Mitch Wagner's Tumblblog

A 9/11 memory

For years, I kept my calendar page for 9/11/01. Of course, you fill out a calendar page before the day, so that page is a record of what I’d planned that day—not what actually happened.

The Networld + Interop conference was in Atlanta that day, I was not attending but I had a note on the calendar reminding me that two colleagues would be there. I also had two or three telephone interviews scheduled with people from that show.

We actually did one of the interviews. I’m pretty sure it was with Novell, and I think thy were announcing Netware 6. What else could we do but sit hypnotized and impotent in front of the TV? We did the interview because we were running on autopilot.

I kept that calendar page as a souvenir from a happier alternate universe.

I was fortunate enough to have nobody I know lost directly in the 9/11 attacks, which is freakish because I’m from New York and you’d think I’d’ve known somebody there. However, I know many people who knew someone lost in the attack, and many people with personal connections with the WTC. One couple I’m friends with used to live one or two subway stops from the towers. There was a thriving shopping center underneath the buildings, and my friend used to go there to get his hair cut. For him, whatever else 9/11 was, it was also an attack on the neighborhood mall. And Penelope Trunk was standing just outside one of the towers as it fell.