Both candidates for mayor will be in the same location tonight, but NOT for a candidate forum or debate. Michael Nutter and Al Taubenberger will commemorate September 11th at the Interfaith Remembrance Ceremony for Prayer & Peace on Bustleton Avenue in Northeast Philly.
The event, to be held at Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Church, 9220 Old Bustleton Avenue, and neighboring Temple Beth Ami Synagogue, 9201 Old Bustleton Avenue, will take place at 7pm, tonight.
Feel free to use this thread for comments about your own thoughts and memories of 9/11. As for me, I can clearly remember driving along the Route 30 bypass on my way from Exton to Downingtown to go to BJ's Wholesale Club to stock up. It was a crisp, beautiful fall day and for whatever reason, I was listening to Howard Stern. I had never been much of a Stern fan but I just happened to the channel in time to hear him recounting everything he was seeing on cable news.
I remember trying to call one of my friends in NYC and not being able to get through due to the intense volume of calls overwhelming the cell phone system in New York. I got an email from him a couple days later letting me and my other friends know that he was ok.
At the time I was working at a boarding school that had a pretty good amount of kids from New York as students. They and the rest of the student body were hastily assembled and assured that the school would do its best to help them contact their families to make sure everything was ok. As far as I know, no one at the school lost any family members or friends or knew anyone who did.
The rest of the day and the following weeks are all a blur, aside from the countless number of times that I saw the replay of the planes crashing into the buildings. Though I don't consider myself to have been or to be as "affected" by the incident as other people and I tend to think some local post 9-11 security measures (ie the fact that I can no longer walk over the plaque commemorating JFK's appearance at Indepedence Hall on July 4, 1962) are an overreaction, I think those memories of 9-11 will remain as vivid to me 50 years from now as they are today.
Comments (1)
When I think of someone from 9/11 , who is now exempt from disclosure. I remember being associated with the military , getting dress and watching two aircraft leveling off to cause a breaching desire , damage , division , heartache and a variety of composing fate of events.
Posted by Jasper Zeigler Jr | September 12, 2007 8:46 AM