Trask Avenue

Fall 1979

No matter how hard you try, you will never forget that day. You will never forget how the news emerged one piece at a time, slowly at first, and then with a rapidity which was impossible to digest. You will never forget the faces and reactions of the people you were with, disbelief which turned to gasps then to tears then to sobs. You will never forget that the world you occupied, the one a few miles north of the horror, stood absolutely still. You will never forget how everything just stopped, how meetings and phone calls and deadlines were immediately forgotten, how meaningless they suddenly became. You will never forget that someone found a small television and dozens of people huddled in front of it as another person adjusted the flimsy antenna so the reception would not cut out, although you really didn’t want to watch what you were seeing. You will never forget your utter incomprehension, the blinding shock of it all, when the buildings crumbled. You will never forget the moment you realized this was now a forever day, a clear dividing line between a certain past and a vastly different future. You will never forget how quickly every business closed, except for the bars which were jammed and silent. You will never forget staring out your window at midday as swarms of men and women slowly shuffled up the middle of 3rd Avenue like refugees since no buses, taxis, or trucks were anywhere to been seen. You will never forget the eerie quiet as the ferry shuttled you and hundreds of others across the Hudson that evening. You will never forget that as you moved over the calm water all you saw downtown was an enormous dust cloud. You do not need to be reminded to remember because you know you will never forget that day, no matter how hard you try.