On September 11th 2001 the World Trade Center was destroyed. Every time there is some kind of disaster everyone always asks each other, “Where were you when…?” There aren’t that many thankfully to ask during my lifetime. I wasn’t alive when Kennedy or MLK were killed. I ask or get asked “Where were you when the Northridge quake happened?” “Where were you when the L.A Riots happened?”
These kind of questions always have some cool kinda response. During the Northridge quake I was sleeping because it was MLK day and that shit happened early in the morning. During the L.A Riots my mother wouldn’t let us go out and loot meaning me and my brother were the only kids to not have new smoked scented clothes when school was back in session. For the 9/11 attacks I was where many people were not.
In a porn shop.
That’s right. A porn shop. Not as a customer. I worked at a porn shop for seven years. Yeah. Seven years in a porn shop. And on that day I woke up at the ass crack of dawn to get the store ready and open for business.
Before I left the house the first tower had already been struck. My reaction was, “Damn. Someone is a terrible pilot. How in the fuck can you hit that big ass building?” I went to work and began getting the cash registers ready. At 6am I opened up and a customer who never speaks said “Did you hear? The second tower was hit!” I didn’t believe him. What were the chances of another plane crashing into the other tower?
I turned on the raggedy TV that was at the counter and sure enough both towers were on fire. I couldn’t believe this. I wasn’t torn up or anything but I knew this was a fucked up situation. Now, if you know me you know I don’t panic or freak out. So when something fucked up happens I tend to turn into Uatu (nerd reference) and just observe things with almost no emotion. I called my girlfriend at the time and woke her up to watch the country being attacked.
Some douche bag came into the store tweaking out of his mind and asked me “Are you Muslim?” I told him no and gave him the evil eye as he wandered around the store buying nothing. Many people came in to by cigarettes and poppers. By noon it seemed like things were back to normal and porn was being rented and purchased. Attending to a boner should have been the last thing on people’s minds, but folks tend to behave strangely during times of disaster.
Customer: "This is so tragic! Can I have two Mr. Wonderfuls?"
Customer: "I know two people who work in the World Trade Center. Can I have two Marlboro Reds?"
They ended up closing Santa Monica Blvd. because city hall got a bomb threat. I couldn’t leave because I was the only employee there and the other guy that was supposed to come in had the day off. So I sat there and watched the news while two managers brought drawings of two flaming towers with planes up to the counter and laughed.
The attack was fucking nuts. I didn’t even touch on the Pentagon being hit or that other plane being brought down. I cant believe that its almost ten years later and troops are still fighting over that attack. Well, not really but still. Lots of folks I know have family that fought in that war and I have a cousin that did. It makes me wonder how the world would be if that had never happened. Would the news cover it as much if it didn’t have such a catchy date it occurred on with groovy graphics where you can place the towers in place of the 1’s in 9-1-1?
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