Arts & Entertainment
Residents Reflect on September 11, 2001
Area residents share their stories, memories and items of that fateful day in American history.
“There was anger. There still is anger.”
Jim Rogers of Third Lake vividly remembers where he was the morning of September 11, 2001.
“I was at home listening to the radio. At first I thought ‘gosh, it’s going to take them a while to put out that fire.’ Then I realized what was happening and I just watched in horror.”
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Sonali Oberg of Pingree Grove had just begun a new job in Chicago. She was on a conference call with their New York office, located in Tower One of the World Trade Center. “We were on the phone with people when the phones just stopped. It was in an instant, no one there knew what was happening.”
Marion Grinnell of Mundelein recalls visiting with her sister that morning. They were getting ready to go on vacation and had the TV on as they packed. “I can still see that second plane go right into the buildings. That is something I’ll never forget.”
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As the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, the memories of that historic day remain etched in the minds of Americans.
Rogers, a native New Yorker, worked in Tower Two of the World Trade Center in the 1970’s. He was there when the towers were built and recalls the area before it became so populated.
“When I was there, it was a landfill in front of the towers and not much in Manhattan at all. It was nothing compared to today,” he said.
Rogers worked on the 20th floor of Tower Two from 1975-1979. At that time, the building was undergoing office expansion and crews were cutting holes into the conduit to access electrical and phone lines. Rogers took a piece of that flooring to use as a paperweight, and still has it today.
It is one of the few tangible items he still has from working in the World Trade Center. For him, watching the events unfold on television that morning in 2001 hit very close to home.
“It’s an open wound, still,” Rogers said.
He shared his memories with a group of area residents at the Aug. 31. Several artifacts from his collection are on display there including the piece of flooring from the 20th floor of Tower Two, a vile of the dust that was scattered among the city following the towers’ collapse and various photographs and magazines.
“Some of the things that seemed so insignificant mean a lot now," said his wife, Cindy.
- Rogers’ items will be on display through October 1 at the 164 Hawley Street.
- On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, attend the event at , 1925 Route 83, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Read more in Returning to Ground Zero, Moving Ahead.
