THEY appear in the most unexpected places.
I recently was cleaning out my old video tape collection and decided to watch one that had Japanese programs. After a few
shows, skipping the commercials as I always do, I wondered when I had recorded them. Commercials are always a good indicator
of date and so I watched a few. (The Japanese programming was historical Samarai stories, hardly a way to date the 21st
century) Right after the spot for Yohan Plaza in Edgewater NJ came the most spectacular view across the river (where Yohan
faces). There on the skyline THEY stood. Tall and strong, as if time had been frozen. My heart skipped a beat. I reversed
and froze the frame of the Twin Towers in all their glory. This tape was obviously pre 9/11.
I’ll be driving down the highway,
and suddenly notice that the car in front of me has a big sticker reading “Never Forget” and a color image of
the NYC skyline with the Twin Towers. Gasp. The most glorious car decoration I ever saw was a hand painted Twin Towers on
the hood of a truck along with an American flag. Double gasp. Then there was the truck that had a huge window banner of the
Twin Towers, parked right in my driveway visiting someone in our apartment building. I had to get a shot of that!
Of course every time I go into NYC, the
small stores that sell souvenirs still carry the postcards of the World Trade Center as it was pre 9/11. At first I found
that a bit gruesome, but now like the fact that foreigners, people who never lived in NYC, and those who weren’t even
born before 2001, can take home a picture of what once was so stately a place. I’ve even nicknamed them “remembrance
cards”!
There are Twin Tower decals on all of our
fire trucks in Roselle Park, and some new acquaintances have old WTC chatckas in their houses displayed on shelves. I’m
no longer startled by those reminders. It’s the ones that creep up silently and suddenly like the one on my tapes that
rattles me. For instance, I’ll be watching a movie and not know what date it was released. No cell phones or laptops
are a dead giveaway that it was pre 2001. But that doesn’t mean there will be a Twin Towers shot. Until it pops up.
The iconic image of the latter part of the 20th century NYC skyline. Choke.
Yes, these are the Ghosts of the Twin Towers.
This is the way they will live on forever. Unexpected appearances in the midst of a different time and space, to haunt our
souls, to help us never to forget what happened on that day!
