I was riding my motorcycle to work and stopped for fuel at Gaz 4 Less, a little station near my home. The attendant (Russian or perhaps Armenian) came out and told me one of the World Trade Center towers had been struck by an airplane - he had a TV set in the convenience store and was watching the early news reports. I asked, "Was it an accident?" to which he replied, "No, on purpose they did it." And I replied, "Then it will be war!" To which he could only nod his head.

When I got into the office, all the attorneys were gathered around the couple of TV sets we had in the building. By then the second tower had been hit and was collapsing, and I guess the Pentagon had been, too. We didn't get much work done that day! We were wondering whether the Century City area near our office (lots of skyscrapers all together) would also be a target. All air flights in and out of Los Angeles were promptly halted.

A year or two later, I was in New York to visit my cousins and took a train and subway over to the World Trade Center site. It was in December and cold, but no snow. I actually had to consult various maps as I did not know exactly where it was; but as I recall, the subway had had a "World Trade Center Station" (although it was no longer in service). Large flatbed trucks were still clogging the area, hauling off the steel girders and rubble. I was thinking of picking up some small object, say a bolt, as a memento but decided against the idea. I was surprised to see how close the WTC was to Wall Street, just a couple of blocks.