I watched the second plain hit. I remember thinking "what kind of idiot would fly that close to take a look?" I still thought the first strike was an accident.
Growing up in Manhattan in the '50's I was used to stories of planes hitting the sky scrapers, the Empire State Building, the most infamous of them. I thought the second plane was coming around for a look when I saw it make the the turn over the harbor.
It took a moment to set in that this was done on purpose. It wasn't an act I thought possible.
I soon discovered I had lost friends sent to help and workers trapped on the upper floors.
My wife and I dined on a regular basis at Cellar in the Sky. We had even taken most of the staff out for drinks after closing.
What bothered me most this year is I didn't see it coming. When I first wrote the date on an official document, it hit me. It hit me so hard I had to sit.
I thought about 1949, the same amount of time after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Did people write 12/7/49 on official paper and suddenly remember Pearl Harbor? Or then, like now, had so much war and mayhem hit them, that one barbaric act lost some of its horror?
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