:39:09):
All right, babe. So where were you on 911?
I was in gym class in
Richmond. Hill High School, where we went
back. In the days I was 17 years
old. Beautiful. You're still beautiful, babe.
Thanks. But, yeah, I remember was in gym

(01:39:32):
class and we're doing stretches or something on the
floor and. Butterfly stretch, I think
so, something like that. And
then one of the teachers came into the gym
and told the teacher that was teaching us that something
was going on. But we, at that point, we didn't know

(01:39:54):
anything. We just, you know, knew.
We thought a helicopter had gone into
twin towers. That's what we thought. So, yeah, that was like an
accident, you know, like, you know, the tourists,
helicopters. We don't have any information.
Yeah, just something happened and we were

(01:40:15):
allowed to go home, which was a good thing. No, after the first
one, we were. Allowed to go home right away after. The first
plane, like when he went in. I don't know if it was the first
when I got home already. Both
of the. Yeah, both of them? Yeah.
What happened when they, he hit for the first place?

(01:40:38):
The first plane came in and then the teacher came in to tell your teacher
while you guys were doing stretches. And then like what happened immediately after that?
I don't know if it was while the, you know, when the first one was
hit. I just know that a teacher went into.
Okay, a regular teacher went into the gym and told the
gym teacher that something was going on and that we

(01:41:00):
were allowed to go home because, you know, we weren't
like fully into the information. Yeah,
but we were allowed to go home and since I live
like close by to Richmond Hill. How close?
Two blocks. So
we just went walking. I went walking home and my mom was

(01:41:23):
watching the news when I got home and
she was like, can you believe this? This is crazy.
So in Dante with
Julies Julia, I block on
kiming while she was home. And then you came home like probably. Like, right, probably
after that. Yeah. Cuz I used to come home early anyways with

(01:41:46):
the early schedule. Yeah, I had the morning schedule. So it was like
from nine to one, I think. Or eight to one. Yeah,
or eight to twelve. I used to have that too. I think it was like
1230 or something like that. Yeah, it was for either
they let us go early or. Yeah, or.
Because I don't remember that much. Yeah, either they let us go early

(01:42:07):
or I was already, you know, do to go
home because I think gym class was like the last.
They probably cut the class or let you guys. Yeah. And let us leave early.
All right. My dad, he was working in
Manhattan, so I was like, I wonder if he
saw anything or if he's okay. But we didn't have any information

(01:42:30):
yet. We didn't know what was going on. We just knew that the,
the twin towers were on fire and. Yeah, but nothing
had happened by the. Time you got home. You saw your mom watching the news
and she see what's happening and then at that point,
yeah, both planes hit, right? Yeah, both of them were
here already. And like, seriously,

(01:42:51):
I just didn't know. Everybody was still like, what the. I was like,
okay. You know, they were hit, but they hadn't
like collapsed yet. So we were still like, okay.
Something happened in my hand. Yeah. You know, and my mom
was like, go get your little sister to school. And
I went to P's 90, which was in like a couple of blocks

(01:43:12):
away. And when I got there, there
was a huge line full of
parents and. Parents going to pick up their kids. All the parents went
to pick up their kids. And I was just
waiting there until they let us all get
whoever we want to pick up. And all the kids were

(01:43:35):
coming out of the classrooms. And
I remember that in the news, they were saying that a plane,
like, they didn't know where a plane was. So we were all
looking every time we. A plane pass us by or
we thought that it was gonna, you know, fall on us or something.
Still, everybody was like, scared and nobody knew nothing what was going on.

(01:43:58):
We didn't have any information. We didn't know what was going on. We didn't know
what a terrorist attack was then.
And, you know, they just kept repeating the same
thing in the news. They didn't give anything different.
So we were like. Didn't even have any new information. Yeah, they didn't know what
was going on either. And then after that

(01:44:19):
is when, when we got home,
then that's when, like, I found
out that they had collapsed. You picked up your little sister. You got,
you got JC, and then you took her home.
And at that point, did your, had your mom spoken to your
dad? All right, nobody has still spoken to.

(01:44:42):
Nobody has spoken to my dad. My dad was a cab
driver in Manhattan. We
didn't hear anything, but we didn't know. It was
like. I don't know if. I probably didn't think it was that
bad, like that big of a deal. We don't
know, like, we don't know what's. Well, I didn't know,

(01:45:04):
like, being a teenager. I just didn't think it was that
severe of a case. I don't
know, it was weird. And then
what, you guys got home and just. Yeah, I
don't remember really exactly how it went.
You know, how it all happens because. Collapsed already. They

(01:45:26):
had already collapsed when I got home. And
then my mom told me to pick up my little
sister about that. No, but when,
because I got. I remember that I got home
like a little bit after like ten, probably.

(01:45:47):
Like twelve something. It must have been. I don't remember what happened, really.
Uh huh. But when you got home first, they were still.
I remember, like, I remember things. Remember my mom watching
the news, like, sitting in the living room watching the news, but
I. And I remember, like, the smoke coming out of
the. But remember that they were like, repeating the same thing.

(01:46:09):
I don't remember for already had collapsed. And they were just repeating, and they. Were
just repeating like the same visual, you know, like,
so I don't remember exactly how it went, but better. Yeah. After you had
JVC about. There were people probably after I got JC, I already
had collapsed already, and. But we didn't.
I. I don't know. I just didn't. I thought it was like, like,

(01:46:32):
surreal, like, nah, not a big deal. It's
okay. Like, they were telling us it was okay, that nothing was.
Didn't want anybody to freak out, nobody. To get alarmed when we
didn't hear anything about my dad yet. But we
probably didn't think that it was my mom. Probably
thought that it was bad. Well, she was keeping it together. So you guys want

(01:46:54):
to freak out? So we want to freak out, but.
And then I don't even remember when we heard
of. I think my dad called my mom,
like, from the base. No, Judy, I don't
remember. He. He called her and he said
that he was okay. And then we were all,

(01:47:16):
you know, because he was, like, the main thing because he was close to the
Twin Towers.
Thank you very much. You're welcome very much.
Hello, Elaine.

(01:47:37):
All right, so where were you exactly when,
when you first heard about 911? Like, when the planes
hit? Well, when I first heard that
something had happened in New York, like that, it was during
the home period of my high school.
How old are you? 15.

(01:48:00):
So they basically put it over the
loudspeaker, you know, for us to
stay where we were, not to switch classes, and that we would
be having to call our parents to pick us up
from homeroom. From. Yeah, from where we were.
No, when that happened, that was, like, after, like, the first plane or. Yeah, after,

(01:48:22):
like, both of them hit. Do you remember both of them? Yeah.
And we tried to look out the windows of few windows we had in our
classroom to see if we could see smoke because we had heard, like, you could
see smoke from miles away. But I guess it was mainly, like, in Brooklyn
because from Queens, you couldn't see anything. And you were at what high
school? I went to Thomas Edison Technical

(01:48:42):
Vocational High School. But at the time,
actually, all our parents were in doctor because they had gone
to a memorial for my grandmother that had passed on 911. But the
year prior. So, actually, my friend's mom picked me
up, and I ended up going to her house.
And a bunch of our cousins, we all kind of,

(01:49:05):
like, spoke over the phone. We started calling each other. We were all worried because
we were like, none of our parents are here. What do we do? Are they
going to be able to fly back in? Are they going to stop all flights?
Because they were all literally over there for the anniversary
of our grandma's death. So all the cousins were
just kind of, like, on our own with either one parent

(01:49:25):
or just no parents. And how
was it? How was it, like, initially, like, when you
first start, like, getting in touch with people or, like, actually, how long did it
take after first hearing when they told you that you guys were gonna have to
wait and your parents were gonna pick you up and stuff like that? Like, how.
How much time elapsed between then and when you guys, like, actually left the

(01:49:47):
school? I wanna say
maybe 2 hours had passed because even though we got
to call our parents, like, not everyone could just come out of their job to
come pick us up. Some people had to just, like, stay in school and wait
for, like, a friend of a friend or somebody to pick them up.
So it wasn't long. And then we went. I went to

(01:50:09):
my friend's house, and I was just there with her and her, with her parents
and just trying to get in touch with my mom in
doctor. And it was tough for, like, phones to, like, go through, right? Yeah. Phone
calls are, like, blocked. Oh, they sounded busy.
Yeah. Like, in school during, like,
those 2 hours, it was. It was like school wasn't really happening. Right. It was

(01:50:30):
just like, everybody was just there and, like, waiting for time to pass type of
thing. Yeah. It wasn't like math class as usual, you know? No, not
at all. Everyone was just kind of, like, talking to each other, something that never
happens during class. They were, like, giving us permission to
talk instead of, like, saying, stay quiet. Like, they just
knew that we had to express ourselves and try to, like, deal

(01:50:51):
with what had happened. At the time, I didn't think anyone in my classroom was
affected directly. Like, they didn't have parents or friends or family that were
in there, so nobody was, like, hysterical crying, but we were all just kind of,
like, in shock and. Yeah, even the teachers, like, at that time, like, they didn't
know what the hell was going on. Yeah, figure things out themselves.
Exactly. Just kind of, like, waiting to hear from, like, what the mayor was up

(01:51:13):
to and what he was gonna do or the Giuliani at the time.
Then when you went to your friend's house, like,
how was that? It was just like. Because I remember, like, when I got home
finally after, like, when we heard, we
were just, like, watching the tv, watching the news. Every single channel was,
you know, it was like the same exact thing, you know?

(01:51:36):
I don't remember watching tv, actually. No. Do
you remember, like, what you did, like, when you went to your friend's house? We
were just in her room listening to music we
didn't turn on the radio or anything like that. I guess you just like,
cds or. Whatever carried on as
normal as possible. Like a regular. Like a 15 year old.

(01:51:57):
Yeah. But then do you remember, was there a point where
you realize, like, oh, shit. Like, thing, you know, like something
would really. Something serious went down? Well, yeah, it was
serious because it was the twin Towers. And I remember, like, thinking
sometimes during, like, half days at school, we
would, like, not go home, and we'd go into the city, actually. Remember Mars 20

(01:52:20):
112? That was, like, this restaurant that was kind of like.
Remember we would. The outside, it was like. It looked like. Like junk, kind
of. Yeah, like planets and things.
And we would go into the city. We'd just take the train to
42nd street. We'd be there, chill all day. We'd walk
from, like, 42nd street down to, like, downtown Brooklyn. I mean, not downtown Brooklyn,

(01:52:41):
downtown Manhattan. And I was just thinking, like,
imagine we had gone to one of those, like, places that we would go to,
and it would have happened to us, but thankfully it didn't. But
it was so random on a Tuesday, and sometimes we'd be out
in the city just trying to have a good day because we were, like, off
from school or whatever. And to think it could have happened to anyone that was

(01:53:03):
just on their way to work or just crossing by because they worked
across the street, you know, it just sucks. It's
crazy. I actually work right now with someone who's also one of the last
survivors that they pulled out. She wrote a book about.
She was there. She worked there, and she
came down with the building, and she was trapped, and she

(01:53:26):
was one of the. She was the last person that came out. Oh, wow. That
they pulled her out, and she wrote a book, and it's called
angel in the rubble.
But the angel is not her. Like, she's not referring to herself.
She legit was talking about in the book, she talks about how there was someone
there, like, with her, like, trapped also, but she couldn't see them, but

(01:53:48):
she could hear them. And it turns out that there was nobody.
So it's kind of like, I don't know if
you want to call it God or an angel or something, or maybe it was
a firefighter that then passed away. Who knows? But somebody was there,
like, saying, we're gonna be okay. Someone's gonna find her. Yeah, someone's gonna
find us. What's her name? Janelle is

(01:54:10):
her name. Damn, that's cool. And she got married, and
afterward, like, she was here illegally.
She's from Trinidad, and she was so worried because when they found her
and they started, like, asking her for her paperwork and all this stuff, like,
eventually, like, to get her name because she was the last survivor, and it was,
like, a big thing, and she was just kind of scared to even speak

(01:54:31):
up because she was there. Like, she worked for the
port authority, but as a contractor, like, as a kind of, like, on a temp
agency kind of basis. So she was afraid she was gonna lose her
job and all this stuff, but they actually
paid for her wedding. Bride.com or, like,
something like that. Paid for her wedding. She got to write a

(01:54:54):
book. Like, she was on CNN, I think.
Wow, that's crazy. Back in the day. Yeah, that's a six star. And she works,
like, four cubicles for me. She's been with the port
authority for, like, 25 years now. I have
a co worker that actually, she. She told me her husband
worked at the Twin Towers when it happened. And,

(01:55:15):
like, that day, the night before, he was there, like,
super late. And because of that, he was going into work late the next
day because he wound up, like, getting stuck at work, like, extra work or whatever.
So he took, like, the, like, a later shift the next day, and
that one of his, like, close friends, coworkers, he had an alarm that
was, like, an a and B type of alarm. And when

(01:55:37):
he, like, he said alarm a when he was gonna go
into the. Into the office early, and alarm b when he was gonna go into
the office late and sink it, a by mistake. He pressed alarm
b when he was supposed to press alarm a and he was supposed
to be there, but then he press alarm b by mistake, and he was, like,
pissed. When he woke up, he was like, oh, my God, I'm so late to
work. I was supposed to be there early, and then he turns on, like, the

(01:55:59):
news and stuff like that, and he found out that, like. Like, 911 happened. That's
crazy. A lot of sick stories like that.
And also, when you hear about all the people that came to help afterwards, like,
they just. They didn't leave the building. Like, they would come out, but they'd go
back in. That's kind of crazy. Like, to have that kind of, like, courage to
go back in. Like, in and out. In and out. Yeah.

(01:56:19):
Yeah. A lot of firefighters died that day.
There's this famous guy. I forgot his name. The guy from
Forrest Gump that. He's, like, one of the people on the bubba gum
shrimp. Skinny one. Bubba. No. Lieutenant Dan. No,
wait. No, not Lieutenant Dan. Anyway, he's
like, an ex firefighter or something like that. He's famous. He's an actor. And he

(01:56:42):
volunteered days after. When I read that, I was like, oh, crap. Everyone was
like, just, like, had a connection with the loss, even if they weren't
here. Anything else you remember around
that time? No. When
we came back to school, they had us write, like, they gave us all, like,
a pre printed handout that said, like, how we felt about

(01:57:03):
911. Like, you could write a poem or just like, an essay or whatever. Express
yourself. Yeah. And we all wrote something, and that was
it. You remember what you wrote? Yeah, I wrote, like, a cheesy
poem. Some of it rhymed, but, yeah,
I have it somewhere tucked away because I throw. I haven't thrown away any, like,
paper that I've ever been, that I've ever written or has been given to me.

(01:57:25):
I have it at home in my. Under my bed. And you recently
wrote a post about 911, you said, right? Yes. I went to visit the 911
museum, which I didn't do it when they first opened, when, like, the rush
and everyone was going, I just went randomly because on Tuesdays, they have a free.
You can get free tickets because it happened on Tuesday, September
11. So every Tuesday you can go online and

(01:57:47):
print out a free ticket. They have a limited number of tickets, obviously,
so just try to do that early. So we went because
my friend had free tickets. Wasn't like I was actually trying to go because I
didn't even know what to expect. 911 museum. Like, yeah,
I went once too. It was kind of, like. It was, like, eerie. It was
an interesting eerie at the same time. Like, it's not something that I was, like,
dying to go see, but then I was like, let me just check it out.

(01:58:10):
So. And I actually was really touched by it. I was really
touched by it. And that's why you wrote the post. Yeah. Like, afterwards.
Interesting. Yes. And anybody was interested, you can see
your post at yes. On Facebook.
Yes. I'm trying to send you the link. Yeah, I'll link to it, like, in

(01:58:30):
the episode notes. Mm hmm. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Right. So 911, you and me went to high school together.
My best friend and I know
that the occurrence of 911
changed, like, the trajectory of your

(01:58:53):
life, technically. Not that you wouldn't
have wound up joining the army anyway, but that's something that you've told
me was one of the reasons why you decided to, like,
join the army. So what this episode is, it is like, like I told you
before, it was like, a bunch of people just saying, like, where they were when
911 actually happened. Like, where they were when they first

(01:59:14):
heard. And that's it. Where were you just to start
yourself? Like, what's the cool way of holding the mic? Like, I know when they
rap, they cover half the mic. Like, hof.
That sounds like. No, I've always
been patriotic, but I signed up to the military before 911 happened.
Actually, a month before me and Abby went to. My cousin Avi

(01:59:35):
Gonzalez went to go sign up to the army, something I always wanted to
do. And before it happened. Yeah, before. Yeah, yeah. We
signed up in August. I signed. I knew I wanted it since I was a
kid. And at 16, I went to the recruiting. No.
1617. Well, see, at 17 years old, I went to the
recruiting station and I needed a signature from my parent.

(01:59:55):
You went to the one on leopards on Liberty? Yeah, right by the banging
hell out truck. So I went over there
and the guy promised me, you know, that I go home every weekend and fucking
the world. Yeah, everything. I could take a helicopter straight from my room straight to
Brooklyn to Queens, and, you know, everything is all nice and dandy and I can
take vacations whenever I want, whatever. And my

(02:00:17):
mom. My mom was like, heck no, I'm sorry. My dad was like, heck no.
You know you're not gonna do that. He never wanted me to work and let
alone fucking go to the military, so I had to get my mom to sign
the waiver. How'd your mom feel about it? Like, when you told her? She
always supported me and everything. Since I was 15 years old, I started packing bags
with her brother, who had a pizza pizza

(02:00:38):
restaurant at the western beef there in metropolitan.
And I used to go with him. He used to open up the restaurant and
then I used to help him set up like 430 in the morning, 05:00 in
the morning. And after we set up, when the supermarket opened at seven, I would
just go straight to the cashier's line and start packing bags. So I've always, you
know, she's always supported me in that. When my father didn't want to.
Anywho, because he, pops wanted. You wanted to, like, provide for you and he didn't

(02:01:01):
want you to like. Yeah, exactly. That old
dominican mentality. So anyway. But I knew I always wanted
it. I always wanted to be in the military. I always wanted to shoot guns.
I wanted to be a cop, you know, that. All that good stuff. And so
I signed. So I went and he said no, and my mom said yes and
she signed. And that was in August. That's when Abby had graduated too.
From high school. He didn't know what to do. He was at his house not

(02:01:25):
doing anything, and he was just like, all right, Steven's doing it. Let me do
it, too. So we both went to the military base there. At
last exit on the Verrazano. On the ballpark by the Verrazano.
And we signed up to the military. You signed up first you go to
that recruiting thing, right, on. Leopards. Yeah. Lefferts. And then they set all your
paperwork. You take the Asvab test, and you pass that. And

(02:01:47):
what is that? That's like. It's a military test. No, it's a.
It's a written. No, it's actually in a computer. It's a computer test. And that
basically puts you in what position you're gonna like, depending on your score and
what job they place you in the military. There's over, like, a thousand jobs, from,
like, cook to nuclear, you know, fucking
plant technician or whatever the heck it was. Like, the infantry.

(02:02:08):
Yeah, that's where you get infantry, artillery, car mechanic, or whatever. Like, the test
is actually designed to put you where you fit in. In the military. I remember
you and I. You and I used to argue about the. The king of battle
versus the queen of battle. Like that. Yeah. Me, him. You know, we're best friends,
brothers, but we always argue about everything. And, um. But. And
he was infantry, which is the queen of battle. And, uh. No, but this is

(02:02:30):
not. I mean, this is a fact. But, you know, he makes a fun of
it. And. And artillery is the king of battle. You know, we go and
we destroy everything. So he signed up to. I actually wanted, um. I want to
jump out of airplanes. And the job they had jumping on airplanes was artillery,
which is 13 Bravo in the
army, which is an artillery crewmen. And your job

(02:02:51):
is to, like, to deal with these 119 ers and these 198
howitzers. You know, put a miss. Put a round in it and, you know,
and send steel downrange. And then, you know, so it was pretty cool. I was
like, shit, I'm gonna be jumping on airplanes and blowing shit up. Why not sign
me up? So I signed up, and then, uh, me and I, we signed up.
That was August the beginning, or I think was middle. Middle of August. I know

(02:03:13):
the summer was ending when we signed up. And then we start school again, which
is, I think, what, the last week of August that we started or the first
week. Yeah, last week. August. I remember I was smarter than you. I think I
started first because I had. I had three classes in my senior
year. When you. When you went to go nine to five. Yeah, no,
1130, something like that. I used to get out of class. Because I didn't like
gym, and I wound up having, like, three gyms. Nothing

(02:03:36):
to a smartphone, by the way. 20 was a smarter one. I jumped from, like,
freshman to, like, junior within, like, three years. I was an
uncle. Had my first two years. And then I met this girl, and she switched
my life around. I started going to John Adams to night school, summer school, and
I did, like, within a year, I got all my credits back, and, like,
my senior year actually worked out. I had, like, three classes. Yeah,

(02:03:58):
I remember that shit. I used to leave and I was, like, coming in, keep
going in. Anywho, so, yeah, so
we're 911. Where were you, like, when.
When you first heard the news, when you first heard that? There was, like, something
going on. I think I was in Mississaug class. I think it was a math
class. I remember Miss Citron was a biology teacher,

(02:04:18):
something. I know he was goofy with white hair. Yeah, I know. The science of
math, one of the two. But I remember, I think was I was in his
class, and I took a pass to go to the bathroom, go to the restroom,
come back, and while I'm coming back, somebody screams through the hallway, yo, did you
hear the towers got hit? Like what? Yeah, yeah, they got
hit. But it was probably one of these rich motherfuckers, you know, with a helicopter
or something. Oh, shit. Yeah. So then I go back to class, and I

(02:04:41):
said, hey, mister Satchel, did you hear what happened? He said, yeah, we heard.
You know, sit down. The principal's
gonna speak now or something like that. Like an announcement was coming, something. I don't
know. And then, you know, we got the news after that, the second plane hit,
and they were like, oh, shit, you know, it's a terrorist attack. So everybody stay
put. Everybody stay put. You know, we're probably gonna go on

(02:05:03):
lockdown right there. African put my bags in my book bag. And
I remember going out the back door. A bunch of us did. We went down
the stairs, and I was like, let me get the fuck out of the school
before I get, you know, get shut down. And then I can't leave to, like.
And then you're stuck inside? Yeah, exactly. For, like, a couple hours or even the
next day. I really didn't call anybody because I didn't
have anybody that worked in the city. My father was a water ghetto. My mom

(02:05:24):
was not. My mom wasn't even working at the time. I think she
saw my dad out. Elaine was in Thomas Edison.
I really didn't have any family. Thomas Edison was in Brooklyn, right? No, no, that's
queens, by Jamaica State around there. Oh, yeah. They're
good with, like, mechanic and electricians. Yeah,
they have a specialty in that. And so I don't really have. I wasn't really

(02:05:46):
worried about people that, you know, like, close family members that were there, but, you
know, of course, you know, you worried about the other, other people's family members,
but I don't remember calling anybody, like, you know, did he get out the building
when you there? This and that, I think Vicente. I called you. The only thing.
The only person I called to Vicente, I'll be his brother, because I know he
worked in the city. He had to do something with MTA or something like
that. And I know he worked in the city. I don't know what street, but

(02:06:07):
I just called him anyway, you know, he. Said he was good, and it actually
went through, like, the phone calls. I remember, like, no, no, I remember. Couldn't even
call my mom yet to call. Like crazy. Like crazy if maybe something
goes through. Yeah, I remember I kept calling. I kept calling. I couldn't. And then
when I got home, I called from the house phone, from the landline and that,
and I was able to get through. And, you know, everybody was safe. My parents
were in Brooklyn. I was in Queens. Elaine was in Queens. You know,

(02:06:30):
everybody was good. Yeah. And I was down. We turn
on the tv and we see all this shit that's happening, and, you know, I
didn't get to see. I didn't get to see it until I got home. You
know, everything was just, like, hearsay in the school and, you know, walking home. I
remember walking home. I used to live on one. On one street, and our high
school was on 113th street, so it was only twelve blocks down the subway line
in Jamaica Ave. And we went home, and I

(02:06:52):
started seeing that, and I was like, what the fuck? And I was like, wow.
Like, I know what awaits me. I know. Um, I had signed. I just
signed up. I had just signed up because the reason I signed up early was
because I wanted. I didn't want to waste any time. And I wanted. I knew
what I wanted. I don't want to waste any time. Like, I planned. Like, I
go to the military now. I'll be out by the time I'm 21. You know,
become a cop, that's when you be. When you could become a cop at 21,

(02:07:15):
22 years old. You know, I always had that timeline of you know, who I
wanted to be at what time, and so I knew what awaited me. I said,
fuck, man, I want to put on these boots and these fatigues and, you know,
and go fight these motherfuckers. And, like, that, that
emboldened you more. Like you wanted, like, it pushed you more to, like,
wanna. Yeah, I was hyped and everybody, I remember

(02:07:36):
going to basic training. Um, everybody was hyped, like, you know.
Like, everybody was like, gung ho about it as opposed to, like, being like, oh,
fuck, what did I do? Just get myself into, I don't want to be. Our
class was like, probably like four or 500 people, you know, about three
quarters of the class, you know, we're dying to put on those boots and, you
know, and those desert fatigues and go, and those desert BDU's

(02:07:56):
and, and go overseas to the Middle east and fight these guys. You know, you
have the other class that just signed up, you know, to get the Gi Bill
and take the benefits and, you know, they couldn't get a job, so they sent
it to the army. But the majority people that do it, like, for money and
benefits as opposed to defending people do it for the. Country and, you know,
and values and patriotism,
we, you know, we were hyped. You know, I remember working out hard. You

(02:08:18):
know, we would, you know, the druids are used to tell us, listen, we're training
hard. You know, you might, you might, you might not even get to your command.
You might get out of here, and they might tell you, you know, listen, you're
shipped out. So we were, you know, we're already mentally prepared. Six months straight to.
Exactly. Yeah. And, um, how was that? How was
that? It actually happened. It's been like a month. Like a mind fuck. No, no,
it was, to me, it wasn't. I actually wanted it, you know, the reason

(02:08:40):
you train, you know, for six months, you know, get 5 hours of sleep, you
know, although the folding the sheets and, and, and the push
ups and then all that military discipline they teach you, they almost like,
it says you exactly. Exactly. You want to, you want to apply
it, you know, you want to go out there and fight and send rounds down
range. And that's exactly what happened. I got stationed to the

(02:09:02):
82nd airborne in North Carolina. As soon as I got shout out to Fort
Bragg. I remember visiting you then when you Fayetteville. That's when we saw eight
mile. I saw for the second
time. I saw, I saw it there the first time where my brother and
his boy Jeff, I remember we went to when it came out, we saw it.
And then shortly after that, we, I went to South

(02:09:23):
Carolina, to North Carolina with your sister and your pops and. Your
uncle, and we sitting back in the greyhound, and you stood. Yeah. And
then we were having, like, so much fun, like, like that weekend. I was like,
fuck it. Let me, let me stay longer. Yeah, we started getting, we started hitting
all those other, like, sonics and all those chicken and
waffle spots and stuff like that in the bet videos.

(02:09:46):
Yeah, it was great. Yeah, definitely. It was a first time. We actually hung
out after, like, all the whole academy like that in the AIT,
so, yeah, so we went, you know, it was great. As soon as we got
there, they said, listen, don't even unpack. We have military orders for you guys to
go down. And I remember that, and I remember going, you know, I got assigned
my room. I left everything in my duffel bags. It was like three duffel bags.

(02:10:08):
I remember, you know, big one who says tall as me,
five'six, by the way. I remember just
taking out, like, my underwear and socks and t shirts and, you know, the basic
things that I'm gonna need because I'm like, why the hell am I gonna pack
all this shit, you know, to, you know, head out again? Where was basic
training? Was in Fort Bragg, Oklahoma, in Oklahoma, and then for sale.
Oklahoma. Then you were stationed in, like, Fort Bragg? Yeah, I was in Oklahoma first

(02:10:31):
for six months, and after that, I got sent to, for three weeks to Georgia
and Fort Benny for airborne training. And from airborne training, I had,
um, I had a week off. I remember taking the greyhound up there, man. You
picked me up at the bus terminal where Christie. Exactly. I was pissed off because
somebody stole my PlayStation from my bag. Yeah, you were, like,
out there. I remember there was something going on. I forgot what it was. I

(02:10:52):
forgot somebody robbed my PlayStation on the way,
and we chilled for a week, and then I got back to North Carolina and
right there, and we got sent out. That's sickendez. Yeah,
it was cool, but, yeah, that. Was, that's, that's very much
it. I just want, like, obviously, the whole army experience and stuff like that. That's
like a, that's a whole podcast in and of itself. I just wanted to do,

(02:11:13):
like, where you were when I let, when you first heard of 911
and, like, your experience with that. Yeah. Rest in
peace. So all those souls lost and always remember, never
forgotten. Absolutely. Thanks, man. Appreciate it.
The third plane that was in play that day

(02:11:35):
was American Airlines flight 77, which left out of
an airport near Washington. DC. This was the plane that
later crashed into the Pentagon at 09:37
a.m.
those are all the interviews that I have for you guys today. And throughout
the episode in my conversation, you may have picked up on where I

(02:11:58):
was during 911, but in case you didn't, I'm going to share it with
you here. Now, before we get to the housekeeping portion
of the episode. I was 17 years old and
in high school. I went to Richmond Hill High School
here in Queens. And many
schools are overpopulated, especially in,

(02:12:20):
in bigger cities. Richmond Hill is one of them.
A way to combat the overpopulation was that
the school yard was converted into
classroom trailers. So it's literally like a
trailer, like, you know, those, like, home trailers that you would
say, or like trailers that,

(02:12:42):
you know, some people live in Orlando. I just
picture like an 18 wheeler, like the, the cargo trailer that
it pulls in the back. One of those container looking things
turned into a classroom and they were actually pretty nice because, you know, they were
new. When the first
plane hit, I was actually in my history class, which happened to

(02:13:04):
be in the trailers. Now, the cool thing about
the trailers also was that instead of, you know,
being confined within the building, when you
had a class in the trailers, you would have to, you know, exit
the building and you would be outside, basically, while you walk
to your next class in the trailers. And back then, I used

(02:13:27):
to smoke cigarettes and stuff, thinking I'm cool and just meet up with friends
and smoke some cigarettes and before going to class, go to class late
and stuff like that. So we would look forward
to transitioning between building and trailer.
But anyway, I was in my history class
and a teacher comes in and tells our

(02:13:49):
teacher that a plane hit the. The twin
towers or one of the towers, rather.
And we didn't think much of it, honestly, the, you know, based on
the. Both teachers and
their demeanor and reaction,
we pretty much all wrote it off as, you know,

(02:14:11):
some. Somebody taking flight lessons and, you know,
in one of those little planes or maybe a
helicopter may have clipped the building
or the side of a building or something like that. And we pretty
much rode it off and continued with the
lesson. Then about 15 minutes later,

(02:14:33):
the same professor comes in again, the same teacher, and he
tells our teacher that another plane hit the twin
towers. At that point,
everybody's mood changed. You know, we were
kids, 17 years old, but we knew something was
up and we going off, at least for me

(02:14:55):
personally, reading off, playing off of my teacher,
basically the oh, shit expression
came over his face at that point. He flat out told
us that this must be a terrorist
attack. And I'm not sure I remember exactly if he said terrorist
attack or just attack, but he did state

(02:15:17):
that this must be an attack. And if anyone
has family that worked in the city to
feel free to leave class now and go
outside and try to get in touch with them because
something was going down. And that's pretty much exactly what I did.
And I left, walked out of the

(02:15:39):
trailer and, you know, like a bunch of other people
did, and started making my way home while
trying to call my brother, which I knew
worked in the city, but I wasn't exactly sure where or
how far away he was from the world trade,
thinking the worst and just

(02:16:02):
focusing on trying to get home. And I didn't live that
far from the school, but had to take the bus to get
there. And if not, it would be a pretty lengthy walk, but a
doable walk. You know, I would do it sometimes, like hanging out
after school type of thing, you know, killing time and walk home instead of taking
the bus. But I walked along

(02:16:23):
towards home trying to get in touch with my brother, calling and calling, and
there was no signal, no calls were going through. And
I don't remember getting on the bus, but I must have eventually. Then I got
home where I believe my father was there already. And
if not, then he got there shortly after I did. And we
continued to try to get in touch with my brother. And eventually,

(02:16:46):
I don't remember, I don't remember which one of us, but one of us obviously
did. And he was walking
the Brooklyn Bridge, as you guys heard earlier when I
interviewed him out of the city. And my
father and I drove down Atlantic
and, you know, there were just droves of people,

(02:17:09):
you know, cars picking up their significant others and
loved ones and family members and friends the same exact way as we were.
And we met up with him and picked them up,
then went home. And that's where I was and my personal
experience with exactly where I was during 911.

(02:17:30):
Like I said in the intro, I think it's important that we continue to share
these stories with each other. And if you guys want to share
yours with me and the rest
of the spun today community or
listeners rather, feel free to do so. Reach out to me
on through the website@spuntoday.com

(02:17:51):
through the contact page, or just email
me@spuntodaymail.com if you like. I'll even
share your stories on a future episode of the podcast.
That said, lets do some housekeeping and see if we can keep the
lights on.
Whats up folks? Tony here. I hope youre enjoying the Spun Today

(02:18:11):
podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you. Here are a
few ways you can help support the show. You can support the Spun Today
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(02:18:33):
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(02:18:56):
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(02:19:17):
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(02:19:38):
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(02:20:01):
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(02:20:23):
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(02:23:29):
I love you, Aidan. I love you, Daddy.
I love you, Grayson. I love you, Daddy.

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#269 – Voices of 9/11: Recounting Stories from New Yorkers (Re-release)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#269 – Voices of 9/11: Recounting Stories from New Yorkers (Re-release)