Welcome to Episode 269 of Spun Today, where we dive deep into personal stories of resilience, reflection, and creativity in the face of one of the most transformative events in modern history—the 9/11 attacks. Today, we are honored to have a plethora of voices sharing their firsthand experiences, each providing a unique lens on that tragic day. From David Ortiz witnessing the chaos unfold from his law firm in downtown Manhattan, to Raul Azurdia learning about the attacks from a frantic woman on the street, to Steven Almonte receiving the news during his math class—their stories paint a vivid mosaic of memory, confusion, and eventual understanding.

We'll hear from Elaine Almonte, who reflects on the haunting silence of New York City post-9/11, and Janet Velez, who processes her emotions through poetry and faith. Jacey Pascasio recounts the classroom panic and subsequent days filled with fear and uncertainty, while Tony Ortiz examines how these events shaped a generation and altered the cultural landscape forever.  Zoila Ortiz recounts being in high school during the attacks while Yudy Azurdia recounts the start to a typical day.  Tony’s father reminisces on witnessing the building of the Twin Towers when he first came to the country and sadly seeing them be knocked down.

Join us as we explore not only the immediate reactions and long-term impacts of 9/11, but also how these harrowing experiences, foster resilience, and inspire a collective resolve to remember and rebuild. This special episode is a powerful testament to the human spirit's ability to endure and find light, even in the darkest of times.

 

Special thanks to: Jacey Rosa, my Father Segundo Ortiz, David Ortiz, Janet Velez, Yudy Azurdia, Raul Azurdia, Zoila Ortiz, Elaine Almonte & Steven Almonte. 

 

The Spun Today Podcast is a Podcast that is anchored in Writing & Random Rants, but unlimited in scope.  Give it a whirl. 

 

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Links referenced in this episode:

9/11: TIMELINE OF EVENTS: http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-timeline

 

George W. Bush The Night of 9-11-01: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbqCquDl4k4

 

Angel in the Rubble: The Miraculous Rescue of 9/11's Last Survivor: https://www.amazon.com/Angel-Rubble-Miraculous-Rescue-Survivor/dp/1451635206/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504562087&sr=8-1&keywords=angel+in+the+rubble

 

Elaine Almonte’s Facebook Post: https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10100795821199994&id=26304929&set=a.836445090434.2248017.26304929

 

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Background Music: Autumn 2011 - Loxbeats & Melody - Roa

 

Outro Background Music: https://www.bensound.com

 

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TRANSCRIPT

David Ortiz [00:00:02]:

I was 22 years old and I was working in downtown Manhattan by the seaport.

Dad [00:00:07]:

I was in gym class. I was 17 years old.

Raul Azurdia [00:00:22]:

We was driving normal down the street, and all of a sudden, what I thought at the time, some crazy lady ran out the house, flapping her on her hands like asking for help.

Elaine Almonte [00:00:34]:

It was during the home period of my high school.

Tony Ortiz [00:00:39]:

How old are you?

Elaine Almonte [00:00:40]:

15.

Dad [00:00:42]:

Ese dia. Yo recuelo que me levante temprano ya mama que vivia ake. And Queens Joe Bibia and San and Thomas River, New Jersey.

Janet Velez [00:00:53]:

I was in high school, but I know it was my first period class that I had a math class with Mister Chan. That was his name.

Jacey Pascasio [00:01:01]:

I was around ten, so I was in 6th grade and we just had started. I was in p's 90.

Steven Almonte [00:01:09]:

I think I was in misses Cetron's class. I think it was a math class. And I took a pass to go to the bathroom. And while I'm coming back, somebody screams through the hallway, yo, did you hear the towers got hit?

Tony Ortiz [00:01:18]:

Like what? Cohesion and a sense of togetherness is often a byproduct of turbulent times. That was the case on September 11, 2001. It remained the case for weeks and even months after. But in time, the unity faded, and in its place, what remained were the seeds of suspicion and mistrust. What is it about these situations that, in the longer term creates this type of wedge? They create the visions amongst us that splinter out from the very moments that initially brought us together. I suspect it may have something to do with the sense of humanity dissipating and ideological gains becoming the metric by which we dictate priority and measure worth. Is it just a function of time passing, some period that varies in length from person to person, where we realize that we're okay with not caring as much anymore when enough time passes? The resemblance between the creation of a Volk community by the Nazis in pre World War two Germany is indistinguishable from white nationalist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. When enough time passes, the ineptly trained and overzealous acts of the police officers that killed Eric Garner looked nothing like the avoidable and relentless police brutality experienced by Rodney King.

Tony Ortiz [00:02:56]:

In time, the foreign policy decisions that led to the military intervention that resulted in unstable regime changes and unintended consequences in countries like Iraq and Libya don't remind us of the same actions taken in countries like Iran, Nicaragua, Venezuela decades earlier. Maybe that's why history tends to repeat itself. In this special edition episode of the sponsor Day podcast, you'll hear a collection of first hand experiences from New Yorkers that lived through the events of that tragic day that is forever stamped in our collective history and continues to make an impression on our day to day lives. I'm convinced that it may be our generation's duty to continue sharing these stories to make sure that no amount of time could ever fog our memories and that we never forget. This first interview is also my first attempt at recording a telephone conversation for the podcast. And the quality isn't the best, especially in the first few seconds where I'm trying to get the levels right. However, it definitely is listenable and just wanted to give you guys a heads up because there are a couple instances where being a phone conversation, there's a bit of a lag, and I speak over her, she speaks over me, etcetera. But it's an important take from the youngest person that I interviewed that experienced 911.

Tony Ortiz [00:04:31]:

And I just wanted to give you guys a heads up on the quality. Out of everybody that I've interviewed, you're the, the youngest person, so obviously you are the youngest.

Jacey Pascasio [00:04:45]:

Oh, of course, of course, yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:04:47]:

You're the baby of the podcast.

Jacey Pascasio [00:04:49]:

Yeah, that's good, that's good. That's nothing bad.

Tony Ortiz [00:04:54]:

Yeah. So it's a different perspective. So obviously you were the youngest.

Jacey Pascasio [00:04:58]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:04:59]:

When it actually happened and.

Jacey Pascasio [00:05:01]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:05:02]:

How old are you on 911? 2001 or like what grade were you?

Jacey Pascasio [00:05:06]:

So I was around, I was around ten. Like ten. I was going to be eleven in November. I think I was around like 6th grade because I remember the 911 happened like one year before we moved to doctor. So I was in 6th grade and we just had started. I was in P's 90.

Tony Ortiz [00:05:31]:

Gotcha. Shout out to PS 90 back then.

Jacey Pascasio [00:05:34]:

Yeah, yeah. And so what I remember was that day we were in class and so we were in class, I don't remember what class we were in, but we were there. And when we found out, it was kind of when everything had already happened, so both towers were already hit. So they kind of already knew that it was a terrorist attack. They really didn't think it was an accident at that point, so they told us. And when we were in class, everybody, you know, everybody wanted to know, the teachers, because they already knew it was a terrorist attack, so everybody wanted to know. So they brought in the tv, like from back in the day when like the big tvs that were like on the strolley with the VCR.

Tony Ortiz [00:06:30]:

Yeah, in the middle and then they like push it in like in a part. Yeah, I remember those.

Jacey Pascasio [00:06:37]:

Yeah, so they pushed it in and they were like, you know, let's see the news, because nobody really knew. And I guess they had to determine at that time, too, what to do with us because we were in the middle of class.

Tony Ortiz [00:06:48]:

Yeah.

Jacey Pascasio [00:06:48]:

So we thought we turned on the tv and we were watching the news, and, you know, it was, it was kind of everything happening at that point. So when we were watching the tv, like, one of the ladies, she was like, oh, you know, did, like, one of the teachers, she was like, does anybody have, like, parents or anything or anybody that works in the city, you know? And everybody that did raise their hand and said, and there was one of the kids that, um, that I don't know if both of the parents or one of. I don't know if it was a dad or the mom that worked in, in the Twin Towers, actually. He was like, yeah, you know. Yeah. So. And then when we were watching the tv, that's when they both went down. So, you know, everybody was in shock.

Jacey Pascasio [00:07:40]:

And that, that kid that was in the classroom, he got really bad because at that point, nobody knew anything, so he didn't know, you know, where, where was his parent at? So he got really bad. So when everybody saw that the towers went down, yeah, because I want. Everybody saw the towers went down real quick.

Tony Ortiz [00:08:02]:

They don't, like, obviously they couldn't know at that time, like, the teachers and stuff, and everybody was trying to get it out, but it was crazy.

Jacey Pascasio [00:08:09]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:08:10]:

Like, just, you know, put it on team in front of all the little kids and then, you know, obviously they couldn't know that. Yeah, that's crazy. I must have been traumatizing.

Jacey Pascasio [00:08:18]:

Yeah. So, yeah, at that time, nobody knew that that was gonna happen. They just kind of wanted to get information themselves. But, you know, like, who do you call when that's happening? You know, to, like, figure out, like, oh, okay. That, like, exact details? Nobody really knew.

Tony Ortiz [00:08:35]:

Exactly. And back then, it wasn't like, now that, you know, you could just, like, google it or go on your phone. Plane number one was American Airlines flight eleven out of Boston, Massachusetts. It struck at 08:46 a.m. plane number two was United Airlines flight 175, also out of Boston, Massachusetts, and it struck at 09:03 a.m. the tower hit by plane number two was actually the first to collapse, and it collapsed at 09:59 a.m. the remaining tower, which was the first to be impacted, later collapsed at 10:28 a.m. yes.

Jacey Pascasio [00:09:13]:

And the teacher's like, and the teacher's like, are you sure?

Janet Velez [00:09:16]:

Are you sure?

Jacey Pascasio [00:09:17]:

That is your sister. I'm like, yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:09:21]:

You guys. You guys were inside, and then what? They made, like, an announcement or something and said, okay, everybody line up outside. Or, like, how was that? Like, how'd you get from inside?

Jacey Pascasio [00:09:29]:

No. So we were. We were told to stay in the classroom, and then while the parents started, because they really didn't tell any parents to come and pick their kids up. I guess parents were just doing that on their own, you know, because they were afraid. So when, when they came, they would tell you. So, like, when Soyla came, they went and they got me. And they're like, okay. And they show me, like, they show me Soyla from afar.

Jacey Pascasio [00:09:54]:

And they're like, is that your sister? And I'm like, yeah, that's my sister. And they're like, okay, so you could go with her. And everybody was kind of afraid because at that time, when someone wanted to pick me up, there was one other plane that was still, like, flying around and nobody knew where it was going to hit.

Tony Ortiz [00:10:14]:

The other plane that JC mentioned was one of the other four planes that were in play that day. It was United Airlines flight 93 out of Newark, New Jersey. You all may remember that there was a movie made about it. In short, the passengers realized that their flight was hijacked. They tried contacting their families through cell phones, and some were successful in doing so. They learned of the attacks in New York earlier that morning. They bravely attempted to take back control of the plane from the hijackers, and the hijackers responded by deliberately crash landing in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Everyone on board died of just all.

Jacey Pascasio [00:10:55]:

Day watching the news, watching everything that happened, seeing everything that happened. And my dad got home super late because he wasn't in the city when that happened. So he got home, like, at the night time and that day.

Tony Ortiz [00:11:12]:

Do you remember, like, when you guys, like, spoke to him and, you know, that he was like, good?

Jacey Pascasio [00:11:17]:

I don't remember that. I think at some point he called my mom and he was like, oh, you know, I'm okay. I'm just stuck. Because, um, I think he was just one of the people because, you know how they closed down the bridge and everybody started walking on the bridge. I think he just couldn't get past, you know?

Tony Ortiz [00:11:35]:

Yeah.

Jacey Pascasio [00:11:35]:

So he called and he told us. Yeah, he told us that, you know, that he was fine. It's just that he was stuck there. So he's like, I don't know what time, you know, we're going to get home. But it was pretty much, you know, that. And just, like, I remember that night, like, you would. You could see that, like, New York was just. It was just, like, totally black.

Jacey Pascasio [00:12:00]:

Like, it was just, like, sad. Like, it was a different atmosphere to what New York city is usually, you know, like, day to day.

Tony Ortiz [00:12:09]:

Yeah, it's usually, like, vibrant.

Jacey Pascasio [00:12:11]:

I guess. It really was.

Tony Ortiz [00:12:12]:

It's like you.

Jacey Pascasio [00:12:13]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:12:13]:

Like, it was, like, the press and I, like, the entire.

Jacey Pascasio [00:12:17]:

Yeah, yeah. You could just feel everything. And at that point, you know, like, me, I really didn't know about, like, terrorists or anything. I think that was the first, like, time that I kind of knew what it. What it was that I really learned what it was. Like, I was never in a place where that ever happened, you know? So, like, we kind of knew about it, but we never experienced it that way.

Tony Ortiz [00:12:45]:

Yeah, definitely not.

Jacey Pascasio [00:12:46]:

So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I know it was something really sad, you know, and to hear all the stories. And I actually never went to the World Trade center. Yeah, that's the towers I never visited. And I was like, oh, damn. Like, I never got to actually go and see it up close, and so.

Tony Ortiz [00:13:09]:

It was really sad, you know, Soto, because we take it, like, living in the city. Like, we take it for granted, because I never went.

Jacey Pascasio [00:13:17]:

Yeah, you don't go and visit. Like, I always start from afar, you know? Like, if we traveled and. And we saw from the bridge, and we're like, oh, look. Look at it from afar.

Janet Velez [00:13:27]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:13:27]:

Like, the sky.

Jacey Pascasio [00:13:28]:

But I never actually. Yeah, I never actually went. And, like, was like, okay, I went inside of it or I visited or.

Tony Ortiz [00:13:37]:

Yeah. You know, like, I had. Father has, like, old school, like, a vhs tape of one day when he took me, my brother, and my mom.

Dad [00:13:47]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:13:47]:

And we went over there, and he has it on video, but I was, like, two or three years old, so. And then. But that was.

Jacey Pascasio [00:13:55]:

You never went either?

Tony Ortiz [00:13:56]:

Nine. Everyone either. Tempoco. Except for that time, which obviously I don't remember. And then, um. Yeah, I went afterwards, and I could.

Jacey Pascasio [00:14:04]:

There's probably a lot of people. Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:14:06]:

To the memorial.

Jacey Pascasio [00:14:07]:

Yeah, I haven't gone to the memorial either. I really want to go, though.

Tony Ortiz [00:14:11]:

Yeah, you should.

Jacey Pascasio [00:14:12]:

And to the museum that they did. I really want to go to that. But I bet you there's a lot of people that never went and actually lived here probably for years and never got the chance to go.

Tony Ortiz [00:14:24]:

Yeah, exactly. That's why after that, I wound up going to, like, the Empire State Building and a bunch of places like that.

Jacey Pascasio [00:14:31]:

Yeah. Yeah. I know. It's good to go and see because, you know, you never know. Things like this could happen.

Tony Ortiz [00:14:37]:

Yeah.

Jacey Pascasio [00:14:38]:

And. And that's something really big, I think, especially, like, in New York, because even now where I work, like, every time that they do a fire drill or any kind of drill, they always mention 911. They always, like, you know, remember 911? And, you know, don't wear heels or don't wear flip flops because you never know because of, like, look at 911.

Tony Ortiz [00:15:03]:

Yeah. You might have to run down the stairs.

Jacey Pascasio [00:15:04]:

They always.

Tony Ortiz [00:15:05]:

They always.

Jacey Pascasio [00:15:06]:

Yeah, yeah. Like, every single time, they always mention, I know, Devon. And I'm like, that's. And it's been how many years now? And they still mentioning it. I think that's always gonna stay.

Tony Ortiz [00:15:18]:

Yeah. That's, like, the biggest impact, especially with New York, aside from obviously, like, all the lives lost and stuff. Like, it changed how, like, we even, like, act and.

Jacey Pascasio [00:15:25]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:15:26]:

Like, in work, in everyday life.

Jacey Pascasio [00:15:29]:

Yeah. Yeah. And especially, you know, with all the people that died, you never know in what situation you could be in. The sound like you could choose it, you know? You know, it's always something that's gonna be remembered.

Tony Ortiz [00:15:40]:

Yeah.

Jacey Pascasio [00:15:41]:

That's really for sure. You know that I was thinking, like, I was telling you the other day that, um, that it's. It's something that, you know, our kids are gonna be asking us about. And I think, like, in Facebook, I read one time, I don't know what year it was, but they were like, oh, this is like, the first year that freshmen are going to learn about 911 as something that happened before they were born. I was like, damn, I felt old.

Tony Ortiz [00:16:16]:

Damn. I didn't mean.

Jacey Pascasio [00:16:20]:

I was like, damn, I'm old. No, but then I was like, you know, if something, you know, like, years passed by and you kind of didn't feel it, and you're like, wow, you know, it's been, like, 16 years already since then.

Tony Ortiz [00:16:35]:

That's crazy.

Jacey Pascasio [00:16:36]:

And it's still a big impact. Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:16:38]:

If. If that made the. The official baby of the sponsor a podcast feel old, then it did happen a very long time ago.

Jacey Pascasio [00:16:50]:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Tony Ortiz [00:16:52]:

All right. Thank you.

Jacey Pascasio [00:16:52]:

Thank you for having me.

Tony Ortiz [00:16:54]:

Thank you for coming on. I appreciate it very much. My father, at 77, is the oldest person that I interviewed for this episode. He has an interesting perspective in that when he first came to this country from the Dominican Republic in the early seventies, he was around and saw much of the World Trade center construction going on. And he shares that with us here. And if you don't understand Spanish, shame on you. Cinco de la manian. Normal travador et cetera.

Tony Ortiz [00:17:41]:

See Navikins. No. Yeah. My logarahir and those who trade them up again. Parking lot grande me and parking line.

Raul Azurdia [00:18:20]:

Kwando todo ikwando.

Tony Ortiz [00:18:31]:

Circadrophysin. Whydheendev say no? Say, oh, yeah. No to pero revolution chocolate.

Raul Azurdia [00:19:00]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:19:08]:

Perfect. Yeah. If we can do Mimo because it's a girl, it because of the minuto do. Yeah. Ben. No poker. No, it's a vanilla jazz. Moyakyala lakaji saitamante.

Tony Ortiz [00:20:34]:

So see motor dog nitrabah. We know your pen sen David.

Raul Azurdia [00:21:36]:

If we.

Tony Ortiz [00:21:40]:

No comment. Konapaso Classic intro Professor Ketchikomo Helicopter Isegundo Binotra Professor Supporter Familiar Yamando Tami Atiya Deviati Latorre melatonin Lantana Toronto either poet yamanda debut communica pointer three for the salima and control Osaka, Duro, Mati and popa communication lo and control Modetala.

Raul Azurdia [00:23:38]:

To.

Tony Ortiz [00:23:39]:

The room quatro quadra get our trabhando see put on the YouTube problem on Pellegro the mando gracia the gamma la carnama. Yeah. Bush President commensurate lahente mimo vienna kai so paso we don't mima hence Mala and Mundo Cape and the tinto situ in Washington. The hotel Mexican more trimming. Yeah. Quantum Temple palace. No, like public don and lavasa negotiate. So to be the ante joje in.

Tony Ortiz [00:28:21]:

All right, so tell me what you remember from that day, from 911, what happened? You said you were 22.

David Ortiz [00:28:31]:

I was 22 years old, and I was working in downtown Manhattan by the seaport.

Tony Ortiz [00:28:36]:

And I was. What?

David Ortiz [00:28:37]:

I was a records clerk at a law firm, a big defend a big law firm. They did a lot of patent laws. They did a lot of, like. A lot of the clients were, like, big corporations, so.

Tony Ortiz [00:28:52]:

And it was downtown. Where do you remember, like, the address?

David Ortiz [00:28:55]:

It was. It was downtown by Water street.

Tony Ortiz [00:29:00]:

So that's, like, by the seaport.

David Ortiz [00:29:02]:

By the seaport.

Tony Ortiz [00:29:03]:

So that's the building that has the cubes. Like, it looks like. Like ice cubes. The building, like the windows and stuff?

David Ortiz [00:29:10]:

No, it's a glass building.

Tony Ortiz [00:29:11]:

Okay.

David Ortiz [00:29:13]:

It's a big glass building. They had to. They had a few floors in a glass building by water street. And I don't remember the. I don't remember.

Tony Ortiz [00:29:27]:

I always thought, for some reason, like, when I see. It's like a black building that has cubes around there, I always thought for some reason that's where you used to work.

David Ortiz [00:29:33]:

Is it a black building?

Tony Ortiz [00:29:34]:

Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:29:35]:

Yeah. And it's like ice cubes?

Tony Ortiz [00:29:38]:

No, it looks kind of like. Like, in, like, the windows.

David Ortiz [00:29:42]:

I think that might be it. I always can tell.

Tony Ortiz [00:29:44]:

Grid kind of.

David Ortiz [00:29:45]:

I can always tell that building, because the building next to it, which really worked, that was a gray building. It was a gray building next door. So the reason I'm saying it was a big law firm is because they had. They had a few floors in that glass building, and it was, like, high up somewhere, like, in the 40th floor or something like that. And then they had the records department in the building next door, which is where I worked at on the second floor.

Tony Ortiz [00:30:13]:

So you used to have to go between both buildings?

David Ortiz [00:30:16]:

Well, I normally worked in the gray building, but that week I had to cover somebody in the. In the glass building, which is the higher up one. Yeah. Like dad says, you know, I've always worked really hard, and, you know, my bosses recognize that, and they give me extra work.

Tony Ortiz [00:30:30]:

Yeah, no, but to the workhorse.

David Ortiz [00:30:33]:

Yeah, exactly. So it was September 11, 2001, and this was when New York had, like, bare minimum security guards everywhere. And it was, like, one security guard in the building who. I never looked at him. He never looked at me. There was, like, no relationship, you know?

Tony Ortiz [00:30:51]:

Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:30:51]:

You know, I just walked into my building. They never stopped me. And I would. And I went up to the second floor.

Tony Ortiz [00:30:57]:

It was like a different world before 911. It was a different world.

David Ortiz [00:31:00]:

It was.

Tony Ortiz [00:31:01]:

We've even realized, like, the impact of it.

David Ortiz [00:31:04]:

It was. It totally was.

Tony Ortiz [00:31:05]:

It was, like, a lot more lax. And, like, security was just, like, not for show, but it wasn't. It's like, now it's like, proactive security. You know what I mean?

David Ortiz [00:31:16]:

Yeah, yeah. They're definitely, like, you know, watching out for stuff. Before, it was just basically a warm body sitting in the front of the building, you know, so you don't know basically who you would ask information to.

Tony Ortiz [00:31:30]:

Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:31:31]:

It wasn't like a security desk how it is now.

Tony Ortiz [00:31:34]:

So I walk into real quick, I took. I remember once in high school, I took. I cut class one day with a couple friends, and we went to.

Raul Azurdia [00:31:45]:

We.

Tony Ortiz [00:31:46]:

One of them wanted to take a. He had dropped out of high school, like, the year before, and he wanted to take a security guard test. And me. Essrin and him went to, like, went with him, and we just signed up, and we're like, fuck it. We cut school. Let's just take the course anyway. And we wound up. It was, like, a whole day course.

Tony Ortiz [00:32:02]:

It was, like, staying in school.

David Ortiz [00:32:04]:

That's fun.

Tony Ortiz [00:32:04]:

But after that, like, I gotta, like, they literally said, okay, you pass, go to the front desk and they printed out certificate. And with that you could apply to like, any security job. That's how like, I was like 17, I think, or something.

David Ortiz [00:32:15]:

Nobody cared. Nobody asked you for anything. Yeah, yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:32:19]:

So, so you didn't know him. He didn't know you. The security guard.

David Ortiz [00:32:23]:

Yeah. So I'm just, you know, like, setting, mentioning, yeah. How you to be. And then, so I go up to, um, I go up to the second floor and I started work, I think, like around 830. And I'm, I was probably like a couple of minutes late or something like that. I don't know. But, you know, if I, if I was, it wasn't by much, but. All right, so I got there like at 830.

David Ortiz [00:32:45]:

Then, um, you know, I'm starting my morning, and then all of a sudden, this kid I remember, he was like, he was like one of those, like, like general souls kind of people. He was always, like, very, like, soft spoken. So he walks in and he's like, oh, a plane hit the twin towers. And he looked like, shooken up. And I was like, man, this guy's probably talking shit. I don't know what he's on right now. Whatever. So I just keep going on with my business, and then somebody else comes in and says, oh, a plane hit the Twin Towers and then it starts spreading.

David Ortiz [00:33:22]:

And then, you know, it takes a couple of minutes for, you know, like, the information to start circulating.

Tony Ortiz [00:33:30]:

And then it was 2001, so it wasn't even, like, wasn't iPhone time yet?

David Ortiz [00:33:35]:

No, it wasn't iPhone time. You log in the mornings and there's no Twitter.

Tony Ortiz [00:33:40]:

There was no. Yeah, there's nothing like, as immediate as now.

David Ortiz [00:33:43]:

Right?

Tony Ortiz [00:33:44]:

Like now, you, you hear of anything? Like in, like, wait, and what happened in Virginia? Like, you literally typed the word Virginia and videos pop up.

David Ortiz [00:33:51]:

Oh, you already get alerted. You get an alert on your phone. But back then, I had, like, like one of the early Nokias with the small screen.

Tony Ortiz [00:33:59]:

Yeah. Which wasn't a smartphone, no millennial listeners.

David Ortiz [00:34:03]:

And the Internet was very new, so. And I was young, so it's not like I was going on there to read the news or anything like that. I remember I used to, like, chat to one of my coworkers, you know, when I used to come in and it was like, through email, you know, I never, I wasn't on the Internet as much. So then all of a sudden, everybody, you know, whenever the, whenever there's a panic, regardless of what it is, you know, people just get nervous and they just start bouncing around, you know, basically looking for direction or whatever. So I'm seeing, you know, what's going on in there, and, and I'm just like, man, is this really happening? You know, did a plane hit the twin, the twin towers? And I was just like, you know, I don't know why these, why everybody's so nervous. Because I think a couple of months before, a Yankee was flying up a little plane and he crashed into a building. So I was like, oh, some idiot or something, huh?

Tony Ortiz [00:34:58]:

Like he clipped it or something?

David Ortiz [00:34:59]:

Yeah, something like that. And I thought, I thought, you know, that's probably what happened.

Tony Ortiz [00:35:04]:

That was a lot of people first impression. My school, too. Like, the teacher in my school, a teacher came in to tell our teacher, and then the teacher told us, and he was like, it's probably just some rich guy that was, like, coked up and hit, you know, a plane or something, clipped the building.

David Ortiz [00:35:20]:

That's all I thought.

Tony Ortiz [00:35:21]:

Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:35:22]:

And then, like I said, I had to cover in the other building, and I'm not liking the energy in the floor.

Tony Ortiz [00:35:30]:

And also, at this point, you're in the second floor building.

David Ortiz [00:35:33]:

I'm in the second floor building, okay? So I'm not liking the energy, and I'm just seeing a whole bunch of aimless people wandering around speculating what's going on, and I'm just like, all right, let me just go. Let me go to the other building and see what's going outside in the street to see if I, if I, you know, if I get, you know, a little bit of information on my way over to the other building. And, and when I'm walking, I just see, like, like, I remember there was, like, a lady crying and a whole bunch of guys just, like, frozen, looking up in the street, in the street by my building. And then I'm looking at everybody, and everybody looks again, like, really, like, shooken up and nervous and sad. And then I look up and I see, like, the building is on fire, and I'm like, oh, snap, that looks pretty bad. And then how close are you?

Tony Ortiz [00:36:21]:

Like, how?

David Ortiz [00:36:23]:

I would say, like, maybe like a good eight small blocks away. Maybe something like that. That was pretty close. I got a good view of it.

Tony Ortiz [00:36:32]:

Especially, like, those buildings. Like, they're so high up you could see them. They seem closer than what they are. Even if you're far away. Like, it's the skyline. You can see it from, like, queens, you can see the skyline. So eight blocks away, you like, right there.

David Ortiz [00:36:46]:

Especially those two huge buildings. I mean, in downtown Manhattan, the buildings aren't that high. As high as, you know, midtown.

Tony Ortiz [00:36:53]:

Mm hmm.

David Ortiz [00:36:54]:

So. So I see everybody panicking outside in the street, and this is before knowing it's a terrorist attack or anything, I'm just sort of like, all right.

Raul Azurdia [00:37:02]:

I'm.

David Ortiz [00:37:03]:

So if I stay out here, it's just a whole bunch of panicked people. So let me. Let me just go upstairs, see if I could get a better view.

Tony Ortiz [00:37:10]:

Or.

David Ortiz [00:37:11]:

Let me just, you know, let me actually, no, I said, let me just go upstairs away from, like, all this commotion. And so I go upstairs, and.

Janet Velez [00:37:23]:

You.

David Ortiz [00:37:23]:

Know, I start setting up in my room. There was no windows in the office that I was covering.

Tony Ortiz [00:37:29]:

And then before you went out, though, did you. Did you think, like. Cause at that time, you still didn't think it was a terrorist attack?

David Ortiz [00:37:38]:

No.

Tony Ortiz [00:37:39]:

You didn't have, like, reasons to think that, but you fell.

David Ortiz [00:37:41]:

No, everything was peaceful that year.

Tony Ortiz [00:37:43]:

Yeah. And did you feel like, like, you know, it's a. You know, obviously it's fucked up, whatever, but it's a fire, you know, they'll put it out and whatever. Yeah, yeah, that's what I would have thought.

David Ortiz [00:37:53]:

So that's exactly what I thought. And, you know, that year was, you know, Bush's first term, right? In 2001.

Tony Ortiz [00:38:06]:

I think so.

David Ortiz [00:38:07]:

Or was it his second?

Tony Ortiz [00:38:09]:

I think it's his first.

David Ortiz [00:38:10]:

It's his first term. But I mean, was it his first year?

Tony Ortiz [00:38:13]:

I looked it up. Thanks, Google. And 911 did happen during George W. Bush's first year as president. He was inaugurated on January 20, 2001. Eight months later, we had 911.

David Ortiz [00:38:29]:

The rich guy who used to own a baseball team, whose dad was the president, was the president. And, you know, the Al Gore elections or whatever, everybody was pissed off, but you know that, you know, like, Al Gore's here in New York. Al Gore, you know, lost his seat or whatever, but at the end of the day, it was just, you know, some ex president son running. Running the country, and he was like a, like, almost like a lovable idiot in the office, you know what I mean? This was before any problems were going on. You know, the economy wasn't that bad, you know?

Tony Ortiz [00:39:06]:

Yeah. Like, a lot of the negative connotations that Trump has now, like, in terms of, like, incompetence, but minus the, like, hatred and bigotry, the maliciousness of that.

David Ortiz [00:39:15]:

And there was nothing, like, times was good. The economy was good.

Tony Ortiz [00:39:19]:

Yeah. Cause it was just after Clinton.

David Ortiz [00:39:22]:

Yeah, the economy was good. I was 21. It was like, the end of the summer, you know, it was like, early September.

Tony Ortiz [00:39:28]:

Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:39:29]:

So it was just like the perfect time in New York. And I forgot why I mentioned that.

Tony Ortiz [00:39:37]:

That Bush was in president was his first year.

David Ortiz [00:39:39]:

Yeah. So, you know, everything was like. Everything was pretty much light hearted at that point. So then, so then my coworker goes over. Goes over to. To me.

Tony Ortiz [00:39:53]:

So you went up already? You.

David Ortiz [00:39:54]:

I went up something. Floor. Then he's like, yo, you know, the twin towers, you know, got hit and they're saying that it might be a terrorist attack. And I'm like, really? And I'm like, all right, let's go see if we can find a conference room. Try to see if we get a good view. So then me.

Tony Ortiz [00:40:09]:

And there's no tvs and shit in the office. There was no tvs and shit in the office?

David Ortiz [00:40:13]:

No, no, this was again 2001. There were. I don't think there were a lot of flat screens back then, right?

Tony Ortiz [00:40:19]:

No.

David Ortiz [00:40:19]:

Or if there were, I mean, if flat screens existed, it was like a new technology.

Tony Ortiz [00:40:23]:

True. Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:40:26]:

So anyways, so I'm like, let's go look for a conference room. And we look at the conference room. Are you gonna edit this a little bit?

Tony Ortiz [00:40:35]:

Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:40:36]:

Okay, good. So we go to the conference room.

Tony Ortiz [00:40:39]:

What? Like any. What?

David Ortiz [00:40:41]:

No, I'm just like the conversation because I feel like I'm rambling.

Tony Ortiz [00:40:44]:

No, no. Good.

David Ortiz [00:40:45]:

So. So we go to the conference room and we're looking at the building and we kind of, like, see a little bit, but we can't see. We can't get a good view of the building. I think we saw, like, like a little bit of flame or something on one side. And then me and him start talking and.

Tony Ortiz [00:41:01]:

And a lot of smoke at that time yet?

David Ortiz [00:41:03]:

No, there was no smoke yet. So he's like a jittery guy, I think you remember in Francois, he was like a little bit. Yeah, he might have been slow or something.

Tony Ortiz [00:41:12]:

Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:41:12]:

And that might have been. He had something wrong with him. So he's like, very jittery. And he was like this tall, wiry guy, and he was like, you know, jumping around and stuff. And then, you know. So me and him are talking, and then I look back again and all I see is the windows, like, completely white. And I'm like, oh, shit, something went down. I don't know.

David Ortiz [00:41:30]:

I don't know what's going on. So I tell them, you know, let's circle the floor. You go to the left, I go to the right, and then we'll meet halfway and make sure that, you know, we. We tell anybody who's in their office to go downstairs, there was one person there. I think it was this one attorney that was there. And then we all go down, and then that's elevator. We took the elevator down, and then we go down to the main floor.

Tony Ortiz [00:41:57]:

And there was no. At this time, there was still no, like, announcements. Like, the security guard in the building. Like, nothing.

David Ortiz [00:42:03]:

This guy barely had a pulse.

Tony Ortiz [00:42:05]:

Gotcha. Okay.

David Ortiz [00:42:06]:

You know, he didn't know what was going on. And you got to remember, all the firemen in downtown Manhattan were running over there. Like, I'm pretty sure, you know, they weren't busy trying to communicate to the other buildings. You know, I'm not sure. I don't know. Or if even if they had the manpower to communicate to all the buildings.

Tony Ortiz [00:42:23]:

True.

David Ortiz [00:42:24]:

But all I know is that nobody told us anything.

Tony Ortiz [00:42:26]:

And this was a new scenario.

David Ortiz [00:42:28]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:42:28]:

Like, now. Like, now they do.

David Ortiz [00:42:30]:

They have protocols.

Tony Ortiz [00:42:32]:

Your job to, like, fire drills and all that shit. The warden, the light department comes. They make sure they tell us where to walk in case something happens, blah, blah, blah.

David Ortiz [00:42:39]:

They have it. They have it down to a point where, like, they're like, if you get chemical poisoning and you walk outside the building, you're gonna have to take off all your clothes. And then they're gonna. Have you heard that instruction?

Tony Ortiz [00:42:49]:

No.

David Ortiz [00:42:49]:

They. The fire warden out says that, um, you know, we shouldn't leave the building right away, because if we do leave the building and it's a chemical attack, we're gonna have to get completely naked, and, um. And we're gonna have to be hosed down in order for us to get back into the building. I'm like, damn, if there's a chemical attack, that's, like, the. The least of our problems.

Tony Ortiz [00:43:11]:

The last thing you want to do, get back to work.

David Ortiz [00:43:13]:

Yeah, we're like, we're all dead at that point. So then, um.

Tony Ortiz [00:43:20]:

So then you guys walking around the building.

David Ortiz [00:43:22]:

So we walk around the building, we grab the attorney, and then I don't like seeing people crying, especially when things are bad, because I'm just like, yo, it's not helping. It's not helping. Like, we're just sitting around fucking crying, and they could drop other shit on us. So I'm just, like, trying to gather, you know, like, what are we gonna do? So then. So then I see people in the street, like, all disoriented. They must have, like, went through.

Tony Ortiz [00:43:45]:

How was that elevator write down?

David Ortiz [00:43:46]:

Quiet.

Tony Ortiz [00:43:48]:

No, nobody said shit.

David Ortiz [00:43:49]:

Nobody said shit. And, um.

Tony Ortiz [00:43:53]:

So you walk it.

David Ortiz [00:43:55]:

We walked down, and then. And then, you know, we didn't know who the attorney was or whatever, so we just left. But me and Francois, we knew each other. So I was like, listen, you know, let's go back to the office and see what's going on. I see everybody, like, in white and, like, you know, they all look scared, like that powder confused with all that power powder on them any time.

Tony Ortiz [00:44:17]:

Let's go back to the second floor.

David Ortiz [00:44:18]:

Let's go back to the second floor office and we go over there. And then when I get over there, oh, I see a couple of other co workers of mine that we used to, like, you know, hang out during the time, so we, like, friends. And I was like, yo, listen, let's all, um. Let's all gather all our stuff, and then, you know, we'll all leave together. Back to. Back to.

Tony Ortiz [00:44:42]:

Back home?

David Ortiz [00:44:43]:

Yeah, back home. And then obviously, by that. By the time I went over, like, I don't remember, but I think I was walking. People were crying and stuff like that. And then people were saying that the twin towers fall, you know, so I already. Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:44:57]:

So then when did the. You didn't see, like, when the second plane hit or hear it or anything?

David Ortiz [00:45:02]:

No, no, no. I just saw that. The white smoke in the conference room and that.

Tony Ortiz [00:45:06]:

That's probably, like, when the other one hit, then.

David Ortiz [00:45:10]:

I don't know, but I know I. I saw a whole bunch of white smoke. And then, um.

Tony Ortiz [00:45:14]:

Because the white smoke was after they collapsed. And they collapsed after both them were hit.

David Ortiz [00:45:17]:

Yeah. Oh, yeah, they both must have hit. And they. They collapsed almost at the same time, right?

Tony Ortiz [00:45:24]:

Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:45:25]:

So. So then, you know, after I gather my stuff and I. And I look for a couple more friends, you know, I turned around and I'm just like. I asked somebody for the original group of friends, you know, where they were? And they were like, oh, they left a while ago already. And I was like, all right, fuck this. So we're leaving, too. And I remember it was me and. And two people, and we crossed the bridge.

Tony Ortiz [00:45:53]:

The Brooklyn Bridge.

David Ortiz [00:45:54]:

Right, the Brooklyn Bridge. We weren't too far from there.

Tony Ortiz [00:45:57]:

And I remember when I left school, I was trying to call you because I know you worked in the city, but I don't know where exactly. And, like, none of the cell phones worked or anything like that. I was trying to call you mom and dad, and then I went home, and I think dad was the first one home. And, like, we kept trying to get in touch with you, or maybe mom was home already, too. I think I got home before. Before them. I'm not sure. But I know the.

Tony Ortiz [00:46:28]:

I think you were, like, the last one that we spoke to. And then when we finally got in touch with you, we knew we had. We had to drive to Brooklyn because you were gonna walk the bridge.

David Ortiz [00:46:37]:

Yeah, I finally communicated. Like, I finally got in communication with you guys, and I told you that I was, like, going to Brooklyn. But again, like, during that time, like, I wasn't really scared that, you know, that I was scared of was walking the Brooklyn bridge, because it always scared me, you know, like, crossing the bridge, walking over a bridge, you know, because of the height. But at that point, like, I wasn't scared or anything. I was just like, all right, let me. Let me just get home. And I know I knew you guys were okay because none of you guys worked in the city.

Tony Ortiz [00:47:11]:

Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:47:12]:

And I knew I was okay, so I was, like, relieved at that point. I'm like, we're all okay, you know? So I was just trying to get home, and I was just thinking about, like, damn, this is gonna be a long ass walk. And all the way to queens. So when I got through to you guys, I was just, like, super happy, like, oh, great, I don't have to walk.

Tony Ortiz [00:47:31]:

Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:47:32]:

And then. And then you pick. And then you guys picked me up on a friend of mine. Right. And then we went.

Tony Ortiz [00:47:37]:

A girl.

David Ortiz [00:47:38]:

Yeah. And we went to get, um. You know, we came home. I changed, and then we dropped her off.

Tony Ortiz [00:47:46]:

Did you. You had the white shit on you, too.

David Ortiz [00:47:48]:

No, because remember, I was up. Up on the second floor, maybe I had a little bit, but I dusted it off. It wasn't like, you know, a lot of it didn't get on me. So then we dropped her off, and I remember my eye was bothering me because two years earlier, I had a paper cut in my eye, and that takes years to heal. Yeah, because you're always blinking, so it opens up the wound. So I guess the dust and all that, like, they fucked it up. Yeah, irritated up. So I was just like, I have to go to the doctor and get a, you know, eye drops.

David Ortiz [00:48:19]:

So I went to the same day.

Tony Ortiz [00:48:20]:

Same day.

David Ortiz [00:48:21]:

Yeah, same day. So when. So I made the appointment with the doctor, and I went over there and. And, you know, he said, well, you know, he started talking to me. That's all everybody was talking about.

Tony Ortiz [00:48:34]:

What doctor?

David Ortiz [00:48:36]:

The eye doctor on Liberty. And, like, past leopards. Like, 123rd. And I guess he was being a doctor, and he was just sort of like, you know, making sure I was okay. And he was like, you know, are you okay? Aren't you nervous? And I was like, I remember I was just like smiling a lot, you know, I was just like, no, everything's okay. You know, it was crazy. You know, I didn't really see much. You know, he switched the subject and started talking about my, you know, my name because David Ortiz.

David Ortiz [00:49:02]:

And back then, David Ortiz. But basically I think I was in shock because all I remember doing after that was smoking a lot of weed all the, all fall and all, all winter.

Tony Ortiz [00:49:18]:

Yeah, I remember that. Was that when Steve came from Florida too? That was the summer after that.

David Ortiz [00:49:25]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:49:25]:

After they spent a while there.

David Ortiz [00:49:26]:

Yeah, after that summer. Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:49:29]:

So, um, after that all the coverage was like just 911 shit, non stop.

David Ortiz [00:49:36]:

So, so I came home and I just remember like all of this was like all 911 and it was, everything was all 911 on tv and it was all speculation. You know, they were saying like, think Obama Osama's name was being mentioned in al Qaeda. But at that point, like, I don't think any American who the fuck those two groups were, who that group was or who Osama was.

Tony Ortiz [00:49:58]:

Like, it wasn't in like the zeitgeist, it wasn't.

David Ortiz [00:50:01]:

And there wasn't a lot of information on them. So it was like basically like, like CNN and all the other channels who, you know, nowadays you have a lot of news channels but back then it wasn't as many. But everybody wanted to be a news channel. So it was just like a lot of like unprepared reporters trying to report a story about two buildings falling and we don't know anything about what happened.

Tony Ortiz [00:50:24]:

Yeah. And everybody, I remember waiting like anticipating Bush's speech because at that time it's like, and even now, if something like that would go down like the country looks to the president for. Yeah, like, all right, you guys have the answers. Tell us what the fuck is going on.

David Ortiz [00:50:39]:

Right. So at that point, like I said, yeah.

Tony Ortiz [00:50:43]:

Especially at that time when information is less scarce is more scarce.

David Ortiz [00:50:47]:

Yeah, yeah. Everybody was unhappy of the fact that, you know, Al Gore lost the election. So then at that point I was just like, oh boy, look, everything was okay. You know, this guy won the election. We did. And um, you know, I was sort of like thinking like, you know, it's only gonna be four years. You know, he's, he's a bumbling idiot. There's nothing going on in the world, whatever.

David Ortiz [00:51:10]:

But then September 11 happened and then I remember, I'm just like, alright, we gotta wait for the, for the president to talk. What's he gonna say? And then he started talking about like he was gonna wave war on wage war. Yeah, on Ondez. On islamic terrorist terrorism or something like that. Or something about. I forgot what his speech was, but it was very harsh on some, like, shit's about to go down now, you know?

Tony Ortiz [00:51:37]:

I'm gonna try to find it and drop it into the episode. I don't remember it, though.

Tony Ortiz [00:51:42]:

Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom, came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes or in their offices. Secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers, moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed.

Tony Ortiz [00:52:40]:

Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of american resolve. America was targeted for attack because we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining. Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature. And we responded with the best of America, with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.

Tony Ortiz [00:53:31]:

Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response plans. Our military is powerful and it's prepared. Our emergency teams are working in New York City and Washington, DC to help with local rescue efforts. Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks. The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington, which had to be evacuated today, are reopening for essential personnel tonight and will be open for business tomorrow. Our financial institutions remain strong and the american economy will be open for business as well. The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts.

Tony Ortiz [00:54:25]:

I have directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them. I appreciate so very much the members of Congress who have joined me in strongly condemning these attacks. And on behalf of the american people, I thank the many world leaders who have called to offer their condolences and assistance. America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world, and we stand together to win the war against terrorism. Tonight I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us. Spoken through the ages in psalm 23.

Tony Ortiz [00:55:28]:

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me. This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day, yet we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world. Thank you. Good night, and God bless America.

David Ortiz [00:56:04]:

Here we go. Well, all I remember is after I heard him say that, I was just.

Tony Ortiz [00:56:09]:

Like, oh, like, shit's about to get real.

David Ortiz [00:56:12]:

Yeah. Because I was just like, you know, um, back. Back then, before we started, like, the war on terror, it was basically like, all right, a bad guy did something. You fucking grab the bad guy and you lock him up, and that's it. It's over. But he was on some, like, you know, we're gonna go after nations or whatever that. That support terrorism.

Tony Ortiz [00:56:36]:

It was more. Instead it. Instead of, like, a clear objective, it's. It opened it up to, like, going after an ideology, which is a never ending shit.

David Ortiz [00:56:43]:

Right? And then I was just like, wow, this is bad. And this isn't gonna end for a long time because I just remember thinking that. And, you know, back then I was smoking pot, so I just remember, like.

Tony Ortiz [00:56:53]:

Getting high, thinking, like, going off into tangents and shit. Going off into, like, tangents.

David Ortiz [00:56:58]:

All I remember was thinking was, all right, this isn't gonna be one of those, like, clear cut. Like, 1993.

Tony Ortiz [00:57:04]:

There were a.

David Ortiz [00:57:05]:

Guys try to blow up the. The twin towers, and they. They got arrested and they're in jail. This was like, you know, the president's talking about war.

Tony Ortiz [00:57:13]:

It's gonna be an open ended thing. Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:57:14]:

And I was just like, oh, man, this is some fucking.

Tony Ortiz [00:57:18]:

And he's the one behind the wheel, as opposed to Al Gore, which he more, like, composed and presidential.

David Ortiz [00:57:22]:

Yes. That's exactly what I felt. And I was just like, this bumbling idiot is talking about war, and this isn't gonna end for a long time. And this is change the. Is gonna change the course of everything, of everything. And that that's what I was, you know, that that's what I was thinking. And then I was just like, so disappointed. And remember we went to the rage against the machine concert.

Tony Ortiz [00:57:42]:

Yeah.

David Ortiz [00:57:43]:

So I was listening to them a lot and I was just like, so anti government at that point because I'm just like, these idiots are going to war on, on a religion and an ideology which is like, you know, half the planet. And it shouldn't have gone down like this, you know, because Al Gore wouldn't have taken that stance.

Tony Ortiz [00:58:02]:

True.

David Ortiz [00:58:02]:

You know, Al Gore was a pussy. Even when he was, you know, campaigning, that was his problem. He was like, you know, no, not an emotional guy or whatever.

Tony Ortiz [00:58:13]:

And Bush was almost two measure.

David Ortiz [00:58:15]:

Yeah, Bush was like all, you know, like, cowboy. Yeah, fuck this. Let's blow him up. You know, and that's what I remember about, about, like, that day and the following day just like, being very, like, you know, disappointed and sad about, like, where things were going.

Tony Ortiz [00:58:36]:

It definitely changed, like, the course of everything.

David Ortiz [00:58:38]:

It did. It definitely did. Oh, this is something I was thinking about today because I knew you were going to record, but this is, remember that, that analogy that Obama said about, you know, being a president is sort of like football. Not football, but like, sort of like a, like a ship at sea where like, you hope to, you know, turn.

Tony Ortiz [00:59:05]:

It like one or two degrees.

David Ortiz [00:59:06]:

One or two degrees and then eventually it'll end up in a different, you know, you know, it'll change the course of the ship, but only, but not by much.

Tony Ortiz [00:59:15]:

And it doesn't seem like much initially, but in the long term, that one or two degree difference is like, right.

David Ortiz [00:59:20]:

Is huge. So, so I was thinking about that back in 2001 where, you know, if Al Gore was in office, I don't, I don't think we would have gone into those wars. And we ended up going into those wars. And 15 years later, you know, there's still the talk about, like, hating Muslims and, and a lot of people, like, including our friends and, you know, talk about to this day, like, you know, these fucking Muslims with their ideology and so forth. And it's funny to see, like, somebody like Trump now in office who's still talking about, you know, negatively about groups, but now he's expanding it to, like, blacks and Hispanics. But it's, it's that same, that's that ship that was steered a couple of degrees. Now all of a sudden, you know, more people have problems with that kind of ideology because now he's talking about.

Tony Ortiz [01:00:16]:

You know, he exacerbated it.

David Ortiz [01:00:18]:

Yeah, now.

Tony Ortiz [01:00:18]:

And like, Obama reined it in afterwards. He did rein it in and then it just.

David Ortiz [01:00:22]:

And Obama, and Obama, you know, you know, not enough is said about his credit of absorbing a lot of racism because, you know, he, he took the high road on a lot of, of things. You know, where he could have been snapping, like Trump, you know, when they were calling him a liar during, during his, his national, the national address and, you know, just all the races. I mean, even Trump when he was asking for his proof of birth certificate. Proof of birth certificate.

Tony Ortiz [01:00:52]:

And so for.

David Ortiz [01:00:53]:

They always took everything with a high.

Tony Ortiz [01:00:54]:

Road and, you know, just like the Mitch McConnell, I want to say, like, whoever the leader of the, the Republican Party was, like the house, they literally said, our objective for the next three years is to make sure that nothing, nothing.

David Ortiz [01:01:13]:

It was also Agent Orange. What's his name? Damn, I forgot his name. That hates him. He was a heavy smoker. I forgot his name. But he was also very tanned. Yeah, he was orange. Look, you notice how Trump is not as tanned anymore, but, you know, that's.

Tony Ortiz [01:01:31]:

Supposedly makeup that he puts on and everything.

David Ortiz [01:01:35]:

I don't know.

Tony Ortiz [01:01:35]:

Yeah, that's weird, though. Yeah, exactly.

David Ortiz [01:01:38]:

But I mean, you know, he's like a celebrity. He's a celebrity. He's not a politician, you know? So, I mean, are you surprised when you see the Kardashians always putting makeup on and, you know, coming out with their, like, colored, uh, eyebrows and stuff like that? Like, that's just what they do. But, you know, again, back to, back to what I'm saying, like, you know, what, what Obama said, like, you know, definitely has relevance where now you have this president in here, you know, not.

Tony Ortiz [01:02:07]:

Measured, he's not composed, and, and he's.

David Ortiz [01:02:09]:

Still talking that, that hate shit at.

Tony Ortiz [01:02:13]:

A higher level, too.

David Ortiz [01:02:14]:

Yeah, blaming, blaming blame groups for, you know, the problems that we have in this country and so forth. Like, back then in 2001, I think that was very responsible to say, like, all right, Islam, we're going after Islam. Like, you know, not all of them are terrorists, you know. And again, like I said, 1716 years later, we have President Trump over there, except now he's widening it up to.

Tony Ortiz [01:02:40]:

A lot of other minorities, Mexicans, Hispanics, blacks, Muslim, still.

David Ortiz [01:02:46]:

Yeah, so that, that's what I was thinking about today.

Tony Ortiz [01:02:50]:

Yeah, that's true. It's a good point.

David Ortiz [01:02:53]:

That's it.

Tony Ortiz [01:02:54]:

There you go.

David Ortiz [01:02:55]:

Thanks.

Tony Ortiz [01:03:01]:

Okay. Miss Velez.

Janet Velez [01:03:03]:

Hello.

Tony Ortiz [01:03:04]:

So say something. Let me just make sure it's working.

Janet Velez [01:03:07]:

Hello.

Tony Ortiz [01:03:08]:

All right, so on 911, what do you remember from that day? And like, where were you? How old are you? If you remember?

Janet Velez [01:03:17]:

Oh, what year was that? I think I was in high school.

Tony Ortiz [01:03:24]:

Junior year. Senior year? Junior year.

Janet Velez [01:03:27]:

Damn.

Tony Ortiz [01:03:28]:

For me, I think it was junior.

Janet Velez [01:03:32]:

Junior, yeah, it was either for me, junior or sophomore year. But I know it was my first period class that I had a math class with Mister Chan, that was his name. And I love math, but I just didn't, didn't love it at first period. So I asked to be excused to use the restroom. And as soon as I stepped out of the hallway, I saw my friend Lewis. And he told me if I saw the twin Towers. And I told him, no, I didn't. And he was like, oh, come with me.

Janet Velez [01:04:16]:

He goes, the twin towers are on fire. But I thought he was joking because he's normally a jokester. So I followed him into the staircase of a corner of our high school on the fifth floor. And as I looked out the window, I just saw one of the tall buildings and it just looked like a puff of smoke on top of it.

Tony Ortiz [01:04:40]:

And what high school?

Janet Velez [01:04:42]:

New York high school. So it's by Fort Hamilton down that it's in what is that called? Bensonhurst.

Tony Ortiz [01:04:52]:

Okay.

Janet Velez [01:04:55]:

And. And all I saw was like a puff of smoke. And I only saw one building. So I told him, I said, are you sure it's not the Empire State Building and not the twin Towers? Because there's only one building and it's on fire.

Tony Ortiz [01:05:10]:

So at that point had already fallen.

Janet Velez [01:05:12]:

And I didn't realize that because.

Tony Ortiz [01:05:15]:

So I was it all, was it black smoke or like that white? Okay.

Janet Velez [01:05:19]:

No, it was just a, like a darken black smoke. And I was. I was just like, you know, I was in high school, so I was kind of naive and in vain. Like, I was just like, oh, my gosh, man, that's crazy. That was my only thought. And then I was just thinking, oh, I get to go back to my class and announce it, you know, because I didn't know how serious it was. So I go back into my class and I just kind of said, oh, by the way, the twin towers are on fire. And my teacher, to the teacher, or.

Tony Ortiz [01:05:58]:

Like the whole class.

Janet Velez [01:05:58]:

To the whole class, including the teacher, and my teacher just was like, whatever. What the hell are you talking about? And no more than 2 seconds after I said that, over, the loudspeaker came on and they said that there was a terrorist attack on America and two planes crashed into the twin towers. And all I remember was looking at my teacher's face and he was in shock. And I didn't. You know, we, as the students in the class, you know, we were young, so we just. We didn't really understand exactly the impact.

Tony Ortiz [01:06:42]:

Of what was going on.

Janet Velez [01:06:43]:

What was going on. So we were just like, okay. But by the reaction of our teacher's face, we knew it was something serious, but we didn't know how serious. And after that period, everything was chaos in the school.

Tony Ortiz [01:06:59]:

Teachers, did you guys finish the rest of that class or that period or.

Janet Velez [01:07:04]:

We did, but after that happened, it kind of is a blur. All I know is that no one could concentrate after that. The teachers all looked kind of panicked. And all I knew is that I was trying to find my way to my best friend, because after that, I had gymnast. So I made my way to the gym, and it was chaos. All I saw were children crying, like, my students crying and teachers crying and other teachers consoling. And my gym period became, like, just an area for people to gather instead of, like, classes. Presuming as usual, I just took that time.

Janet Velez [01:07:58]:

I actually found my best friend. And she said, listen, her mom called the school and said she wants her daughter, myself and another friend of ours because we all lived around the corner from each other to go home.

Tony Ortiz [01:08:14]:

She called your friend? Like she had a cell phone or.

Janet Velez [01:08:18]:

No, she got in touch with the school, and the school got in touch with Adibae. And then Adiba found myself, and she's found our friend Lavon. And she said, listen, my mom said, we gotta go, so we need to go. And I was like, all right, we're leaving school early, then that's fine. And when we left school, we were heading. The trains weren't working.

Tony Ortiz [01:08:46]:

So how far was your commute?

Janet Velez [01:08:48]:

Like, normally, our commute is about an hour.

Tony Ortiz [01:08:54]:

Damn.

Janet Velez [01:08:55]:

So to get to our school, we would have to take the bus to the train and transfer to another train. So we have to take two trains and a bus.

Tony Ortiz [01:09:04]:

What trains? Do you remember?

Janet Velez [01:09:06]:

I would take the 41 bus to the two train or the five to Atlantic and then transfer to the D train or the m during that time, you know, any of those to 79th street, new trick avenue. That was the stop. So. But being that the trains weren't working, we had to get on the bus.

Tony Ortiz [01:09:31]:

Did they say the trains weren't working, or you guys, like, went in and waited for.

Janet Velez [01:09:35]:

I forgot. I believe it was one of the teachers or one of the security guards at our school that warned us that there was no trains running at the time and that our best bet to getting home was to get on the bus. So I know that when we got to the bus stop, it didn't even look like a bus stop. It just looked. The entire street was covered with people, and buses weren't stopping. They were just passing by us.

Tony Ortiz [01:10:11]:

Were they full or empty?

Janet Velez [01:10:13]:

Some were full, some were empty. Everyone just looked confused. There were a lot of adults there, and we could see the smoke and the debris from the towers falling in our area. And I started seeing that, and slowly, it was, like, hitting me, like something serious is going on. But we didn't know, you know, how serious it was. We somehow got a. Got into a bus, and as soon as I got home, it was a long bus ride home, but as soon as we got home, I just remember opening the door and seeing my older sister, Rosemary, sitting there.

Tony Ortiz [01:10:58]:

So you want to go to your house and start over? Yeah.

Janet Velez [01:10:59]:

I just went to my house. Cause diva lived around the corner, so we just knew that we had to get home. So when I went home, I saw my older sister Rosemary, sitting on the couch watching tv and just crying. And as soon as she saw me, she ran to me and gave me a hug, and she was just like, it's so horrible, Janet. And that's when I saw it on tv. And they just were showing how, like.

Tony Ortiz [01:11:31]:

The coverage of what happened.

Janet Velez [01:11:32]:

Yeah, the coverage of the. The building of the people falling and the plane. Oh, it was just. And that's when it hit me, like, oh, my goodness. Like, something serious happened where so many people, like, are dying and are injured. And so I was just. I. At that point, I just was kind of shocked, and I didn't know what to feel, and I just had, like, a flood of emotions and thoughts of, oh, my God, is my family okay? Like, that's when it became real to me, and I was like, okay.

Janet Velez [01:12:14]:

And so me and my sister started planning out, where's Michael? Where's Rosa? My. Where's my sister? Where's my brother? Where's my mom, my dad, my aunts?

Tony Ortiz [01:12:22]:

Nobody else was home at that time.

Janet Velez [01:12:23]:

No one else was home. It was just us. So we decided. And our phones weren't working, and so we decided to go to the corner payphone and try to reach some. Some of our family members. And as we went to the payphones, we were, like, trying to call, and it was just like, damn, that's something.

Tony Ortiz [01:12:44]:

Else that you don't. You don't see much anymore.

Janet Velez [01:12:46]:

Oh, like, payphones. They were everywhere, and now they're practically nowhere that you can really find them. And every here and there in the subway. I see them.

Tony Ortiz [01:12:57]:

Yeah, for younger listeners, those were phones that were in the street that you put a quarter in and you can use, like, a landline.

Janet Velez [01:13:04]:

Public phones, phone booths, they don't have that anymore, so. And one.

David Ortiz [01:13:11]:

So.

Janet Velez [01:13:11]:

So while we were calling, I happened to look across the street, and I saw this Morena walking, and she was covered in ashes and dust, and her face, it just looked dead. And that's when I think that image of seeing her and seeing, like, just her looking lost and collapsed and zoned out, that bothered me so much because it just looked like she saw something horrible and unimaginable. And we couldn't, you know, we couldn't figure it out because we're just seeing what we're seeing on tv, and we weren't even there. So I just. I. My sister was on the phone speaking to, I believe it was my dad, just to make sure he was okay. Cause he worked out in the city, and at that time, I had no concept of where exactly the world Trade center was compared to my dad's job in Harlem, you know, so I didn't know the difference. I just knew it was in the city, and I wanted to make sure my dad was okay.

Tony Ortiz [01:14:23]:

That's how I was with David. Like, I know he worked in the city, but I don't know where or how close or whatever.

Janet Velez [01:14:27]:

Yeah, exactly. So after that, I don't remember really much of the rest of the day. I just knew that everyone, that all of my family were safe, and that's kind of what mattered to me. But just the images on television just over and over. Yeah. It's just like days and weeks in our head that really bothered me, and I. And I just. I remember going.

Janet Velez [01:15:01]:

Coming home from school that. That week, later on that week or the previous week or after, and just remembering a guy reading the newspaper, and you just see the twin towers and the smoke, and he's just reading. And then he just covered the paper. Yeah. On the COVID of the paper. And he just breaks down and starts sobbing on the two train, like, a few stops before the last stop, uncontrollably. And that just send out, like, a ripple effect of sobs throughout the entire cart. It was like no one was saying anything.

Janet Velez [01:15:37]:

And you just heard cries.

Tony Ortiz [01:15:39]:

Like everybody knew what it was about.

Janet Velez [01:15:40]:

Yeah, exactly. And my school is pretty diverse, even though it was in a very white neighborhood. We had a lot of. We had whites, blacks, Hispanics, and we also had a lot of Arabs, which were, you know, it wasn't. It never seemed like a racist school. Until that happened, then everybody started turning to people, and then everyone who was friends with some. One of the arab kids, like, just completely blocked them off. And we had to have.

Janet Velez [01:16:19]:

Because there were a lot of students who had parents and uncles who worked at the World Trade center, and so they all lost. A lot of. There were a lot of students who lost. So they had to send therapists into our school, and we had, like, therapy sessions during class for the following month. And during that class, they allowed students to experience, expressed themselves. And there were a lot of, like, of the arab kids who were just saying how. How sad and hurt they are by the events and also by how people have been treating them in the school and their neighborhoods, and they had absolutely.

Tony Ortiz [01:17:01]:

Nothing to do with it. But, like, Arabs as a whole, they got the brunt of, like, everything.

Janet Velez [01:17:05]:

Exactly.

Tony Ortiz [01:17:05]:

Even to this day, like, people always, like, look twice a. Mm hmm.

Janet Velez [01:17:09]:

And it was. That really bothered me just to see the. The separation, and all of a sudden, it just became, you know, segregated.

Tony Ortiz [01:17:20]:

And that was, like, the beginning of the divide.

Janet Velez [01:17:22]:

Yeah. And we were all, like, friends with them. Every, you know, everyone was friends and everybody was friendly, and then they were just, you know, sad because everyone started treating them differently, and then people were voicing their opinions about how they feel, what they think or. It was just. It was a hard time because I was still trying to understand fully what exactly happened and then also dealing, even though I wasn't physically there, like, you still, like, we were still impacted by the events that happened, you know, it.

Tony Ortiz [01:17:59]:

Was like, our city, you know?

Janet Velez [01:18:00]:

Yeah, exactly. It happened to us. And I remember I wrote a poem. Poem. I don't. I have it somewhere.

Tony Ortiz [01:18:06]:

Yeah.

Janet Velez [01:18:07]:

Yeah. After I. Because it just bothered me so much, and I didn't understand what was going on, and I didn't understand why. Why we were attacked and why were people so angry, you know?

Tony Ortiz [01:18:18]:

If you find it, let me know, and if you want, I'll read it.

Janet Velez [01:18:20]:

Okay. It might be a little. It might be. It might be a little religious.

Tony Ortiz [01:18:27]:

Yeah.

Janet Velez [01:18:28]:

Because, you know, I was like, what was. I was, like, 16.

Tony Ortiz [01:18:34]:

Yeah.

Janet Velez [01:18:36]:

Yeah. So I just had started going to church and found God and, you know, so I was, like, very much into all of that, but I was at the same time completely confused, lost and.

Tony Ortiz [01:18:47]:

Looking for a direction.

Janet Velez [01:18:48]:

Exactly. And that really didn't help, you know, so that time is just very dreary and sad because. And for the few years, even after that, because it was just like every. Even till now, every year, they played the memorial and I was getting it from in school, in the neighborhood and church. You know, everybody was talking about it because one of the ladies, the last survivors that they pulled out of the rubbish, she went to my church. So she was sharing her story and she was on tv and all that stuff. And so we were constantly.

Tony Ortiz [01:19:27]:

What kind of things would she say about it?

Janet Velez [01:19:31]:

She was, you know, she. She. That experience for her was how. What brought her to church and made her. And began her journey, like seeking God and seeking Jesus. Because there was. She said that there was a voice there when she was. I think I believe she was going down because she worked in the world trade and she was going down the stairs when the tower fell.

Janet Velez [01:20:02]:

And it was just silence. And she was there for hours. And then there was someone there. I believe she said his name was Michael, who was talking to her and holding her hand throughout the whole thing and saying that we're gonna get trapped. Like, she was trapped under the rubble. And she said that she heard a voice saying someone was gonna. She was talking to someone and saying. And he was just encouraging her to keep, you know, holding on, that she's gonna get out.

Janet Velez [01:20:36]:

They're gonna definitely get her out. And they actually did get her out. And when she got out, she was asking for. For the guy, and they're like, there was nobody here. Like, you know, we just got here. There was no one else here.

Tony Ortiz [01:20:49]:

Damn.

Janet Velez [01:20:50]:

And because of that, that got her to start going to church. So it was everywhere, no matter where we were going. I heard stories for years about what happened at 911 and how it affected them, how, you know, so it was just. I don't. You know, I think it's a very sad time, and it was also very disturbing at the same time. So I really don't like to think about it. Like, everyone talks about sharing 911 stories. Like, oh, man, I was sorry for.

Tony Ortiz [01:21:27]:

Asking you to do this.

Janet Velez [01:21:28]:

No, no, no, it's fine. I mean, I'm just saying, like, now, you know, it's been years, so it's, like, easier to talk about. But during that time, I just felt like a lot of people were just using it as, like, a podium just to speak.

Tony Ortiz [01:21:42]:

Plus, it was, like, everywhere, like, inundated with it, like, all around, 24/7 yeah.

Janet Velez [01:21:47]:

You know, so, you know, that's kind of where I was and what I was experiencing during that time, you know.

Tony Ortiz [01:21:55]:

Thank you very much.

Janet Velez [01:21:56]:

No problem.

Tony Ortiz [01:22:02]:

Yeah. Tamugara one. So, Judy Rosa. No? Okay.

Dad [01:22:10]:

Excuse me. Azurdia.

Tony Ortiz [01:22:12]:

Judy Azurdia. So when 911 happened.

Dad [01:22:18]:

Bueno. Esa di yo recueldo temprano. Yamama kevivia aquin, queens Jobivia and Sentonse and Thomas River, New Jersey. Ila Yamepara saludales avecomos tabablando congenital emerissa momento Kermana, Massachusetts.

Tony Ortiz [01:22:47]:

Yeah.

Dad [01:23:32]:

Parisia televisor total mente confundida no savia pasando medionous.

Tony Ortiz [01:24:00]:

But.

Dad [01:24:03]:

Whoa. Nopodo creto bueno mesante avela lanoticia la noticia bion cavien is a treasure. Cola no perica pasando. Pero yundo the New York Montana caroqueto pasa al wasi lamentable primera kefasa Parliament medolio peroquando lapsaro fuecomoke mepusa yoradika mentero isaber cavia tanta itra bahando sernada porade. Familiarize alahante so regress la casa busal televisor if we pero de pocondo la primera to recolapso esopha. Wow. Et rible. You know, it is la segunda.

Tony Ortiz [01:27:19]:

Yada puerto, like the rest of the.

Dad [01:27:25]:

Yeah, just talking about that. Yeah, pero.

Tony Ortiz [01:27:33]:

Thank you very much.

Dad [01:27:35]:

No problem.

Raul Azurdia [01:27:41]:

So, Raul, what's up, Tony, thanks for having me podcast anytime.

Tony Ortiz [01:27:45]:

Thanks for being on the podcast. Where, what do you remember from 911, and where were you when you heard?

Raul Azurdia [01:27:53]:

Well, the day that the event happened? I don't remember much, but I remember how the one, one thing I remember clearly about the day that I'll never forget is how I found out it happened. So I don't remember exactly what I was doing, but I was driving with my, one of my ex girlfriends. I was driving somewhere. I can't tell you where, but the thing that I stuck to my head on that day was driving normal down the street. And all of a sudden, this what I thought at times, some crazy lady run out the house, flapping out her hands, like, asking for help.

Tony Ortiz [01:28:35]:

So I'm sitting in Queens, right?

Raul Azurdia [01:28:37]:

In Queens, yeah, I live in Queens. So this lady runs out, and she's like. She's like calling out for help. So I'm like, you know, I pull over, lower my window, and this to see what happened, maybe, I don't know. Something was happening in her house. And this lady's like, screaming, like, oh, my. Oh, my God, something's wrong. Come inside, come inside.

Raul Azurdia [01:28:56]:

Talking about like, let's go inside and watch tv. And my girlfriend say, what the, you know, she's looking as good. Like, she's nuts, but she was like an older lady. So I'm like, but what's going on, you know, and she's like, no, because the towers, there's a fire. And, you know, at that time, the car that I had was big into, like, music and hooking up a car. So my car had like, tvs and every, you know, in the front, the.

Tony Ortiz [01:29:19]:

Back, like the fast and the furious things.

Raul Azurdia [01:29:20]:

Yeah, I had, like, I think was like five tvs in that. In that car. But anyway, so I put the tv on in my car and the ladies there is like, looking at me like I'm crazy. I'm like, I could see tv right here. Now. As soon as I put the tv on, I see that the towers are on fire. The twin towers were, like, smoking. I'm like, oh, shit, what happened? I have to go to work that day.

Raul Azurdia [01:29:43]:

And I worked and downtown, man, so I'm like, you know, I don't know. I have to go back home, you know, try to put a job and see what's going on because I work in security, so somebody has to be there in case some big event happens. So I'm like, oh, my God, how am I gonna get to work? Do I have to leave earlier? Because I did the night shift. So I'm like, do they need me to come in now? I have to go back home. So me and my girlfriend, you know, I told my girlfriend at, I forget where we're going, but I'm like, forget about that. I have to go to work.

Tony Ortiz [01:30:13]:

Yeah, yeah.

Raul Azurdia [01:30:14]:

I turn around, by the time I got home and I turned the tv at home, the towers, one of them already fell.

Tony Ortiz [01:30:21]:

Damn.

Raul Azurdia [01:30:22]:

And then everybody's calling or trying to call because it's very sporadic, right? No lines, whatever.

Tony Ortiz [01:30:29]:

All the cell phones are fucked up.

Raul Azurdia [01:30:30]:

All the cell phones are up. I don't know. At the time, my job had like a two way pagere that, and that was working. It's like the old BlackBerry twitch pages.

Tony Ortiz [01:30:42]:

Because that shit was like on a.

Raul Azurdia [01:30:43]:

Different signal or something, whatever. So that was, that was the only thing that was getting communications to and from work at that time. So, like, the job was sending messages, like, we need to come in.

Tony Ortiz [01:31:00]:

And it was like somebody else that was already there.

Raul Azurdia [01:31:02]:

That was already their work.

Steven Almonte [01:31:03]:

Yeah.

Raul Azurdia [01:31:03]:

So that when I used to work, there was 24 hours a day, three shifts. So when that happened, you know, I was like, there's no way trains are running. So, you know, I put the news on, the second tower comes down, I'm like, holy, this is terrorism.

Tony Ortiz [01:31:20]:

Right?

Raul Azurdia [01:31:23]:

So there's no way, you know, they saying everything shut down. No. In all traffic from the city. So I'm not going to work. So that's out of the question.

Tony Ortiz [01:31:32]:

Yes, sure. Because they stopped. They stopped trains. They stopped. I think they closed the bridges, everything.

Raul Azurdia [01:31:38]:

Only emergency service to the city.

Tony Ortiz [01:31:41]:

And even the people were. They were letting people out, walk of the city, walking. Because my brother was there and he had to walk the Brooklyn bridge.

Raul Azurdia [01:31:47]:

Just walking.

Tony Ortiz [01:31:48]:

But nobody could get back in.

Raul Azurdia [01:31:50]:

No bridge. Yeah. So I was pretty much stuck. So at work, the job became a 24 hours shift, so the people that were there, they had to stay on that day. They stood 24 hours into the next ship, which was me, and another guy could make it in. So I was there the next morning.

Tony Ortiz [01:32:14]:

The next morning you were able to.

Raul Azurdia [01:32:16]:

Walk the next morning? Yeah, I was able to walk into to work.

Tony Ortiz [01:32:20]:

How close were you? You like to it?

Raul Azurdia [01:32:23]:

I want to say a couple miles, 15 blocks.

Tony Ortiz [01:32:28]:

Damn.

Raul Azurdia [01:32:29]:

For my building. I could see the twin Towers. Walking distance, 15 minutes.

Tony Ortiz [01:32:34]:

How was it like when you went.

Raul Azurdia [01:32:35]:

To work in the morning the next day?

Tony Ortiz [01:32:37]:

Like a lot of ambulances, fire trucks, cops around, creepy man, or just like, silent, empty.

Raul Azurdia [01:32:43]:

The next morning was the only thing I remember is the two things, right? So I don't remember much that day that it happened. I remember how. How I knew. Because the lady, right? So that stuff. The next day, getting to work, the train was running into the city, one stop, and then everything was walking distance. So my train to Chinatown, Essex street, the J line, and then from Essex, it was a walk all the way down to the south area.

Tony Ortiz [01:33:14]:

Damn.

Raul Azurdia [01:33:15]:

So. And it's only like. It was only like critical personnel they were allowing in. So you had to have, like, some type of id to walk into the downtown, to the zone. So don't. The thing I remember the next day, apart from, like, being stuck at work for a whole day, was, you know, the city's always busy, right?

Tony Ortiz [01:33:37]:

Yeah.

Raul Azurdia [01:33:38]:

No matter what time, it was solitude. Just quiet at the time, normal ambulance was running up and down. Cause everything happened already. Ground zero was like, totally closed, so you couldn't even go near it. Everywhere else, walking was just that quiet. The smell was bad. It was like funky barbecue smell when you cook meat.

Tony Ortiz [01:34:05]:

Uh huh.

Raul Azurdia [01:34:06]:

It was fucked up.

Tony Ortiz [01:34:07]:

Fuck.

Raul Azurdia [01:34:08]:

And the floor, that was what?

Tony Ortiz [01:34:11]:

That was probably just like bottles.

Raul Azurdia [01:34:12]:

Well, it's still foggy, right, because the next day, the top was still burning. So it was just a smell like.

Tony Ortiz [01:34:19]:

Wow.

Raul Azurdia [01:34:20]:

Like a barbecue smell. You know, you put things to burn. The cold smells, you know, I can't say, like, human flesh or.

Tony Ortiz [01:34:28]:

I don't know. That was definitely part of it. Yeah, but, you know, but it was.

Raul Azurdia [01:34:31]:

I don't know. I can't tell you how it smells. It was just like a. Like a barbecue smell. Like a funky smell. And the other thing is the floor was white, so, you know, we knew it was ashes.

Tony Ortiz [01:34:46]:

Yeah.

Raul Azurdia [01:34:47]:

Like, you know, debris. Right. Not human acid, but just ashes in general. The concrete was the cloud of smoke when, you know, blanketed everything.

Tony Ortiz [01:34:56]:

Right, yeah, I remember that.

Raul Azurdia [01:34:58]:

But the weird part about it, though, the shit. To think I remember the most was that they were, like, constantly washing it, right? So there was the sanitation trucks that clean up the street, cleaning shit with water, right. So everything was wet, but it was still white. So as much as they try to brush it, it wouldn't come off. I don't know how it was, like, baked into the ground.

Tony Ortiz [01:35:21]:

Wow.

Raul Azurdia [01:35:22]:

All, like, gray. So when you walk. As you walk, by the time we got to work your feet, like.

Tony Ortiz [01:35:29]:

Oh, wait.

Raul Azurdia [01:35:30]:

Oh, white to soil. If it was so gray. Not white, gray.

Tony Ortiz [01:35:33]:

It was like a powder.

Raul Azurdia [01:35:34]:

Like dawn. You know, it's like. It wasn't like you could, like, sweep it. You like, sweep it off. It was just like, baked into the floor. It was like that for, like a good month.

Tony Ortiz [01:35:45]:

And all the buildings and all that. Everything.

Raul Azurdia [01:35:47]:

Everything was like. But the floor was.

Tony Ortiz [01:35:51]:

Wow.

Raul Azurdia [01:35:52]:

I still work doing basically nothing.

Tony Ortiz [01:35:55]:

Yeah. Just like, being on watch just in case.

Raul Azurdia [01:35:59]:

Phone call. You know, I've been phones. Because they use like that, like, regular. Yeah. The following days, everything was, like, coming back. Cell phone started working, everything.

Tony Ortiz [01:36:10]:

Yeah.

Raul Azurdia [01:36:12]:

Yeah. But that's the only things I remember how I found out that towers were, like, on fire or whatever because of that lady that came out.

Tony Ortiz [01:36:20]:

Anybody remember that shit running in the middle of the street?

Raul Azurdia [01:36:24]:

Well, some lady just telling you, come inside the house. Come inside the house for, like, screaming.

Tony Ortiz [01:36:28]:

In the middle and then saying, hey, come watch tv with me.

Raul Azurdia [01:36:30]:

Yeah. Thank you. But because we didn't know.

Tony Ortiz [01:36:35]:

Yeah, yeah.

Raul Azurdia [01:36:36]:

And the next day, getting to work, that, like, smell with the quietness, it was eager. It was empty, like walking. And there was cops in every corner. That way you go, and you can't go that way. Go this way.

Tony Ortiz [01:36:50]:

It was like the whole city wasn't shot.

Raul Azurdia [01:36:51]:

You have everybody. You had to walk down. But if you'd be surprised, there's a lot of people going to work the next day because they needed to go, like these people, like engineers. Those people had to stay in the building.

Tony Ortiz [01:37:02]:

Yeah, that.

Raul Azurdia [01:37:04]:

The security people, they were stuck there. Like, I remember my building. The security supervisor, he lived there for like, three weeks. He never went home.

Tony Ortiz [01:37:14]:

Wow.

Raul Azurdia [01:37:15]:

Because if he went home, it would, like, who else wouldn't make it in?

Tony Ortiz [01:37:19]:

Yeah, once he was like, covering everybody else that could make it.

Raul Azurdia [01:37:22]:

You know, believe it or not. You know, people say, like, they're workers, but why I worked was 85 broad, like three or four blocks going towards the west side. Left something city. I forget some rich people, you know, condos and stuff like that. Those people always left homeless. They have money, so they probably went somewhere else. But maybe they didn't, right? So the whole condominium was emptied out, saved. So I'd rather that lives than they would, you know, most of them are.

Tony Ortiz [01:37:56]:

Wealthy, but that's like, put them somewhere else.

Raul Azurdia [01:37:58]:

Somewhere else. Yeah. There was a lady that worked with us that she said living. Living at work, but she was like a big shop, so they took care of her, whatever. But she stood at the building when there was no. Nobody working there. But she lived in neighborhood. She stood there for like three weeks.

Tony Ortiz [01:38:17]:

Damn.

Raul Azurdia [01:38:18]:

She wasn't even going to shower. So our building had water. He. I mean, ac and all that stuff. Or he or I don't remember, whatever it was. So she was better off at work than her condo. Cause she didn't have a second home or whatever.

Tony Ortiz [01:38:34]:

That's crazy.

Raul Azurdia [01:38:34]:

So she would have stuck at work for like a month until they deemed her apartment safe.

Tony Ortiz [01:38:39]:

Fuck. Yeah.

Raul Azurdia [01:38:40]:

It's two days. I was crazy, man.

Tony Ortiz [01:38:42]:

Hell yeah.

Raul Azurdia [01:38:43]:

But that's, you know, out of everything that happened, those two things was like, that's what sticks to me, you know, the rest is history. But those two events, like Mark, 911, man, they stayed with you. Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [01:39:02]:

Thank you. All right, babe. So where were you on 911?

Dad [01:39:13]:

I was in gym class in Richmond.

Tony Ortiz [01:39:17]:

Hill High School, where we went back.

Dad [01:39:21]:

In the days I was 17 years old. Beautiful.

Tony Ortiz [01:39:26]:

You're still beautiful, babe.

Dad [01:39:28]:

Thanks. But, yeah, I remember was in gym class and we're doing stretches or something on the floor and. Butterfly stretch, I think so, something like that. And then one of the teachers came into the gym and told the teacher that was teaching us that something was going on. But we, at that point, we didn't know anything. We just, you know, knew. We thought a helicopter had gone into twin towers.

Tony Ortiz [01:40:03]:

That's what we thought.

Dad [01:40:03]:

So, yeah, that was like an accident, you know, like, you know, the tourists, helicopters. We don't have any information. Yeah, just something happened and we were allowed to go home, which was a good thing.

Tony Ortiz [01:40:17]:

No, after the first one, we were.

Dad [01:40:20]:

Allowed to go home right away after.

Tony Ortiz [01:40:22]:

The first plane, like when he went in.

Dad [01:40:25]:

I don't know if it was the first when I got home already. Both of the.

Tony Ortiz [01:40:32]:

Yeah, both of them?

Dad [01:40:33]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [01:40:34]:

What happened when they, he hit for the first place? The first plane came in and then the teacher came in to tell your teacher while you guys were doing stretches. And then like what happened immediately after that?

Dad [01:40:45]:

I don't know if it was while the, you know, when the first one was hit. I just know that a teacher went into. Okay, a regular teacher went into the gym and told the gym teacher that something was going on and that we were allowed to go home because, you know, we weren't like fully into the information. Yeah, but we were allowed to go home and since I live like close by to Richmond Hill.

Tony Ortiz [01:41:14]:

How close?

Dad [01:41:15]:

Two blocks. So we just went walking. I went walking home and my mom was watching the news when I got home and she was like, can you believe this? This is crazy.

Tony Ortiz [01:41:31]:

So in Dante with Julies Julia, I block on kiming while she was home. And then you came home like probably.

Dad [01:41:41]:

Like, right, probably after that. Yeah. Cuz I used to come home early anyways with the early schedule. Yeah, I had the morning schedule. So it was like from nine to one, I think. Or eight to one. Yeah, or eight to twelve.

Tony Ortiz [01:41:54]:

I used to have that too. I think it was like 1230 or something like that.

Dad [01:41:57]:

Yeah, it was for either they let us go early or.

Tony Ortiz [01:42:03]:

Yeah, or.

Dad [01:42:03]:

Because I don't remember that much. Yeah, either they let us go early or I was already, you know, do to go home because I think gym class was like the last.

Tony Ortiz [01:42:14]:

They probably cut the class or let you guys.

Dad [01:42:16]:

Yeah. And let us leave early.

Tony Ortiz [01:42:19]:

All right.

Dad [01:42:19]:

My dad, he was working in Manhattan, so I was like, I wonder if he saw anything or if he's okay. But we didn't have any information yet. We didn't know what was going on. We just knew that the, the twin towers were on fire and. Yeah, but nothing had happened by the.

Tony Ortiz [01:42:38]:

Time you got home. You saw your mom watching the news and she see what's happening and then at that point, yeah, both planes hit, right?

Dad [01:42:45]:

Yeah, both of them were here already. And like, seriously, I just didn't know.

Tony Ortiz [01:42:52]:

Everybody was still like, what the.

Dad [01:42:53]:

I was like, okay. You know, they were hit, but they hadn't like collapsed yet. So we were still like, okay. Something happened in my hand.

Tony Ortiz [01:43:03]:

Yeah.

Dad [01:43:04]:

You know, and my mom was like, go get your little sister to school. And I went to P's 90, which was in like a couple of blocks away. And when I got there, there was a huge line full of parents and.

Tony Ortiz [01:43:21]:

Parents going to pick up their kids.

Dad [01:43:23]:

All the parents went to pick up their kids. And I was just waiting there until they let us all get whoever we want to pick up. And all the kids were coming out of the classrooms. And I remember that in the news, they were saying that a plane, like, they didn't know where a plane was. So we were all looking every time we. A plane pass us by or we thought that it was gonna, you know, fall on us or something.

Tony Ortiz [01:43:54]:

Still, everybody was like, scared and nobody knew nothing what was going on.

Dad [01:43:58]:

We didn't have any information. We didn't know what was going on. We didn't know what a terrorist attack was then. And, you know, they just kept repeating the same thing in the news. They didn't give anything different. So we were like.

Tony Ortiz [01:44:13]:

Didn't even have any new information.

Dad [01:44:15]:

Yeah, they didn't know what was going on either. And then after that is when, when we got home, then that's when, like, I found out that they had collapsed.

Tony Ortiz [01:44:28]:

You picked up your little sister. You got, you got JC, and then you took her home. And at that point, did your, had your mom spoken to your dad? All right, nobody has still spoken to.

Dad [01:44:42]:

Nobody has spoken to my dad. My dad was a cab driver in Manhattan. We didn't hear anything, but we didn't know. It was like. I don't know if. I probably didn't think it was that bad, like that big of a deal. We don't know, like, we don't know what's. Well, I didn't know, like, being a teenager.

Dad [01:45:06]:

I just didn't think it was that severe of a case. I don't know, it was weird.

Tony Ortiz [01:45:14]:

And then what, you guys got home and just.

Dad [01:45:18]:

Yeah, I don't remember really exactly how it went. You know, how it all happens because.

Tony Ortiz [01:45:25]:

Collapsed already.

Dad [01:45:26]:

They had already collapsed when I got home. And then my mom told me to pick up my little sister about that. No, but when, because I got. I remember that I got home like a little bit after like ten, probably.

Tony Ortiz [01:45:47]:

Like twelve something.

Dad [01:45:48]:

It must have been. I don't remember what happened, really.

Tony Ortiz [01:45:50]:

Uh huh. But when you got home first, they were still.

Dad [01:45:54]:

I remember, like, I remember things. Remember my mom watching the news, like, sitting in the living room watching the news, but I. And I remember, like, the smoke coming out of the. But remember that they were like, repeating the same thing. I don't remember for already had collapsed.

Tony Ortiz [01:46:11]:

And they were just repeating, and they.

Dad [01:46:12]:

Were just repeating like the same visual, you know, like, so I don't remember exactly how it went, but better.

Tony Ortiz [01:46:19]:

Yeah. After you had JVC about.

Dad [01:46:21]:

There were people probably after I got JC, I already had collapsed already, and. But we didn't. I. I don't know. I just didn't. I thought it was like, like, surreal, like, nah, not a big deal. It's okay. Like, they were telling us it was okay, that nothing was.

Tony Ortiz [01:46:40]:

Didn't want anybody to freak out, nobody.

Dad [01:46:41]:

To get alarmed when we didn't hear anything about my dad yet. But we probably didn't think that it was my mom. Probably thought that it was bad.

Tony Ortiz [01:46:52]:

Well, she was keeping it together.

Dad [01:46:53]:

So you guys want to freak out? So we want to freak out, but. And then I don't even remember when we heard of. I think my dad called my mom, like, from the base. No, Judy, I don't remember. He. He called her and he said that he was okay. And then we were all, you know, because he was, like, the main thing because he was close to the Twin Towers.

Tony Ortiz [01:47:25]:

Thank you very much.

Dad [01:47:27]:

You're welcome very much.

Tony Ortiz [01:47:33]:

Hello, Elaine. All right, so where were you exactly when, when you first heard about 911? Like, when the planes hit?

Elaine Almonte [01:47:46]:

Well, when I first heard that something had happened in New York, like that, it was during the home period of my high school.

Tony Ortiz [01:47:56]:

How old are you?

Elaine Almonte [01:47:58]:

15. So they basically put it over the loudspeaker, you know, for us to stay where we were, not to switch classes, and that we would be having to call our parents to pick us up from homeroom. From. Yeah, from where we were.

Tony Ortiz [01:48:18]:

No, when that happened, that was, like, after, like, the first plane or. Yeah, after, like, both of them hit. Do you remember both of them?

Elaine Almonte [01:48:25]:

Yeah. And we tried to look out the windows of few windows we had in our classroom to see if we could see smoke because we had heard, like, you could see smoke from miles away. But I guess it was mainly, like, in Brooklyn because from Queens, you couldn't see anything.

Tony Ortiz [01:48:38]:

And you were at what high school?

Elaine Almonte [01:48:40]:

I went to Thomas Edison Technical Vocational High School. But at the time, actually, all our parents were in doctor because they had gone to a memorial for my grandmother that had passed on 911. But the year prior. So, actually, my friend's mom picked me up, and I ended up going to her house. And a bunch of our cousins, we all kind of, like, spoke over the phone. We started calling each other. We were all worried because we were like, none of our parents are here. What do we do? Are they going to be able to fly back in? Are they going to stop all flights? Because they were all literally over there for the anniversary of our grandma's death.

Elaine Almonte [01:49:19]:

So all the cousins were just kind of, like, on our own with either one parent or just no parents.

Tony Ortiz [01:49:28]:

And how was it? How was it, like, initially, like, when you first start, like, getting in touch with people or, like, actually, how long did it take after first hearing when they told you that you guys were gonna have to wait and your parents were gonna pick you up and stuff like that? Like, how. How much time elapsed between then and when you guys, like, actually left the school?

Elaine Almonte [01:49:49]:

I wanna say maybe 2 hours had passed because even though we got to call our parents, like, not everyone could just come out of their job to come pick us up. Some people had to just, like, stay in school and wait for, like, a friend of a friend or somebody to pick them up. So it wasn't long. And then we went. I went to my friend's house, and I was just there with her and her, with her parents and just trying to get in touch with my mom in doctor.

Tony Ortiz [01:50:16]:

And it was tough for, like, phones to, like, go through, right?

Elaine Almonte [01:50:18]:

Yeah. Phone calls are, like, blocked. Oh, they sounded busy.

Tony Ortiz [01:50:23]:

Yeah. Like, in school during, like, those 2 hours, it was. It was like school wasn't really happening.

Janet Velez [01:50:29]:

Right.

Tony Ortiz [01:50:30]:

It was just like, everybody was just there and, like, waiting for time to pass type of thing.

Elaine Almonte [01:50:34]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [01:50:35]:

It wasn't like math class as usual, you know?

Elaine Almonte [01:50:37]:

No, not at all. Everyone was just kind of, like, talking to each other, something that never happens during class. They were, like, giving us permission to talk instead of, like, saying, stay quiet. Like, they just knew that we had to express ourselves and try to, like, deal with what had happened. At the time, I didn't think anyone in my classroom was affected directly. Like, they didn't have parents or friends or family that were in there, so nobody was, like, hysterical crying, but we were all just kind of, like, in shock and.

Tony Ortiz [01:51:04]:

Yeah, even the teachers, like, at that time, like, they didn't know what the hell was going on. Yeah, figure things out themselves.

Elaine Almonte [01:51:09]:

Exactly. Just kind of, like, waiting to hear from, like, what the mayor was up to and what he was gonna do or the Giuliani at the time.

Tony Ortiz [01:51:17]:

Then when you went to your friend's house, like, how was that? It was just like. Because I remember, like, when I got home finally after, like, when we heard, we were just, like, watching the tv, watching the news. Every single channel was, you know, it was like the same exact thing, you know?

Elaine Almonte [01:51:36]:

I don't remember watching tv, actually.

Tony Ortiz [01:51:38]:

No. Do you remember, like, what you did, like, when you went to your friend's house?

Elaine Almonte [01:51:42]:

We were just in her room listening to music we didn't turn on the radio or anything like that.

Tony Ortiz [01:51:49]:

I guess you just like, cds or.

Elaine Almonte [01:51:50]:

Whatever carried on as normal as possible.

Tony Ortiz [01:51:55]:

Like a regular. Like a 15 year old.

Elaine Almonte [01:51:57]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [01:51:58]:

But then do you remember, was there a point where you realize, like, oh, shit. Like, thing, you know, like something would really. Something serious went down?

Elaine Almonte [01:52:08]:

Well, yeah, it was serious because it was the twin Towers. And I remember, like, thinking sometimes during, like, half days at school, we would, like, not go home, and we'd go into the city, actually. Remember Mars 20 112? That was, like, this restaurant that was kind of like. Remember we would.

Tony Ortiz [01:52:25]:

The outside, it was like. It looked like. Like junk, kind of.

Elaine Almonte [01:52:28]:

Yeah, like planets and things. And we would go into the city. We'd just take the train to 42nd street. We'd be there, chill all day. We'd walk from, like, 42nd street down to, like, downtown Brooklyn. I mean, not downtown Brooklyn, downtown Manhattan. And I was just thinking, like, imagine we had gone to one of those, like, places that we would go to, and it would have happened to us, but thankfully it didn't. But it was so random on a Tuesday, and sometimes we'd be out in the city just trying to have a good day because we were, like, off from school or whatever.

Elaine Almonte [01:53:01]:

And to think it could have happened to anyone that was just on their way to work or just crossing by because they worked across the street, you know, it just sucks.

Tony Ortiz [01:53:10]:

It's crazy.

Elaine Almonte [01:53:11]:

I actually work right now with someone who's also one of the last survivors that they pulled out. She wrote a book about. She was there. She worked there, and she came down with the building, and she was trapped, and she was one of the. She was the last person that came out.

Tony Ortiz [01:53:29]:

Oh, wow.

Elaine Almonte [01:53:29]:

That they pulled her out, and she wrote a book, and it's called angel in the rubble. But the angel is not her. Like, she's not referring to herself. She legit was talking about in the book, she talks about how there was someone there, like, with her, like, trapped also, but she couldn't see them, but she could hear them. And it turns out that there was nobody. So it's kind of like, I don't know if you want to call it God or an angel or something, or maybe it was a firefighter that then passed away. Who knows? But somebody was there, like, saying, we're gonna be okay. Someone's gonna find her.

Elaine Almonte [01:54:05]:

Yeah, someone's gonna find us.

Tony Ortiz [01:54:08]:

What's her name?

Elaine Almonte [01:54:09]:

Janelle is her name.

Tony Ortiz [01:54:11]:

Damn, that's cool.

Elaine Almonte [01:54:12]:

And she got married, and afterward, like, she was here illegally. She's from Trinidad, and she was so worried because when they found her and they started, like, asking her for her paperwork and all this stuff, like, eventually, like, to get her name because she was the last survivor, and it was, like, a big thing, and she was just kind of scared to even speak up because she was there. Like, she worked for the port authority, but as a contractor, like, as a kind of, like, on a temp agency kind of basis. So she was afraid she was gonna lose her job and all this stuff, but they actually paid for her wedding. Bride.com or, like, something like that. Paid for her wedding. She got to write a book. Like, she was on CNN, I think.

Tony Ortiz [01:54:57]:

Wow, that's crazy.

Elaine Almonte [01:54:58]:

Back in the day.

Tony Ortiz [01:54:59]:

Yeah, that's a six star.

Elaine Almonte [01:55:00]:

And she works, like, four cubicles for me. She's been with the port authority for, like, 25 years now.

Tony Ortiz [01:55:08]:

I have a co worker that actually, she. She told me her husband worked at the Twin Towers when it happened. And, like, that day, the night before, he was there, like, super late. And because of that, he was going into work late the next day because he wound up, like, getting stuck at work, like, extra work or whatever. So he took, like, the, like, a later shift the next day, and that one of his, like, close friends, coworkers, he had an alarm that was, like, an a and B type of alarm. And when he, like, he said alarm a when he was gonna go into the. Into the office early, and alarm b when he was gonna go into the office late and sink it, a by mistake. He pressed alarm b when he was supposed to press alarm a and he was supposed to be there, but then he press alarm b by mistake, and he was, like, pissed.

Tony Ortiz [01:55:55]:

When he woke up, he was like, oh, my God, I'm so late to work. I was supposed to be there early, and then he turns on, like, the news and stuff like that, and he found out that, like. Like, 911 happened.

Elaine Almonte [01:56:02]:

That's crazy.

Tony Ortiz [01:56:04]:

A lot of sick stories like that.

Elaine Almonte [01:56:07]:

And also, when you hear about all the people that came to help afterwards, like, they just. They didn't leave the building. Like, they would come out, but they'd go back in. That's kind of crazy. Like, to have that kind of, like, courage to go back in.

Tony Ortiz [01:56:17]:

Like, in and out. In and out. Yeah.

Elaine Almonte [01:56:19]:

Yeah. A lot of firefighters died that day. There's this famous guy. I forgot his name. The guy from Forrest Gump that. He's, like, one of the people on the bubba gum shrimp. Skinny one.

Tony Ortiz [01:56:32]:

Bubba.

Elaine Almonte [01:56:33]:

No.

Tony Ortiz [01:56:33]:

Lieutenant Dan.

Elaine Almonte [01:56:34]:

No, wait. No, not Lieutenant Dan. Anyway, he's like, an ex firefighter or something like that. He's famous. He's an actor. And he volunteered days after. When I read that, I was like, oh, crap. Everyone was like, just, like, had a connection with the loss, even if they weren't here.

Tony Ortiz [01:56:51]:

Anything else you remember around that time?

Elaine Almonte [01:56:54]:

No. When we came back to school, they had us write, like, they gave us all, like, a pre printed handout that said, like, how we felt about 911. Like, you could write a poem or just like, an essay or whatever.

Tony Ortiz [01:57:07]:

Express yourself.

Elaine Almonte [01:57:08]:

Yeah. And we all wrote something, and that was it.

Tony Ortiz [01:57:11]:

You remember what you wrote?

Elaine Almonte [01:57:13]:

Yeah, I wrote, like, a cheesy poem. Some of it rhymed, but, yeah, I have it somewhere tucked away because I throw. I haven't thrown away any, like, paper that I've ever been, that I've ever written or has been given to me. I have it at home in my. Under my bed.

Tony Ortiz [01:57:28]:

And you recently wrote a post about 911, you said, right?

Elaine Almonte [01:57:31]:

Yes. I went to visit the 911 museum, which I didn't do it when they first opened, when, like, the rush and everyone was going, I just went randomly because on Tuesdays, they have a free. You can get free tickets because it happened on Tuesday, September 11. So every Tuesday you can go online and print out a free ticket. They have a limited number of tickets, obviously, so just try to do that early. So we went because my friend had free tickets. Wasn't like I was actually trying to go because I didn't even know what to expect. 911 museum.

Tony Ortiz [01:58:01]:

Like, yeah, I went once too. It was kind of, like. It was, like, eerie. It was an interesting eerie at the same time.

Elaine Almonte [01:58:05]:

Like, it's not something that I was, like, dying to go see, but then I was like, let me just check it out. So. And I actually was really touched by it. I was really touched by it.

Tony Ortiz [01:58:14]:

And that's why you wrote the post.

Elaine Almonte [01:58:16]:

Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [01:58:16]:

Like, afterwards. Interesting.

Elaine Almonte [01:58:20]:

Yes.

Tony Ortiz [01:58:21]:

And anybody was interested, you can see your post at yes.

Elaine Almonte [01:58:25]:

On Facebook. Yes. I'm trying to send you the link.

Tony Ortiz [01:58:29]:

Yeah, I'll link to it, like, in the episode notes.

Elaine Almonte [01:58:31]:

Mm hmm.

Tony Ortiz [01:58:32]:

Thank you very much.

Elaine Almonte [01:58:33]:

Thank you.

Tony Ortiz [01:58:39]:

Right. So 911, you and me went to high school together. My best friend and I know that the occurrence of 911 changed, like, the trajectory of your life, technically. Not that you wouldn't have wound up joining the army anyway, but that's something that you've told me was one of the reasons why you decided to, like, join the army. So what this episode is, it is like, like I told you before, it was like, a bunch of people just saying, like, where they were when 911 actually happened. Like, where they were when they first heard. And that's it.

Steven Almonte [01:59:17]:

Where were you just to start yourself? Like, what's the cool way of holding the mic? Like, I know when they rap, they cover half the mic. Like, hof. That sounds like. No, I've always been patriotic, but I signed up to the military before 911 happened. Actually, a month before me and Abby went to. My cousin Avi Gonzalez went to go sign up to the army, something I always wanted to do.

Tony Ortiz [01:59:40]:

And before it happened.

Steven Almonte [01:59:42]:

Yeah, before. Yeah, yeah. We signed up in August. I signed. I knew I wanted it since I was a kid. And at 16, I went to the recruiting. No. 1617.

Steven Almonte [01:59:50]:

Well, see, at 17 years old, I went to the recruiting station and I needed a signature from my parent.

Tony Ortiz [01:59:55]:

You went to the one on leopards on Liberty?

Steven Almonte [01:59:58]:

Yeah, right by the banging hell out truck. So I went over there and the guy promised me, you know, that I go home every weekend and fucking the world. Yeah, everything. I could take a helicopter straight from my room straight to Brooklyn to Queens, and, you know, everything is all nice and dandy and I can take vacations whenever I want, whatever. And my mom. My mom was like, heck no, I'm sorry. My dad was like, heck no. You know you're not gonna do that.

Steven Almonte [02:00:22]:

He never wanted me to work and let alone fucking go to the military, so I had to get my mom to sign the waiver.

Tony Ortiz [02:00:29]:

How'd your mom feel about it? Like, when you told her?

Steven Almonte [02:00:31]:

She always supported me and everything. Since I was 15 years old, I started packing bags with her brother, who had a pizza pizza restaurant at the western beef there in metropolitan. And I used to go with him. He used to open up the restaurant and then I used to help him set up like 430 in the morning, 05:00 in the morning. And after we set up, when the supermarket opened at seven, I would just go straight to the cashier's line and start packing bags. So I've always, you know, she's always supported me in that. When my father didn't want to.

Tony Ortiz [02:00:58]:

Anywho, because he, pops wanted. You wanted to, like, provide for you and he didn't want you to like.

Steven Almonte [02:01:03]:

Yeah, exactly. That old dominican mentality. So anyway. But I knew I always wanted it. I always wanted to be in the military. I always wanted to shoot guns. I wanted to be a cop, you know, that. All that good stuff.

Steven Almonte [02:01:13]:

And so I signed. So I went and he said no, and my mom said yes and she signed. And that was in August. That's when Abby had graduated too. From high school. He didn't know what to do. He was at his house not doing anything, and he was just like, all right, Steven's doing it. Let me do it, too.

Steven Almonte [02:01:28]:

So we both went to the military base there. At last exit on the Verrazano. On the ballpark by the Verrazano. And we signed up to the military.

Tony Ortiz [02:01:38]:

You signed up first you go to that recruiting thing, right, on. Leopards.

Steven Almonte [02:01:41]:

Yeah. Lefferts. And then they set all your paperwork. You take the Asvab test, and you pass that. And what is that?

Tony Ortiz [02:01:47]:

That's like.

Steven Almonte [02:01:48]:

It's a military test. No, it's a. It's a written. No, it's actually in a computer. It's a computer test. And that basically puts you in what position you're gonna like, depending on your score and what job they place you in the military. There's over, like, a thousand jobs, from, like, cook to nuclear, you know, fucking plant technician or whatever the heck it was.

Tony Ortiz [02:02:07]:

Like, the infantry.

Steven Almonte [02:02:08]:

Yeah, that's where you get infantry, artillery, car mechanic, or whatever. Like, the test is actually designed to put you where you fit in. In the military.

Tony Ortiz [02:02:15]:

I remember you and I. You and I used to argue about the. The king of battle versus the queen of battle. Like that.

Steven Almonte [02:02:21]:

Yeah. Me, him. You know, we're best friends, brothers, but we always argue about everything. And, um. But. And he was infantry, which is the queen of battle. And, uh. No, but this is not.

Steven Almonte [02:02:30]:

I mean, this is a fact. But, you know, he makes a fun of it. And. And artillery is the king of battle. You know, we go and we destroy everything. So he signed up to. I actually wanted, um. I want to jump out of airplanes.

Steven Almonte [02:02:41]:

And the job they had jumping on airplanes was artillery, which is 13 Bravo in the army, which is an artillery crewmen. And your job is to, like, to deal with these 119 ers and these 198 howitzers. You know, put a miss. Put a round in it and, you know, and send steel downrange. And then, you know, so it was pretty cool. I was like, shit, I'm gonna be jumping on airplanes and blowing shit up. Why not sign me up? So I signed up, and then, uh, me and I, we signed up. That was August the beginning, or I think was middle.

Steven Almonte [02:03:12]:

Middle of August. I know the summer was ending when we signed up. And then we start school again, which is, I think, what, the last week of August that we started or the first week.

Tony Ortiz [02:03:19]:

Yeah, last week. August.

Steven Almonte [02:03:21]:

I remember I was smarter than you. I think I started first because I had. I had three classes in my senior year. When you. When you went to go nine to five. Yeah, no, 1130, something like that. I used to get out of class.

Tony Ortiz [02:03:32]:

Because I didn't like gym, and I wound up having, like, three gyms. Nothing to a smartphone, by the way.

Steven Almonte [02:03:37]:

20 was a smarter one. I jumped from, like, freshman to, like, junior within, like, three years. I was an uncle. Had my first two years. And then I met this girl, and she switched my life around. I started going to John Adams to night school, summer school, and I did, like, within a year, I got all my credits back, and, like, my senior year actually worked out. I had, like, three classes.

Tony Ortiz [02:03:57]:

Yeah, I remember that shit. I used to leave and I was, like, coming in, keep going in.

Steven Almonte [02:04:02]:

Anywho, so, yeah, so we're 911.

Tony Ortiz [02:04:06]:

Where were you, like, when. When you first heard the news, when you first heard that? There was, like, something going on.

Steven Almonte [02:04:11]:

I think I was in Mississaug class. I think it was a math class.

Tony Ortiz [02:04:14]:

I remember Miss Citron was a biology teacher, something.

Steven Almonte [02:04:19]:

I know he was goofy with white hair. Yeah, I know. The science of math, one of the two. But I remember, I think was I was in his class, and I took a pass to go to the bathroom, go to the restroom, come back, and while I'm coming back, somebody screams through the hallway, yo, did you hear the towers got hit?

Tony Ortiz [02:04:33]:

Like what?

Steven Almonte [02:04:34]:

Yeah, yeah, they got hit. But it was probably one of these rich motherfuckers, you know, with a helicopter or something.

Tony Ortiz [02:04:38]:

Oh, shit.

Steven Almonte [02:04:38]:

Yeah. So then I go back to class, and I said, hey, mister Satchel, did you hear what happened? He said, yeah, we heard. You know, sit down. The principal's gonna speak now or something like that. Like an announcement was coming, something. I don't know. And then, you know, we got the news after that, the second plane hit, and they were like, oh, shit, you know, it's a terrorist attack. So everybody stay put.

Steven Almonte [02:05:00]:

Everybody stay put. You know, we're probably gonna go on lockdown right there. African put my bags in my book bag. And I remember going out the back door. A bunch of us did. We went down the stairs, and I was like, let me get the fuck out of the school before I get, you know, get shut down. And then I can't leave to, like.

Tony Ortiz [02:05:15]:

And then you're stuck inside?

Steven Almonte [02:05:16]:

Yeah, exactly. For, like, a couple hours or even the next day. I really didn't call anybody because I didn't have anybody that worked in the city. My father was a water ghetto. My mom was not. My mom wasn't even working at the time. I think she saw my dad out. Elaine was in Thomas Edison.

Steven Almonte [02:05:32]:

I really didn't have any family.

Tony Ortiz [02:05:33]:

Thomas Edison was in Brooklyn, right?

Steven Almonte [02:05:34]:

No, no, that's queens, by Jamaica State around there.

Tony Ortiz [02:05:38]:

Oh, yeah.

Steven Almonte [02:05:38]:

They're good with, like, mechanic and electricians. Yeah, they have a specialty in that. And so I don't really have. I wasn't really worried about people that, you know, like, close family members that were there, but, you know, of course, you know, you worried about the other, other people's family members, but I don't remember calling anybody, like, you know, did he get out the building when you there? This and that, I think Vicente. I called you. The only thing. The only person I called to Vicente, I'll be his brother, because I know he worked in the city. He had to do something with MTA or something like that.

Steven Almonte [02:06:05]:

And I know he worked in the city. I don't know what street, but I just called him anyway, you know, he.

Tony Ortiz [02:06:08]:

Said he was good, and it actually went through, like, the phone calls. I remember, like, no, no, I remember. Couldn't even call my mom yet to call. Like crazy. Like crazy if maybe something goes through.

Steven Almonte [02:06:18]:

Yeah, I remember I kept calling. I kept calling. I couldn't. And then when I got home, I called from the house phone, from the landline and that, and I was able to get through. And, you know, everybody was safe. My parents were in Brooklyn. I was in Queens. Elaine was in Queens.

Steven Almonte [02:06:29]:

You know, everybody was good. Yeah. And I was down. We turn on the tv and we see all this shit that's happening, and, you know, I didn't get to see. I didn't get to see it until I got home. You know, everything was just, like, hearsay in the school and, you know, walking home. I remember walking home. I used to live on one.

Steven Almonte [02:06:43]:

On one street, and our high school was on 113th street, so it was only twelve blocks down the subway line in Jamaica Ave. And we went home, and I started seeing that, and I was like, what the fuck? And I was like, wow. Like, I know what awaits me. I know. Um, I had signed.

Tony Ortiz [02:06:58]:

I just signed up.

Steven Almonte [02:06:59]:

I had just signed up because the reason I signed up early was because I wanted. I didn't want to waste any time. And I wanted. I knew what I wanted. I don't want to waste any time. Like, I planned. Like, I go to the military now. I'll be out by the time I'm 21.

Steven Almonte [02:07:11]:

You know, become a cop, that's when you be. When you could become a cop at 21, 22 years old. You know, I always had that timeline of you know, who I wanted to be at what time, and so I knew what awaited me. I said, fuck, man, I want to put on these boots and these fatigues and, you know, and go fight these motherfuckers.

Tony Ortiz [02:07:27]:

And, like, that, that emboldened you more. Like you wanted, like, it pushed you more to, like, wanna.

Steven Almonte [02:07:33]:

Yeah, I was hyped and everybody, I remember going to basic training. Um, everybody was hyped, like, you know.

Tony Ortiz [02:07:40]:

Like, everybody was like, gung ho about it as opposed to, like, being like, oh, fuck, what did I do? Just get myself into, I don't want to be.

Steven Almonte [02:07:46]:

Our class was like, probably like four or 500 people, you know, about three quarters of the class, you know, we're dying to put on those boots and, you know, and those desert fatigues and go, and those desert BDU's and, and go overseas to the Middle east and fight these guys. You know, you have the other class that just signed up, you know, to get the Gi Bill and take the benefits and, you know, they couldn't get a job, so they sent it to the army.

Tony Ortiz [02:08:06]:

But the majority people that do it, like, for money and benefits as opposed to defending people do it for the.

Steven Almonte [02:08:10]:

Country and, you know, and values and patriotism, we, you know, we were hyped. You know, I remember working out hard. You know, we would, you know, the druids are used to tell us, listen, we're training hard. You know, you might, you might, you might not even get to your command. You might get out of here, and they might tell you, you know, listen, you're shipped out. So we were, you know, we're already mentally prepared.

Tony Ortiz [02:08:28]:

Six months straight to.

Steven Almonte [02:08:30]:

Exactly. Yeah.

Tony Ortiz [02:08:32]:

And, um, how was that? How was that? It actually happened. It's been like a month. Like a mind fuck.

Steven Almonte [02:08:36]:

No, no, it was, to me, it wasn't. I actually wanted it, you know, the reason you train, you know, for six months, you know, get 5 hours of sleep, you know, although the folding the sheets and, and, and the push ups and then all that military discipline they teach you, they almost like, it says you exactly. Exactly. You want to, you want to apply it, you know, you want to go out there and fight and send rounds down range. And that's exactly what happened. I got stationed to the 82nd airborne in North Carolina. As soon as I got shout out to Fort Bragg. I remember visiting you then when you Fayetteville.

Steven Almonte [02:09:08]:

That's when we saw eight mile.

Tony Ortiz [02:09:11]:

I saw for the second time. I saw, I saw it there the first time where my brother and his boy Jeff, I remember we went to when it came out, we saw it. And then shortly after that, we, I went to South Carolina, to North Carolina with your sister and your pops and.

Steven Almonte [02:09:26]:

Your uncle, and we sitting back in the greyhound, and you stood.

Tony Ortiz [02:09:29]:

Yeah. And then we were having, like, so much fun, like, like that weekend. I was like, fuck it. Let me, let me stay longer.

Steven Almonte [02:09:35]:

Yeah, we started getting, we started hitting all those other, like, sonics and all those chicken and waffle spots and stuff like that in the bet videos. Yeah, it was great. Yeah, definitely. It was a first time. We actually hung out after, like, all the whole academy like that in the AIT, so, yeah, so we went, you know, it was great. As soon as we got there, they said, listen, don't even unpack. We have military orders for you guys to go down. And I remember that, and I remember going, you know, I got assigned my room.

Steven Almonte [02:10:05]:

I left everything in my duffel bags. It was like three duffel bags. I remember, you know, big one who says tall as me, five'six, by the way. I remember just taking out, like, my underwear and socks and t shirts and, you know, the basic things that I'm gonna need because I'm like, why the hell am I gonna pack all this shit, you know, to, you know, head out again?

Tony Ortiz [02:10:23]:

Where was basic training? Was in Fort Bragg, Oklahoma, in Oklahoma, and then for sale.

Steven Almonte [02:10:27]:

Oklahoma.

Tony Ortiz [02:10:27]:

Then you were stationed in, like, Fort Bragg?

Steven Almonte [02:10:29]:

Yeah, I was in Oklahoma first for six months, and after that, I got sent to, for three weeks to Georgia and Fort Benny for airborne training. And from airborne training, I had, um, I had a week off. I remember taking the greyhound up there, man. You picked me up at the bus terminal where Christie. Exactly. I was pissed off because somebody stole my PlayStation from my bag. Yeah, you were, like, out there.

Tony Ortiz [02:10:50]:

I remember there was something going on. I forgot what it was.

Steven Almonte [02:10:52]:

I forgot somebody robbed my PlayStation on the way, and we chilled for a week, and then I got back to North Carolina and right there, and we got sent out.

Tony Ortiz [02:11:01]:

That's sickendez.

Steven Almonte [02:11:02]:

Yeah, it was cool, but, yeah, that.

Tony Ortiz [02:11:05]:

Was, that's, that's very much it. I just want, like, obviously, the whole army experience and stuff like that. That's like a, that's a whole podcast in and of itself. I just wanted to do, like, where you were when I let, when you first heard of 911 and, like, your experience with that.

Steven Almonte [02:11:19]:

Yeah. Rest in peace. So all those souls lost and always remember, never forgotten.

Tony Ortiz [02:11:24]:

Absolutely. Thanks, man.

Steven Almonte [02:11:26]:

Appreciate it.

Tony Ortiz [02:11:31]:

The third plane that was in play that day was American Airlines flight 77, which left out of an airport near Washington. DC. This was the plane that later crashed into the Pentagon at 09:37 a.m. those are all the interviews that I have for you guys today. And throughout the episode in my conversation, you may have picked up on where I was during 911, but in case you didn't, I'm going to share it with you here. Now, before we get to the housekeeping portion of the episode. I was 17 years old and in high school. I went to Richmond Hill High School here in Queens.

Tony Ortiz [02:12:14]:

And many schools are overpopulated, especially in, in bigger cities. Richmond Hill is one of them. A way to combat the overpopulation was that the school yard was converted into classroom trailers. So it's literally like a trailer, like, you know, those, like, home trailers that you would say, or like trailers that, you know, some people live in Orlando. I just picture like an 18 wheeler, like the, the cargo trailer that it pulls in the back. One of those container looking things turned into a classroom and they were actually pretty nice because, you know, they were new. When the first plane hit, I was actually in my history class, which happened to be in the trailers. Now, the cool thing about the trailers also was that instead of, you know, being confined within the building, when you had a class in the trailers, you would have to, you know, exit the building and you would be outside, basically, while you walk to your next class in the trailers.

Tony Ortiz [02:13:26]:

And back then, I used to smoke cigarettes and stuff, thinking I'm cool and just meet up with friends and smoke some cigarettes and before going to class, go to class late and stuff like that. So we would look forward to transitioning between building and trailer. But anyway, I was in my history class and a teacher comes in and tells our teacher that a plane hit the. The twin towers or one of the towers, rather. And we didn't think much of it, honestly, the, you know, based on the. Both teachers and their demeanor and reaction, we pretty much all wrote it off as, you know, some. Somebody taking flight lessons and, you know, in one of those little planes or maybe a helicopter may have clipped the building or the side of a building or something like that. And we pretty much rode it off and continued with the lesson.

Tony Ortiz [02:14:30]:

Then about 15 minutes later, the same professor comes in again, the same teacher, and he tells our teacher that another plane hit the twin towers. At that point, everybody's mood changed. You know, we were kids, 17 years old, but we knew something was up and we going off, at least for me personally, reading off, playing off of my teacher, basically the oh, shit expression came over his face at that point. He flat out told us that this must be a terrorist attack. And I'm not sure I remember exactly if he said terrorist attack or just attack, but he did state that this must be an attack. And if anyone has family that worked in the city to feel free to leave class now and go outside and try to get in touch with them because something was going down. And that's pretty much exactly what I did. And I left, walked out of the trailer and, you know, like a bunch of other people did, and started making my way home while trying to call my brother, which I knew worked in the city, but I wasn't exactly sure where or how far away he was from the world trade, thinking the worst and just focusing on trying to get home.

Tony Ortiz [02:16:04]:

And I didn't live that far from the school, but had to take the bus to get there. And if not, it would be a pretty lengthy walk, but a doable walk. You know, I would do it sometimes, like hanging out after school type of thing, you know, killing time and walk home instead of taking the bus. But I walked along towards home trying to get in touch with my brother, calling and calling, and there was no signal, no calls were going through. And I don't remember getting on the bus, but I must have eventually. Then I got home where I believe my father was there already. And if not, then he got there shortly after I did. And we continued to try to get in touch with my brother.

Tony Ortiz [02:16:45]:

And eventually, I don't remember, I don't remember which one of us, but one of us obviously did. And he was walking the Brooklyn Bridge, as you guys heard earlier when I interviewed him out of the city. And my father and I drove down Atlantic and, you know, there were just droves of people, you know, cars picking up their significant others and loved ones and family members and friends the same exact way as we were. And we met up with him and picked them up, then went home. And that's where I was and my personal experience with exactly where I was during 911. Like I said in the intro, I think it's important that we continue to share these stories with each other. And if you guys want to share yours with me and the rest of the spun today community or listeners rather, feel free to do so. Reach out to me on through the website@spuntoday.com through the contact page, or just email me@spuntodaymail.com if you like.

Tony Ortiz [02:17:56]:

I'll even share your stories on a future episode of the podcast. That said, lets do some housekeeping and see if we can keep the lights on. Whats up folks? Tony here. I hope youre enjoying the Spun Today podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you. Here are a few ways you can help support the show. You can support the Spun Today podcast financially by going to spuntoday.com support. There you will find a couple different ways that you can do just that, some of which will actually not even cost you a dime, such as using my Amazon affiliate link. When you go to sponsodate.com support, you'll see my affiliate link to Amazon.

Tony Ortiz [02:18:38]:

Click on it and it will take you to Amazon's website where you can do your shopping like normal. This will not cost you anything extra, but Amazon will pay me for driving traffic to their website. If you'd like to support the podcast more directly, you can do so by becoming a patron@spuntoday.com support you'll also find my Patreon link. This is where creators such as myself can be paid directly by patrons like you. You can either make a one time donation or schedule recurring donations if you so choose. There are also different tiers of support and depending on which you decide to go with, you'll also receive some perks in return, such as early access to content, free digital copies of my books, free bookmarks, etcetera. That is again, by supporting via my Patreon link available@sponsoday.com support similar to Patreon. At that same location you'll also find my Ko fi link as well as my buy me a Ko fi link.

Tony Ortiz [02:19:33]:

They work very similar to Patreon and are different ways that you can help support the show financially. And last but certainly not least, you have the good old fashioned PayPal donation button. Any which way that you choose to support is greatly appreciated. It all helps me do more of what I love, which is writing and podcasting. Again, go to spuntoday.com support. You can also support the Spun Today podcast by rating and reviewing the show. Wherever it is that you're listening to this episode, I'd really appreciate it because it really does help. Also follow me on all socials, puntoday on x, formally known as Twitter on Instagram, and today on YouTube, where you'll not only find full length episodes of the podcast, but also chopped up clips and additional content.

Tony Ortiz [02:20:23]:

And of course you can follow the Facebook page@facebook.com. spun today another way you can help support the Spun Today podcast and also upgrade that stale wardrobe of yours is by going to spun today.com support and clicking on the banner for Stitch fix. Once you do, you'll enjoy a $25 discount to your first purchase. And the way Stitch fix works is pretty cool. I use it and I've never been disappointed. You'll set up a profile. You'll put in all the sizes for your clothes as well as all the different brands and types of clothes that you like to wear. It's really simple and intuitive to set up.

Tony Ortiz [02:21:00]:

They'll show you pictures and pretty much give you a thumbs up or thumbs down option. Option on if you would wear something or not and you get to select all the brands that you already are used to wearing. With this information, there are thousands of passionate, trend setting stylists will curate a stitch fix box for you. They'll send you five items that you get to preview before they mail it to you, and you'll get to select based on the image if you like it or not. If not, they'll replace it with something else and if so, they'll mail it to you absolutely for free. You can try everything on the and you have a few days to send everything back or keep the stuff that you want to keep. Then you can use that $25 credit that I mentioned towards your purchase of those items again to freshen up your wardrobe and also support the sponsor Day podcast. Go to sponsor a.com forward Slash support and click on my affiliate link banner for Stitch Fix and enjoy your dollar 25 credit.

Tony Ortiz [02:21:53]:

Do you want to start your own podcast? Have a great show idea that you want to get out into the masses but don't know quite how to get it from your head out into the world? Well, here's how. Use the podcast host Libsyn. That's who I use to bring the Spun today podcast to you. And now you can use them the same way, using the promo code spun s p u N. You can open up your lips and account today and get two months of free podcast hosting. Here's how it works. Once you record your show, you upload it to your Lipsyn account where you can fill in your episode notes, upload your podcast art, and schedule when you want your episodes to release. Once you do that, Lipsyn will take care of the rest.

Tony Ortiz [02:22:37]:

They'll distribute your show to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all the other podcasters that you choose instantaneously and seamlessly. Again, go to libsyn.com and use the promo code spun spun to get two months free, or use the affiliate link that's in the episode notes. Again, that's libsyn.com promo code spun. Take that great podcast idea from out of your head and put it out into the world. And as always, folks, substitute the mysticism with hard work and start taking steps in the general direction of your dreams. Thanks for listening. I love you, Aidan. I love you, Daddy.

Tony Ortiz [02:23:33]:

I love you, Grayson. I love you, Daddy.