A Day in the City

Remembering September 11th" seems an odd phrase to me because who among us could have possibly forgotten it? It has been said that 9/11 is this generation's "JFK Moment"--the questions will always be asked: Where were you when the planes first hit? What were you doing? Who were you with? What did you think? And none who experienced it will forget any of our answers. I stood on a street corner near New York University and watched, uncomprehendingly, as the second tower fell. The only description I have been able to create since was that it was like watching a banana made of smoke being peeled. A single column of darkness stayed at the center, reaching upwards, while all around it, the billows spread out and down. It took me till around 4 p.m. to get back to Brooklyn Heights, where we Duke kids in the Arts in New York Program were housed. Ten minutes after I walked in the door, Ambika Kumar called from The Chronicle, wanting to interview anyone who had been in the city. I was inarticulate, barely speaking in complete sentences, still drenched in shock. I am hardly more articulate now, a year later, as I sit and try to write something that has meaning, that conveys what it was like being there, as so many other people have attempted to do with varying degrees of success. It has affected everything. Friday, Sept. 14th, it rained, a thorough thunderstorm, and I woke up shaking, fearful that the thunder was some new terror released upon us. Sirens always seemed to have an extra layer of urgency, a tone of panic. For the rest of the semester, depending on which way the wind blew, one could smell the smoke from the WTC site. We were given little air filter masks to use when the wind was from "the wrong direction." Even now, a year later, every time a plane goes over, I pause--not because I really expect it to crash, but because it always sounds too low; the engines sound too rough. I have been to Ground Zero only once, and briefly, with a visiting friend. That was enough for me. So "Remembering September 11th" seems an almost ludicrous phrase to me or perhaps simply a tautology. 9/11 has never left my head for an instant.