1962 when JFK was assasinated, I was in Chemistry Class in my Roman Catholic High School.

We were all girls sitting in the glass. I was 14 years old. The principal made an announcement over the loudspeaker.

I remember her words exactly.

She interrupted the lesson and said "Girls, we have just been informed that the President of the United States has been shot. He is not dead. He is still alive (Never forgot those words).

"We are shutting down the school out of respect and you all will be dismissed"

I remember no one hooped or hollared because we were getting the rest of the day off from school, but we all looked at each other and said "wow, we get to go home???"

I went home and put on the tv. Everybody was quiet. No funeral procession yet because it was too soon. It was all over the tv for weeks.


Now on 9/11 I will NEVER FORGET THAT DAY because my friends 25 year old son was painting the roof of the World Trade Center (Building 2) and he was on the job for only one week. His friends were able to get off the roof.

That morning, Alan and I went to Columbus breakfast diner for our usual morning breakfast. Alan drove at the time. Before his neuropathy got the better of him.

We were sitting eating our breakfast when one of the staff member said "Look everybody, there's a plane that crashed in the World Trade Center."

We all got up from our seats and walked over to the tv that was mounted on the wall. We all looked. This was after the first plane crashed and BEFORE the second plane crashed. Someone said "how stupid is the pilot that doesn't see the World Trade Center???"

So we all forgot our breakfasts at our tables, and we continued to watch.

Then the second plane crashed into it. Not one person ever thought of terrorism. Someone said 'oh my god, another pilot did the same thing".

We sat down again, finished up and drove home. Alan had an acupuncturist appointment at Coney Island Hospital for 11 a.m. that day.

We go home and I phoned Coney Island Hospital. We were still not sure what went on. The tv had all the news but still, no one said terrorism.

The people at Coney Island Hospital said 'we are still keeping all appointment, please come in"

Alan and I hop in our car and we drive over the Belt Parkway to get to Coney Island Hospital. We look up in the sky and we see this pillar of smoke, or whatever it was. We did not know it was the debris from the explosion. We really didn't know what it was. Alan said 'wow, look at that".

We get to the hospital and there's police everywhere. There are guards in front of guards. We try to enter the hospital and a police officer says "Where do you think you are going?" We said "to our acupuncturist appointment on the 3rd floor".

The Police Officer said "are you for real, we are at Red Alert, you are not going anywhere"

I said "what do you mean we are at Red Alert", what the heck does that mean??

She said 'It means we are at war". I said 'WHAT???"

We got in our car and went home and watched tv.

The next morning, when we walked out of our home, every single car, every single windowsill, everybody's property was FILLED WITH WHITE DUST.

I yelled to my landlord "go inside and close the windows, you don't want to inhale any of this".

Everybody was washing the cars down. All of Brooklyn was like this.

So that's what I remember from 9/11.

Sad day. Lots of my friends in my neighborhood, lost their sons and daughters.