Ground Zero

A few weeks before my departure from my position at DBC in 2002, I was asked to go to New York for a meeting with the recently bankrupt Kmart.   I had never been to New York and I really wanted to see ground zero.   I studied the subway maps and the bus routes and I was determined to go.  I took my friend and  co-worker Marina.  She was our EDI coodinator.  I told her what I was going to  do and she wanted to go with me.   I didn’t know New York and I did not know the neighborhoods so I didn’t know if we would be safe.  (They don’t tell you those  things on the maps.)  She wanted to go anyway.  We got to New York when it was still light.   We were staying in a hotel by LaGuardia airport so we started our journey with a bus ride through Queens.

We finally found ourselves at ground zero.  It was after six o’clock and we had discovered that we needed to get a free ticket from the Port Authority but they had closed at five o’clock.  My wife, Debbie, is a great salesperson and if she were there then she would have gone up to those  officers at the gate and got us in easiley.  I asked Marina to put on the charm and get us through the gate.   She couldn’t do it and I don’t blame her. We was desparate so I went up to the New York policemen who were guarding the  back door and I talked to them about hockey.  One officer put his finger in my  face and they said , “Islandrers or Rangers!”  It was a critical question.   I took a second to think about it and I emphatically said, “Rangers!” (I picked the team that had the largest blue collar following.)  They let us in the back door.   Those officers were outstanding and not just because they let us in.

All the TV, newsaper and magazine coverage did not prepare me for what I saw.