Reply #44: I was at work. The union was on strike, and since I was theoretically

[hedgehog]

a management employee, I was assigned to a production job. SInce I wasn't held in very high regard, I was doing one of the dirtiest, hardest jobs we had. I was wearing safety glasses, ear plugs, hard hat, full face shield and an apron in 80 deg heat and high humidity, so you might say I was pretty isolated. I found out about the WTC when I went to the people who were supposed to be supervising to report that the guy that had been brought in from the sales force wasn't wearing proper safety gear. I saw the image of a burning building on TV and thought I was watching a training video. Looking back, I think the towers had actually fallen by the time I first saw any video or else fell shortly after. My memories of that day are very garbled as a result.

BTW - I knew the people I worked with were mostly sleazy types. Management horsed around with the union instead of negotiating for about 10 weeks because that way the company could work down its inventory without having to lay off people and pay unemployment. That day, they managed to top themselves. We had a rally at 1PM. I expected it would be announced that we'd be shutting down for the day. Instead, everyone was as excited as a kid on Christmas Day. They all figured that the attack meant that we were going to war and that war was good for business! We were given a gung ho speech about going in there and producing steel for the protection of the nation.