Of all the photos I took of the Twin Towers while I lived in New York this is the only one I’ve digitized, and consequently, the only one I can find at the moment. This was taken around 1988, while I was visiting, attempting to get into the Graduate Creative Writing program at NYU. I’d been accepted, but didn’t plan very well on my first visit to New York, and ended up having to defer my admission for several months. While there, I took a walk down to the docks with my camera.
This was most likely taken with my Minolta X370 camera, which was later stolen in a break-in at my apartment around 1990. It was, for a time, my favorite camera, and I spent a fortune getting photos processed at hour photo shops in the late-80s. Of all the items I lost in the break-in, the camera was what I regretted losing the most.
On 11 September 2001, I watched the attacks on the Towers on CNBC’s Squawkbox, then hopped in my car and drove to my job as a contractor onsite at the CDC. There, the security guard at the parking lot scanned under my car with a mirror. If I’d gotten there half an hour later, I wouldn’t have been allowed in, because the facility was locked down. My immediate supervisor had been in meetings all morning and wasn’t aware of the attacks, when I asked if we were going to be sent home. It was impossible to get to CNN or any other news site, but we were finally able to connect to a local television station’s website, I think it was WXIA, to get news of what was happening in New York and Washington. Eventually they let us go for the day, but the following day President Bush declared that all Federal offices would be open for business, so we all had to report.
I left New York summer of 1994, and, except for two trips to retrieve some things I had in storage there in 1994 and 1995, have not been back since. No reason, I’ve just never had the time or resources for a trip.
