2 Penn Plaza

One question I’ll never know the answer to from 9/11

/ Sue and Frank D'Elia / Leave a comment

The morning of September 11, 2001 was a sunny beautiful late summer morning on Long Island. The temperature was cool, the sky was blue, there were little or no clouds, and the humidity of summer was gone. It was one of those late summer days that hint to the wonderful days of the coming fall season. It was a totally normal day as I walked from the parking garage to my usual place on the Manhattan bound platform of the Mineola Long Island Rail Road platform, and waited for the 7:24 train to Penn Station.

All along the platform there were groups of LIRR regulars, who gathered at the proper location to board their desired car of the train. It might be a matter of knowing where that car would platform in Penn Station, or might be a gained knowledge of what cars on the train might be a little less crowded at that time of the morning. Being creatures of habit, you tended to see many of the same folks day after day waiting on the platform with you, on the train already when you got on, or getting on the train at the Merrilon Avenue and New Hyde Park stops. By in large you hadn’t talked to them and knew nothing about them beyond the fact that they took the 7:24 train to Penn and sat in the second car from the end of the train most days.

Of course, that normal feeling of the morning of September 11th ended when we watched the second plane hit the South Tower of the World Trade Center just after 9 AM! Most of us were then aware that we’d just entered a new world and life would never be the same. The horror of the day continued to unfold as we watched on live television the unfathomable happen with both towers of the World Trade Center collapsing. Rumors were everywhere, and working 17 Floors above Penn Station, and just two blocks from the now tallest building in NYC, the Empire State Building, nobody was sure if there were more attacks coming, and if so, where would they strike. When they finally opened Penn Station late that afternoon, the trip home was strange and very quiet, and when the train came out of the tunnel in Queens, I think most of us looked to the south where the twin towers of the WTC were that morning, but now there was just a pillar of smoke.

The days, weeks, and months following September 11th were very odd in the New York Metropolitan area. Living in Mineola on Long Island, depending on the weather patterns, we were under the landing pattern for either La Guardia, or JFK, and were very used to having a plane go over head every couple of minutes, but with air travel in the United States grounded in the days after 9/11, the skies were eerily quiet. Almost immediately, there were American flags everywhere. Continuing to travel into Manhattan daily on the Long Island Rail Road, the trains were very quiet, especially when we got to the point in Queens where we used to be able to see the towers and now just saw smoke. Penn Station was also very different than it had been before 9/11. There were armed soldiers everywhere and many more police than usual. As the days went on, people started placing pictures of loved ones on bulletin boards, around the station, asking people if anybody had seen them after the towers fell. Security in office buildings all over the city was increased, especially in ours at 2 Penn Place, being above Penn Station. At home, we were missing friends who were members of the NYPD, the NYFD, and even local volunteers, all who were involved in World Trade Center Search and Rescue, and then Recovery. It was a sad time for sure, but also a time that everyone felt we were united as one; there to support each other!

As I said in the beginning, those of us who were daily Long Island Rail Road riders into Manhattan were creatures of habit, traveling on the same train and sitting in the same car everyday. But there were people I’d seen for months, and many that I saw on the 7:24 to Penn Station on that fateful September morning that I never saw again. I always wondered, were these fellow LIRR travelers victims that died in the WTC, or people who were traumatized by the events of 9/11, and just didn’t have the ability to go to work in Manhattan anymore, or had something else change their commuting patterns? As I said, one question I’ll never know the answer to from 9/11.

Bluetooth Ear Buds and your Cell Phone

/ Sue and Frank D'Elia / 2 Comments

Wikipedia defines Bluetooth as “a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances.” The first consumer Bluetooth device was a hands-free mobile headset that was launched in 1999. Those first Bluetooth headsets were large, but as the technology improved, the size dropped until Bluetooth Ear Buds became the norm. They are a great invention, that allow joggers, walkers, people at the beach, and others seeking privacy the perfect tool. No cords or huge headsets to get in the way of your activity, you don’t bother others near you, and small enough to be carried in your pocket when you are done with them. Back in the olden days, when I was still working at WABC, a set of Bluetooth ear buds made my twice daily Long Island Rail Road trips a bit more palatable. They were easy to use, small, and much better than a wired headset. They are indeed a great way to listen to music, podcasts, or the radio, if anyone still listens to the radio!

Then there is their other use…conducting a phone call while connected to your cell phone! I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of having someone at work, on the street, or in a store, say “Hello,” think they were talking to us and respond, only to then discover that they had a Bluetooth ear bud in one or both ears, and were in the midst of a telephone call! Sorry, but people doing that should be forced to wear a sign or some other outwardly obvious indication to those around them that they’re on the phone and that the rest of us should ignore all talk that comes from their mouth! I know that I have been caught multiple times, and frankly it is embarrassing once you are either waved off by the person, or you yourself realize what’s happening. There are also other issues I’ve discovered over the years. Here’s one, from my personal experience.

When WABC Radio moved to 2 Penn Plaza in early 1989 from 1330 Avenue of the Americas, the neighborhood around our new home was very different from what we’d enjoyed at 54th Street and 6th Avenue. Instead of being a block from ritzy Fifth Avenue with stores like Saks, across from the New York Hilton, and blocks from Rockefeller Center, we were now 17 floors above Penn Station and Madison Square Garden in a much older, undeveloped area. Rather than skyscrapers that housed Corporate America, we were across from the ancient Pennsylvania Hotel, 2 blocks from the Macy’s on 34th Street, and surrounded by small buildings with everything from Pizza places to Taxidermy Supply stores as tenants. New York City was a very different place in 1989, and on the average day, 5 people were murdered, there were 9 rapes, and 194 aggravated assaults. Then there was Penn Station in our basement!

The “New” Pennsylvania Station was basically a basement establishment, under 2 Penn Plaza and Madison Square Garden, having taken the place of the beautiful McKim, Mead, and White designed train station in the late 60s. On any given day, Penn Station looked more like a portal to a third world country than a prime transportation hub in New York City. If you came to work too early in the morning, you literally had to step over people, as hundreds (perhaps thousands) of homeless folks used it as a flop house! Many of them were pushed out into the surrounding streets before the commuting day started, but Penn Station was still the home to many of NYC’s best crazies! We joked about it, but there were literally people walking around in tin foils “hats” so nobody (aliens, the CIA, you name the group) could read their thoughts. On a daily basis, I’d see folks giving others furtive looks, yelling at people who were just passing by, and of course, having long animated conversations and arguments with others that nobody else could see! I always said that you could always tell the crazies from the “normal” folks, as the crazies were the ones talking to themselves. Then came Bluetooth ear buds.

In the later years, before I retired in 2016, whenever I’d venture down the 17 floors and take the escalator underground to Penn Station, there were new rules. Now, it was much harder to tell if somebody was nuts or just on the phone. Some of the crazy people were very normal looking, but now, some of the “normal” people acted as crazy as the best of the crazies! Talking in a loud voice to nobody, having explosive arguments with nobody, and making extravagant hand gestures were no longer a clue. They could be crazies, or they could be folks on their cell phones! You decide….

I was prompted to write this blog, when I saw (and heard) a lady walking down our street yesterday as I sat on our front porch in Ocean City. She was all alone, and there was no one around, and yet, she was carrying on an extensive conversation, including using body language for effect! As with my experience long ago at Penn Station…on the phone, or crazy? Remember, when you avail yourself of the latest in technology, the rest of us don’t always know!