Remembering Being in New York on 9–11–2001
Anyone Old Enough to Remember Knows Where They Were
Though living in Orlando, FL, at the time, I’d been in New York for five weeks, working at the US Open Tennis event in Queens at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. I had worked for several years with the merchandising company that sold merchandise during the Open. I ran the largest retail store on the grounds, the Octagon, which, for two weeks, averaged well over $120,000 in daily sales.
The Open officially ended on Sunday, September 9. On Monday, we conducted a day-long half-price sale. On Tuesday, September 11, we began closing down our stores, removing the displays, and inventorying the remaining merchandise. It was the first day in two weeks we weren’t wearing our navy blue polo shirt and khaki shorts. The adrenaline from the final weekend of the Open and the half-price sale was gone, and I was dragging. Venus Williams had defeated her sister Serena in the Women’s Final, and Lleyton Hewitt upset Pete Sampras in the Men’s Final. They were long gone while we were left to clean up.
I recall walking from the Octagon to our offices on the grounds when our general manager, Terry, told me a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We went into his office and turned on the television. There was no footage yet from the…
