It was ten years ago that I was getting ready for work at JPC – I had been there about a month. I was curling my hair. In the dark ages before DVRs I had two VCRS set up to record the soaps on channel 2 and channel 7 on tapes that I erased every morning. I had already set up my VCR to tape channel 2 when the news broadcast was interrupted to talk about a plane flying into the World Trade Center. While that seemed odd, it wasn’t entirely implausible that would happen – at that point it seemed an accident. But as a witness was describing the situation to Bryant Gumbel – another plane flew into the east tower just below the camera shot and a giant fireball went into the air. My first thought – everyone’s first thought had to be – “This is no accident!”
Robert was in New York so I called him first, and he was already on the phone. His secretary asked if she should interrupt him, but at that moment I just wanted to make sure they were far from the disaster. I wasn’t sure he knew about it – it was clear by his assistant’s reserve that she didn’t, and it was too horrifying to fill her in – I had no idea how I would explain it, so I just got off the phone.
I called my mother, who was missing all this action - she was living in Vegas at the time, and it was about 6am there. She was asleep, so I’m sure I sounded as if I was screeching into her ear when I said “Get out of bed, we’re under attack!” My mother honestly thought I had cracked up. Then I called Robert in Boston knowing he was also already at work – he was in a tall building as I was – and we were more than a little concerned. He wanted to leave, but he didn’t. I was on my way to work, and I had no idea what to expect. I had only been there a month – what was going to happen there – JPC had an office in New York and at that moment I had no idea how far Rockefeller Plaza was from the World Trade Center.
By the time I got in the car I was listening to an account of the attack on the Pentagon. Chicago looked like a sitting duck. I get to work and catch up with the rest of my family – they were probably all working also. My father was at home watching with rapt attention as I had been. Alan was leaving work and Adrienne was going home also. I, on the other hand, had a big day ahead of me.
My first call was to Blue Cross - I had to confirm that terrorist attacks were covered on our insurance plan – what would happen if one of the buildings our employees were in was ever under attack? What about life insurance? It sounds cold – but forewarned is forearmed! Before that day, the World Trade Center had been bombed, but terrorism was still covered on most policies – after that day insurance companies were dropping those provisions like hot potatoes. I had to make sure our terrorist coverage was always in place. JPC had an office down the street from the White House in DC and the office in Rockefeller. There was no way to tell what was next, but in case the worst happened, which could have easily been an attack from the Klan, we had to be covered. Since so many people had already gone home or hadn’t come in after the attack, it was hard to get an answer, but I was successful.
I made a lot of friends that day – some people who had lived in DC were astonished that the Pentagon was burning – but we all were reminded that day that everything burns when it is hot enough. We were all waiting for something to happen to the Sears Tower – we couldn’t take our eyes off that building all day. We got to leave after the magazine was put to bed (around 3pm) and the exodus took about five minutes. Most people were at home already.
I went to my second job – at the hotel, working the evening shift until 11pm. The person at the Concierge desk was so relieved that she kissed me. She ran out before she even said good bye and it wouldn’t take long before I understood why. People at the hotel were frantic to get home or on to their next meetings. Life had ground to a halt – no airplanes in the air. I wasn’t sure that I would ever get on another airplane again anyway. There was no answer at Amtrak, and buses were the best bet to get out of town, but they were sold out for days and already behind because of the attacks. People started taking rental cars and driving them back home in desperation. Only a few restaurants were open, the bars were jammed, and Walgreens was sold out of over the counter medication.
The true drama started when I got home. I lived in the Illinois Center and the Israeli Consulate was located in the building. Everything was at high alert and a dog team was searching in and under my car like a terrorist was clutching my muffler ready to toss a grenade into the garage. It was a long crazy day and it ended with me staring out the window until I was ready to fall asleep. Sleep would not come easily for a long time afterwards.
