Living in ground zero's backyard | PART 2

The days immediately following 9/11 were a crazy mix of emotions. It started out with total shock which was quickly followed up by extreme sorrow and then rage for the people responsible for this action. What follows in Part 2 is a look at the feelings and actions of people living in New Jersey and New York on the first two weeks following 9/11. There were actions of great sacrifice and compassion as well as ignorant retributions by uninformed individuals. RON SMITH, SR.

Wednesday, Sept 12, 2001 fififir ef if lflD ecid ed to g o into work early today because I had no idea what was in store for me. Knowing my customers, they would probably want to cancel their ads because no one was thinking about anything other than yesterday’s disaster. When I arrived at the newspaper I was surprised to see that the presses were still running. We put out two extra editions that day. Walked down to the newsroom and it looked like 8 p.m. instead of 8 a.m. Full staff, half asleep, with coffee cups and empty pizza boxes all over the place. No one wanted to leave that night due to the constant reports coming in. I imagine that every newsroom in every newspaper across the country looked the same. Started calling customers and as I thought, no one wanted to run regular ads. I couldn’t blame them. Who was thinking about business at this time?

Thursday, Sept 13, 2001 Finally, something uplifting. The largest internet campaign to date, asking everyone to stand on their front porch with a candle in hand in memory of those that lost their lives. It was quite a sight up and down the east coast. I only wish that my neighborhood participated better. In the last two days it seemed that every time I was on the road I saw fifire and rescue vehicles heading north. The turnout to help in Manhattan was incredible. Every fifire company in my county, both volunteer and paid, sent at least one piece of equipment to help the FDNY. Later we learned that New York lost over 400 fifirefifighters as well as ¼ of their equipment.

Friday, Sept 14, 2001 Rumors, rumors, rumors. Out of control. There have been strange reports that Muslims were dancing in the streets in Hoboken, NJ when the towers were hit. Also that police have found cars loaded with explosives all over the area. How do these things start? Thankfully, most are false. Very busy today. I must have had some of the best customers in the world. Although they all canceled their regular ads, most took out full page in memoriam ads for the following week. Car dealers are honorable people.

Saturday and Sunday Went out looking for a flflag for my car. No luck. Not a flflag to be found in NJ. Read in paper that K-Mart got a few cases in and they were gone in ½ hour. It seems that no one can take their eyes off of the 24/7 news coverage on the TV. The days following 9/11 gave new meaning to the name couch potato. Although most churches were having special services all week long, Sunday, Sept. 16 probably could have set an all time modern record for church attendance. Unfortunately, thousands of people couldn’t go to church that day. They were furiously searching the rubble at ground zero for remains that would never be recovered.

WEEK TWO Sept 17-22, 2001 A strange thing happened on the way to work. I stopped at a gas station to fill up. New Jersey is one of the few states that still requires attendants (no self service). Because of this most gas stations still are mom and pop operations instead of big corporate facilities. Many gas stations have been purchased by Indian immigrants. Anyway, while waiting for gas, a person pulls up and starts cussing out the attendant who was wearing a turban. How stupid can some people be? He wasn’t smart enough to know that the attendant was a Sikh, a Hindu, not an Arab. Historically, they had more of a grudge against Arabs then Westerners. I rolled down the window and informed the “gentleman” of his mistake. He got red in the face and drove off. The attendant told me this was happening quite often since 9/11.

Stopped in one of my dealers and talked with a salesperson who was a volunteer EMT who went to New York the first day. He told me that he couldn’t describe the horror all around him. They assigned him to a triage unit set up at a local hospital. They were ready for all those massive injuries to come in, but that never happened. There is no way to treat someone that falls one hundred floors or has a building fall on them. He said the most serious injuries he treated that day were dust and grit in people’s eyes. He also mentioned that, from what he saw, for the next few years there would not be enough psychiatrists in the area to treat the first responders, including himself. He did look like a nervous wreck.

Still kept looking for a flag for my car, no luck. Stopped in a dollar store and I couldn’t believe my eyes. No, they didn’t have flags but they did have American flag lapel pins. I purchased $25 worth and proceeded to hand them out to my customers. You would have thought that I was handing out $100 bills for the gratitude they expressed for a little $1 piece of metal. At one dealer I handed the manager a pin and believe it or not he handed me a flag for my car. We both got teary eyed.

Later in the week, covering my territory, I usually drove through a large Army base (Fort Dix). This had always been an open base with a larger county road that passed through it. Not this time. As I was pulling up to the entrance, all I saw were Humvees, Bradleys, with soldiers all around with everything from M16’s to 50 cal. machine guns. I had to find a new way to go from then on out. I believe to this day, it is still that way.

So many other events happened in the first two weeks, that if I went into detail, it would probably take up this entire issue. Memorial services, much larger Obituary pages, so much tragedy surrounding the New York area. Everyone holding out hope that maybe, through some miracle, more people would be found alive in the rubble. Unfortunately, that would not be the case.

In the next installment I will tell you about the Anthrax attack, in which my immediate area would become ground zero.

RON SMITH, JR.

The first two weeks after the attack was like an emotional roller coaster. The signs of patriotism were unbelievable, especially the night of Sept. 13 when the National Candlelight vigil was scheduled. Looking down the block from my house all you could see were people holding candles. It was quite a sight.

I decided to keep my business closed for the remainder of the week. It probably would have cost me more in electricity to keep it open. No one was in the mood to shop for anything besides flags and necessities. A friend of mine who happened to be a Trenton police officer, investigated the incident I had in the store. He told me it was because she thought I was discriminating against her because of her religion. How far from the truth. I told him not to pursue it because, outside of making a mess, nothing was really broken.

Flags were flying everywhere but like my dad, I’m having a hard time finding one. If I could purchase a hundred, I would have them all over the place. That’s how I felt. One heartwarming experience was watching television that week. They showed the combined Congress, on the steps of the Capitol, singing God Bless America. Both Democrats and Republicans, arm in arm, singing together. Why can’t they act like that now? Why does it take a national tragedy for something like that to happen?

Unfortunately, the gentleman that I met in the bar that first day never saw his girlfriend again. She was one of the fatalities in building one. It’s tough enough to bury a loved one, but how do you find closure when there is nothing left of the loved one. After that he stopped coming in the bar. I don’t know what happened to him. I hope he got his life together.

While researching this article I receive this email from my cousin who also lived in New Jersey at the time. I would like to share it with you.

‘’Wow. What horrible memories this brings back. Robert, my son, was going to college in Hoboken,NJ, when this happened. Right across from NYC. We could not get in touch with him for a couple of days. My husband and I had a friend who worked at the WTC. She lived in Trenton. The morning of 9/11, like any other morning, she got on the train to go to work. She never came back, but her car stayed in the train station parking lot for a long time. Soo sad.’’

It seemed like everyone I talked to had a similar story to tell. One thing that my dad didn’t go into detail about was the threat of chemical or biological attack. According to the government, this was a real threat. Large downtown buildings set up haz-mat facilities up and down the east coast. The news was encouraging everyone to set up a safe room by covering windows and doors with plastic sheeting. Also to store adequate supplies of water, canned goods, portable radios and batteries. Believe it or not, people in this area were buying up every gas mask they could find. To this day I have a problem with germs. I find myself washing my hands more than I should. Went to visit my parents and took them a window sealing kit. They mentioned that they didn’t think they really needed to create a safe room. No one, including myself, knew at the time that we were already under attack by a twisted individual with a large supply of Anthrax.

Look for Part 3 of this series in next week’s Hometown Focus.

Ron Smith, Sr. and Ron Smith, Jr. live in Virginia, MN.