From: SandyTesha@aol.com
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 02:40:52 EDT
Subject: Friday Night Downtown

Hello from NYC,

Friday night I spent at Arturos Pizza with three friends. It was SO good to
"get out" and discuss events, politics, our lives, and how we're coping, to
be together and even laugh, something none of us have really done in a few
days. Hanging out at the restaurant you constantly overheard "Twin
towers...", "... Plane crash..." or "...I knew someone who saw it.." from the
other tables. I wonder when we'll stop talking about it, if ever?
Arturos is located in the village, the part of New York that has many cool,
hip, trendy etc. bars, boutiques, restaurants, clubs. This is the heart of
"the city that never sleeps".

I have never seen it so quiet on a Friday night at 8:00. It was more like a
Sunday morning at 8:00.

I walked west on Houston, this was the closest to "ground zero" I have been
(less than 20 or so blocks north). They have opened Houston Street to
traffic now. Looking down the north/south streets you still see a huge halo
of backlit smoke where the financial district is. The smell my friend Chris
mentioned Thursday PM was gone, due to the rain. However, during the
evening, the lights in the restaurant flickered on two separate accounts, and
Chris said at one point he looked out the front windows and all the lights on
Houston Street were completely black. Probably just Con Ed messing with the
electricity, since many people downtown are STILL without electricity, but
you never know.

Last night (Thursday night) there was a terrific thunderstorm, and a crack of
thunder awoke most New Yorkers to the thoughts of: "oh my god - what did
they hit now???" only to realize it was only raining and what they heard was
only thunder. Even I jumped out of bed and looked out the window, my heart
pounding. These are the thoughts that are going through our heads. I heard
a plane flying extremely low this afternoon and had to stop for a second and
remember that President Bush was in town and it was probably Air Force One
flying overhead.

It was nice to know I am not alone in feeling this way. Even though many of
us in Manhattan did not personally know someone involved in this tragedy, we
were all shaken by it because were/are here. One of my friends is a
violinist who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan but teaches in
Connecticut on the weekends. She called her school to say she simply could
not teach Friday and Saturday due to the recent events. One parent, upon
hearing this, called her to ask why her daughter was sitting last chair this
year in the orchestra, and why wouldn't she be in to teach this weekend?? My
friend (after getting over how incredibly frivolous this woman was
sounding)said, hello, have you SEEN the news? This parent just said, "oh,
yeah, but you're way uptown, aren't you??" Even being so close to the city,
she just did NOT get it. We will never be the same.

Walking back to the subway after dinner we passed a man sitting outside a
restaurant having coffee who saw us pointing at the smoke downtown. He said,
"They put up the signal towers back up, you know, you can see them." I asked
him what he meant, and he pointed to two tall buildings to the east of
"ground zero", away from the wreckage to the west. There were two large
towers on two separate buildings, you could see the red lights blinking on
top of them. He said these were the towers that were on top of the World
Trade Center Twin Towers, they just put them up this morning. Apparently
they weren't harmed too badly in the collapse (?). You could see a huge
crane between them. This guy said he was down at the site, working all day.
I don't know if he was telling the truth or not, but I did receive a page on
my pager this afternoon for the first time since Monday evening.
As we were talking with this guy, a NYPD squad car slowly rolled by. "The
Star Spangled Banner" (a very hip soul version I might add) was blaring out
of its megaphone. The police officer in the passenger side had his window
open, and we gave him the "peace" sign. He nodded solemnly and returned the
gesture.

We passed Minetta Square, a tiny garden oasis on 6th Avenue near the subway.
There is a huge urn of flowers inside the gates, and people had put hundreds
of candles around the urn, probably left over from the nationwide candle
lighting that took place at 7pm, urging people to step outside and light a
candle, to show unity and solidarity. There were also posters and poems and
photos taped to the wrought iron gates and placed amongst the many candles.
Two African American men, after bowing their heads for several minutes and
crossing themselves, just started cursing the whole situation and shaking
there heads, talking to everyone within earshot and no one in particular. I
passed so many people with candles on my way to the restaurant earlier, and
after seeing this monument in Minetta Square I noticed many other candles in
front of businesses and restaurants and window ledges, just randomly sitting
there on the sidewalks, still lit and burning.

On the streets of 6th Avenue there were SO many flyers for missing persons,
on lampposts, trees, bus shelters. This is so weird to see. It reminds me
of flyers for lost pets. Only these are for people who are the
brother/sister/father/mother of someone, who was working on the 103rd floor
of one of the towers. Even though there is so little hope of finding anyone
alive... people are doing this. It's heartbreaking.

Back uptown on 55th street a restaurant had a table out on the sidewalk
filled with votives and a single postcard showing the "old" New York skyline.
In front of my apartment building were parked 2 squad cars and a van from
the Miami Police Department. Freaky.

That's all for now from this woman on the street. Hope you have a great
weekend, I know I will try to.

Love,
Sandy

PS, some of you have mentioned fwding these to others, of course I don't
mind. Send away!

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