WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:08.839
Everyone of a certain age remembers where
they were today back in two thousand and

2
00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:15.919
one. September eleventh is something that
unites generation. We all know where we

3
00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:19.640
were and how we found out and
where what happened. I have several connections

4
00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:22.640
to nine eleven, and I went
to about one of them today. I

5
00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:28.519
decided, here I'm fifty plus,
I'm James L. Jr. So I

6
00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:35.479
worked at a job at offices in
the Towers and in New York, and

7
00:00:35.560 --> 00:00:42.240
I also worked at a job where
I lost co workers. So September eleventh,

8
00:00:43.159 --> 00:00:46.840
when I came around, I was
working at a job called Morgan Stanley,

9
00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:50.640
and back then it was Morgan Stanley
Dean Winter. I worked at there

10
00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:55.520
one of their offices in San Francisco. That's where I lived now. That

11
00:00:55.560 --> 00:00:59.039
morning this was interesting where I was
going to work add to good work early,

12
00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:06.680
but for some reason I was going
in later. I switched the shift

13
00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:10.280
for somebody else to go in later. We had two ships, and I

14
00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:11.200
was like, cat, go on
later, for I've got from what is

15
00:01:11.239 --> 00:01:18.560
one reason? I've got reason?
I was forever and I was at home

16
00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:25.319
in my efficiency apartment in Sarrancisco,
and I was awoken awakened, awakened by

17
00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:30.560
a woken by words used two voicemail
messages. Yes, back when he had

18
00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:40.040
voicemail on cassette playing and voicemail.
What was my friend Nick? Was my

19
00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:42.480
friend Michelle? Both my best friends
at the time, and they both do.

20
00:01:42.560 --> 00:01:47.280
I had folks in New York and
folks that worked around me were trade

21
00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:49.640
center. So because it was really
early for us, of course, and

22
00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:53.120
no one that I was up early, but they knew I wasn't at working.

23
00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:55.680
They call said, we know you
not at work. Have you watched

24
00:01:55.719 --> 00:01:57.680
I remember wanted to say, we
watched TV? Do you know how your

25
00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:00.680
family is doing? What's going on? And I was kind of groggy out

26
00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:04.200
here it. I was like,
what are they talking about? In fact,

27
00:02:04.200 --> 00:02:07.120
they both called me back to back. I was like, something's up.

28
00:02:08.360 --> 00:02:14.120
And I turned on my TV which
was across my bed remote and I

29
00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:19.120
see a building on fire. Now
for me, I was watching the night

30
00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:22.599
before BBC America fas I was working
something on the air, maybe a doctor

31
00:02:22.599 --> 00:02:28.879
who or something who else? But
I was watching BABC America and so I

32
00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:32.560
had so we woke up and whereas
station now folks BBC America and BBC and

33
00:02:32.599 --> 00:02:38.280
all that they were sowing different things
than American television. On that TV,

34
00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:40.599
I saw people drinking out of the
buildings. I saw a lot of stuff,

35
00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:46.520
but they were bed the istro American
TV at first. But I remember

36
00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:50.280
turning it on and seeing the world
one of the world trade centers on fire,

37
00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:52.879
like, wait a minute, it's
a movie, like but I just

38
00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:58.520
remember being perplexed. And then I
saw the other plane going as it happened,

39
00:02:58.840 --> 00:03:02.159
and I just wasn't just believe.
Trying to call back East, couldn't

40
00:03:02.199 --> 00:03:06.599
Reachain body of course, called my
mother. We can't Reachain Boudy. Our

41
00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:10.319
families in New York. Is this
a crazy thing? So it shut down

42
00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:14.400
San Francisco because we have the Bay
Bridge and the Golden gate Bridge, which

43
00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:15.639
our mind they went, sure what
was going on? I lived near where

44
00:03:15.639 --> 00:03:20.840
I lived, I lived near City
Hall, closed our block, the whole

45
00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:25.960
area off. It was crazy.
I remember it being a beautiful day.

46
00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:30.879
It's even crazier. It was a
beautiful day outside. It was wonderful,

47
00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:34.439
and we're just like, okay,
it's crazy. So I was saying,

48
00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:39.000
said I watched all day, all
night. The footage went to work.

49
00:03:39.039 --> 00:03:44.800
Cole days later we were clear to
go back to work. Now, this

50
00:03:44.919 --> 00:03:49.919
is the part that for me is
very just. I hadeeologist before my life.

51
00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:53.039
So I worked as cash I'm learning
cashiering. I worked in the other

52
00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:58.080
switchal operator that answered between one thousand
and five fifteen calls a day, just

53
00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:00.919
this all the time. And I
worked the morning shift really early, so

54
00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:04.759
I saw I was there when the
bell was ranged, was ranged when the

55
00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:08.319
bell rang in the morning. It's
a bell rang in the afternoon, and

56
00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:12.120
that's usually when I was off by
one o'clock. I going around five one.

57
00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:19.600
So we go back there and of
course we had an office over.

58
00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:24.800
I'm looking at it he because it
was about almost three thousand employees in the

59
00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:30.319
World Trade Center. I'm like,
I only know what to think because it's

60
00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:31.680
like we're all trying to it's so
new and freshman, trying to five who's

61
00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:35.600
alive, who's dead? Who are
missing? At a personal connection this person

62
00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:42.879
was missing all this stuff. Getting
back to work and those I will say

63
00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:48.040
first two months lee at the very
least it lasts of all, but the

64
00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:55.759
first two months we're the arius strange
towns of my life in a job nice

65
00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:58.240
to be a nurse. I worked
in ers tell me. That's you know,

66
00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:00.759
that's kind of you know crazy,
I'm there this It was very interesting

67
00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:05.680
because we had found out the time
that we had lost about thirteen employees.

68
00:05:06.120 --> 00:05:10.959
We didn't know there was there could
more. Weren't sure everybody was an accounted

69
00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:14.759
for him at the time. Is
still new. Eventually people started accounting who

70
00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:18.240
they are. But those first couple
of days our office hear a pin drop,

71
00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:23.759
which is so sad. We had
connections a couple people who died.

72
00:05:23.959 --> 00:05:29.480
I talked to them like the week
before. They called Mary, Hey James.

73
00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:30.959
They know my voice. My voice
was deep, so they're like,

74
00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:38.040
hey James, like, OK,
gone just dead and so. And when

75
00:05:38.040 --> 00:05:41.360
I looked at that, look at
the records here there were twenty seven hundred

76
00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:49.040
employees and thirteen past and they were
in world tracing our cheeth. We also

77
00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:55.680
got the mail, so I'll get
the mail and see names. They're gone.

78
00:05:56.399 --> 00:06:00.319
We're missing the time people were calling
because that office is gone. I

79
00:06:00.360 --> 00:06:04.600
got the Dolphice is gone. That's
made major offices in New York. It's

80
00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:09.399
gone. They're calling me, where's
my broker? I need to reach my

81
00:06:09.399 --> 00:06:12.560
brokeer and even my brokers my broker
alive? Do you don't know any information.

82
00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:15.319
Like I was like, and I
was just Robert. I'm like,

83
00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:16.360
let me passed you on to so
and so. We passed you on to

84
00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:19.600
so and so. I can't read
saw it. We were so busy,

85
00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:26.079
so bogged down. People are crying
on the phone. To me, I

86
00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:27.920
was like, I said, seeing
mail that, I was like, that

87
00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:33.639
person's gone, Who's what's the protocol? It was a very summer time.

88
00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:41.040
I cried too. I mean it
was really sad. And they said nothing

89
00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:45.319
I've ever been through before in my
life at a job. We had to

90
00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:48.879
redirect people and it was it was
such a such a weird thing. So

91
00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:51.519
I will never forget it, just
because everybody else can't forget. At that

92
00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:58.000
time period, I was thirty two
years old. What happened. But I

93
00:06:58.120 --> 00:07:00.079
just know that having his job,
it's crazy. And I found the other

94
00:07:00.199 --> 00:07:04.720
name. I'm Morgan Stanley, Dean
Witterer Opener. Let's see where it's there.

95
00:07:04.759 --> 00:07:09.639
It is letter Opener. I still
have it and like this they're not

96
00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:12.199
even more standing the winner anymore,
but I have it and I'm keeping it

97
00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:15.560
just because I'm like, it's useful, but also it just be minds of

98
00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:19.839
that time period. I really enjoyed
that job. I left later that year,

99
00:07:19.879 --> 00:07:23.759
but I really enjoyed that job.
I couldn't I couldn't stand the hours.

100
00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:27.399
I enjoyed the people to friends,
people, and I actually still fallow

101
00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:31.879
somebody who still worked there online.
And also we have for the twentieth anniversary

102
00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:38.920
a patch. Never forget that,
so I just have that. But just

103
00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:42.480
it's not a couple of booklets and
things from Morgan sat the Winner that I

104
00:07:42.519 --> 00:07:46.079
have somewhere in my house that I
have, but it was just, you

105
00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:51.519
know, it should be mentioned he
had a security Rick was Scoreline was the

106
00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:57.279
one who got everybody out except for
those thirteen people and himself. He didn't

107
00:07:57.279 --> 00:08:01.959
make it either. He died during
taking people nine eleven is something that just

108
00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:09.720
you just will never forget. It's
it's something that still lingers on today as

109
00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:16.240
a fellow New Yorker myself mixed with
being Los Angeles, New Yorkers are resilient.

110
00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:20.560
It was such a strange time for
them to deal with and to recover

111
00:08:20.680 --> 00:08:26.920
from. You were actually attacked.
And no matter what political side you fall

112
00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:31.120
on or I know it's as conspiracy
theories a lot of stuff, the fact

113
00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:37.039
remains what three three three time,
it will died. The buildings are gone,

114
00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:41.559
the skyline was changed forever. There's
a lot of human stories and I've

115
00:08:41.720 --> 00:08:46.639
I've watched every year and seeing that
that part is the most important, I

116
00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:48.720
can all the other stuff. That
part is important. Maybe like us,

117
00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:56.360
we lost actually co workers and friends, colleagues. It was a really really

118
00:08:56.440 --> 00:09:00.080
strange, strange thing. So that's
want to share with you guys lord today

119
00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:07.679
as we as we're sitting here observing
nine eleven and a to anybody's lost somebody,

120
00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:11.960
my heart goes out with you.
It's just it never really goes away.

121
00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:15.039
Fully, it's with the rest of
your life's part of your life.

122
00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:20.480
Anybody who was there and part of
it. I'm glad you survived and you're

123
00:09:20.519 --> 00:09:28.240
able to tell your stories and your
fulfilled lives. So thank you very much.

124
00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:31.240
This is forty plus. I'm James
Jr. I'll talk to you next time.