The other thing around Nine Eleven that is pretty seared into my memory is you know the whole country shut down, but particularly New York City, the city that never sleeps, you know was pretty much brought to silence as people regrouped and try to figure out next steps and how to rebuild and what — what they needed to do and as it happened my you know tourism pretty much stopped. But I found some flights that actually were discounted and hotel rates were discounted and they were encouraging people continue to come to New York City. So I convinced my mother-in-law and two sister-in-law’s to take a trip to New York City with me, in the middle of November. So this would have been about eight weeks, after 9/11, it was before Thanksgiving. So yeah, it was right in the middle of November. So eight weeks and we of course, when we were there the town came back to life and bounced back pretty quickly.
We saw a Broadway show Les Mis and we had tickets to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes Holiday Spectacular, which was indeed very very spectacular. And dinner out, Times Square, you know some museums the things that you would typically do.
But as we traveled around the city, which was hindered because there were some subway spots that were still closed due to damage from the buildings’ collapse. As we traveled around the city in cabs, you know, we talked to people or waitress at a restaurant and you know, what was your experience that day and everyone had a story about how they couldn’t get home and the bridges were closed and transportation came to a halt and whether they were near the actual collapse of the Twin Towers or not. They — they all had stories or stories of friends who were impacted or how or — or even a life lost. The city had a, it had a, I don’t know if it’s right to say a cloud hanging over it. Certainly there was a Melancholy you felt with people as — as you talked to them. And one of the things we did do was go to ground zero and of course it was hard to get there because the subway stations were closed, but we got as close as we could and — and there was a literal cloud of haze hanging over the debris site.