Robert “Bob” Hartmann was born in 1935 on Long Island. He was ten years old when World War II ended. He lived through the assassinations of Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. He served in the U.S. Army between Korea and Vietnam, and after he retired, he co-founded a learning group for retirees. He was walking downtown to rehearse a play with his fellow adult learners, a path he had taken many times. When he reached the corner of North Moore and Hudson in New York City, he stopped, looked up, and saw smoke pouring out of the north tower of the World Trade Center.
It was just after 9 a.m. on the morning of September 11, 2001.
With his long view of history, Hartmann remembered that, in 1945, a small plane flew into the Empire State Building by mistake. It was the first thing he thought of as he stood there, watching the fire burn hundreds of feet in the air.
“The thing that scared me so badly,” he said, “I could see these dots coming out of the window. At first, I thought they were throwing things out. And then I realized, these are people jumping.”
Across the Hudson river, Dr. Steven Notley watched the north tower burn on his way to work at Nyack College’s downtown branch. He called his wife on a pay phone, and told her he was alright. She asked him, “What are you talking about?”
“Turn on the TV,” he replied.
Just before getting onto the train for work, he watched the second plane hit.
