This has been a rough day for everyone in my circle
The city as a whole is in a mood of reflection
I've touched all 5 boroughs in the past two days, and you can always see the lights
Now I was a mere ~5 year old at the time, in kindergarten at the neighborhood public school
My mother had to come pick us up, because everything was going into lockdown
I can say this being older now, don't bother trying to hide things from children, we've got the message, even if we didn't fully grasp the scope of something
Being in an area of distinctly blue collar workers, especially civil servants, many of our friends found out they'd lost a parent (or both) by the time they got home
Plumbers, construction unions, cops, firefighters, utility workers, nurses
We had a little of everyone on the block, no household was left unaffected
I distinctly remember a significant uptick in funeral attendance in the following weeks
My father was driving car service, he was running Doctor's and nurse's to the ferry terminal
Don't worry about the money he told them, that's the least of our problems
A neighbor of mines parents had there daughter the 9th, they threw them out of the hospital early anticipating a barrage of patients that never came
Communications being as primitive as they were back then, many people didn't know about what happened until late in the evening
Go down any street, you could hear radio and TV throughout
Cell phones were useless (most traffic went through Verizon's NOC that went down with the north tower)
My Grandma and Aunt both fled two different ways, one via ferry to Jersey City, the other ran over the Brooklyn Bridge back home to Park Slope
There was sadness, there was pain, there was much grief, there was anger (some of which I'm not proud of seeing in hindsight)
I'm just happy no one tried to pull any stunts this year
Never forget