October 2009 TRUCKER TALK

NEW YORK AFTER 9/11

BY WRITER & OWNER OPERATOR KIM GRIMM

As a nation, and as individuals, we will always remember the horror we witnessed on TV that fateful morning of September 11, 2001.  It’s one of those days in history that you will always remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news.  I was in Ludlow, CA with Russ & Debbie Brown when I got the call from a friend telling us what was happening.  Later, we all huddled around the TV at Little Sister’s Truck Wash in Barstow, CA and watched with utter disbelief.  It was hard to watch and not believe that it wasn’t some Hollywood movie – it was real.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been eight years since that awful day when our freedoms were used against us.  In the aftermath, we had to make changes to keep us safe and not let the people who did this win.  Like any horrific event in our history, time stands still for nothing.  We can’t change the event, but we can remember the innocent people lost in a senseless act of violence.  They weren’t just numbers – each person had a family and a story that only the ones left behind can now tell.  I saw a clip on the news of family members who were reading the names of their loved ones that had been lost that day eight years ago, and the emotions in those people were as fresh as if it had just happened yesterday.

I recently had the opportunity to go to New York City (making a delivery) a few days before the 9/11 anniversary and talk to some of the people in the city about what has changed since that tragic morning in 2001.  Talking to several people around the city, I found that much had changed after 9/11, but the one thing that stood out the most for me was how nice everybody was.  I expected all of the people in New York to be like everybody says – mean and nasty.  But they weren’t.  One person told me that since 9/11, the people in New York have become more appreciative and, well, nicer.

Just getting into the city was an experience in itself.  If you are going into New York City with an oversize load, you want to have escorts that know the streets well.  Paul Penantina and John Incontrera from High Wide & Heavy Oversize Escorts did a great job.  If you are ever in need of this type of service, I highly recommend that you give them a call (718-966-7255).  These guys made going into the city seem like a breeze, especially compared to the headaches of going through New Jersey!

Our load was delivering to the United Nations Building, so there was a lot of security.  We got there on Tuesday night and had to let the bomb-sniffing dogs check out our trucks.  These dogs were added to the security force after 9/11 as an extra precautionary measure.  But they were nice dogs.  The officers that were handling the dogs assured us that we would be safe while parked there.  Who would think you could sleep in your truck with the windows rolled down and the doors unlocked in the middle of New York City – but we did!

On Thursday, after dealing with our deliveries, I decided to brave the subway and go to Ground Zero.  Grand Central Terminal is something to see in itself!  The lady police officer I talked to not only told me what train to take but she let me have her map, too.  When I got off the subway at Fulton Street, it was easy to see the gaping hole in the skyline where the towers once stood.  Fencing surrounds the construction site of One World Trade Center, which is the new tower that is finally under construction (some call it the Freedom Tower).  Not much has been accomplished at the site over the last eight years, but there is now a master plan in place that includes several skyscrapers with office space, restaurants and shops, a performing arts center, a memorial and a large transportation hub.  When completed, this new business center, especially the new 1,776-foot-tall tower (Tower 1), will once again redefine the New York skyline.

I walked around the block and started talking with NYPD Officer Tim Harrison, a very friendly young man who was happy to answer my questions.  Tim was in high school in Long Island on that horrible morning.  Upon seeing the burning tower after it was hit, half of the school thought it was just a drunk pilot that flew into the building, but the other half quickly realized what was happening.  Once everybody figured out what was really happening, there was a lot crying.  Many police officers died in the towers that day partly because of the communication difficulties.  I asked him if this issue had been improved since then.  He said that things are better, but still not perfect.  They now have routine drills to be better prepared for another disaster, if one ever does happen again.  He also told me that for the last two years, the NYPD has become all one department with different divisions, instead of all being separate, like they used to be.  Everyone still goes through the same academy, but the traffic police don’t carry guns – just meters and ticket books.  All of the officers that carry guns also carry gas masks now.

My next stop was the World Essex Café.  If you ever visit the WTC site, you have to stop in.  Located at 112 Liberty Street, just across the street from where the towers once stood, the food is great and it is reasonably priced.  The owner John Costalas was kind enough to talk with me and tell me about many of the pictures hanging on the walls.  He proudly told me that he had been born in Greece, but he is a New Yorker!

It was hard not to cry when he showed me pictures and told me the names of many of his customers that rushed into the towers that morning to save lives, but never themselves came out.  Right after 9/11, his building was converted into a makeshift medical center.  When I asked him how long he had been closed he told me over two years.  And even today, business isn’t like it used to be when the people that worked in the towers ate at his Café.

While he was talking to me, John introduced me to a carpenter (one of his customers) and told him what I was doing.  This man, who I had never met, showed me three lapel pins that the UBC Local 608 had given him to wear at mass on the next day (the anniversary of 9/11).  I didn’t get his name, but I will treasure that pin that he gave me forever!  John got out a tattered book of pictures from that awful day and told me about a few of them.  He knows a helicopter pilot that tried to save people from the top of the towers, but it was too hot for him to land or get close.  This pilot took some of the pictures in that book.  It was strange and sobering to look through it, with John, right across the street from where all of these terrible things had happened.

I asked John how his health was and he told me that he had been checked and was alright, but he was surprised that I had asked.  He said that most of the people that come in usually ask a stupid question like, “Who did it?”  If you don’t know the answer to that by now, you must be living in a coffee can.  When I left, John gave me a kiss on the cheek and said “God Bless You” as he sent me next door to Engine 10, Ladder 10 and the WTC Memorial.  I have memories from this visit that I could never imagine and will remember as long as I live.

Unfortunately, Fire Station 10 was closed, but I did get to talk with a woman who was standing in front of it, like me, wanting to talk to the firemen inside.  She had brought patches from her fire station in Seattle, WA to exchange with these guys.  I didn’t get to talk to any of the firefighters at Station 10, but the door was open and one firefighter there let me take pictures of the fire truck and their memorial wall in the station, honoring the firefighters from that “house” that were killed on 9/11.  We all talk about the brave firefighters, police officers and other innocent people that died that day, but it hit closest to home for these guys, as their station is located right across the street from the WTC site.

This morning, when the moment of silence was observed on the radio in remembrance of the 9/11 anniversary, it meant so much more to me now that I had been to the site and talked to the people.  In moving on after this tragedy, it changed a city that took so much for granted.  Today, New Yorkers have more appreciation than they did on September 10, 2001.  And that would be at least one good thing that came out of this horrible event.  What has been saved and rebuilt really is a tribute to the people of New York – and the entire United States.  Let us never forget what happened on September 11, 2001, and, even more importantly, never let it happen again!