I wasn't sure I was going to post today.Being 9/11...
I asked her if I could paint it...
(“Morello cherries in cherry gelée, pistachio gelée, pistachio mascarpone cream”)
My first thoughts were
Tower of power
with a cherry on top!
That's how I felt about the World Trade Towers.
Such a delightful friend in my New York life...
There are so many good memories attached to that building.
I attended, well volunteered to help out at Kevin Zraly's Windows on The World Wine school.
I got to serve the bread rolls, never pour the wine, but I learned so much about wine.
I couldn't wait to attend each class.
Thank you Kevin!
I got to photograph for the Beard House at The Windows on the World restaurant too!
I took trading classes on the 13th floor in building #1,
when I was pretending to be a day trader.
You got to imagine you might make a cool mill someday, especially in that building...
I remember the first time I visited the WTC -
Though I'm afraid of heights, I loved visiting the observation deck.
There too, Milton Glaser created maps at your fingertips.
You gazed out at the spectacular view and
you could look down and identify exactly what you were seeing.
There were free summer dance concerts on the esplanade.
So many things...
Best of all, those buildings were a touchstone for all New Yorkers.
Everywhere you looked, you could see them.
They were our Eiffel Tower.
Can a building be a friend?
I miss you dear friend.
Ahhh, I know what you mean. Yes, buildings can be your friends. The bricks on a sidewalk, a graveyard wall, the tombs above ground, the ferns that grow on the cracks, the light how it falls.Historic old houses. All can be missed, but they live on in our hearts. We can honor them still. By remembering the joy, the energy there.The people who made them come alive. And savoring that treat from Pierre Herme. Beautiful painting! And lovely, lovely scenes described. Out of the ashes, beautiful things can come.
ReplyDeleteIt's me who thanks you. It's a wonderful analogy that I would not have thought of. I used to go to the WTC to buy tickets when I lived in NY and it's so strange to look at the NY skyline without it there.
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Carol, and beautiful watercolor. I think a building can be a friend. I first went up to the top of the towers with my dad and sisters when I was a teenager, and I remember thinking it looked like we were above the birds, the planes, etc. My sister used to work in one of the buildings at one time, too. We used to joke that the two towers looked like twin Ritz cracker packets, but they were a part of the skyline and they'll be remembered forever, along with all those wonderful people who died and our innocence that was lost that day...thanks for the touching post.
ReplyDeleteA young man proposed to me at the top of the world...and I accepted with a request to finish college first. We did marry, but that is gone now , too.
ReplyDeleteI placed a young girl in the shadow of those buildings, and she had called me after accepting the position to tell me she was going to have lunch every single day in those wonderful Towers.
My heart is still broken into three thousand pieces and I am still sobbing.
Deep in a woods
ReplyDeletetiny branches grow.
Resting each winter
Only to begin again.
No eyes see them sending out each tender shoot
But deep within we all feel it
That same thrust of life
beating within our chests
reaching out in our eyes, ears, and fingertips
Embracing, tasting, touching
Jeanne Long
Re your comment to me, I definitely understand the weather issue. Even on other days when the weather and sky are like that, I think of 9/11
ReplyDeleteBeautiful painting and lovely memories. I can only try to imagine what it would be like if the Eiffeltower vanished...
ReplyDeleteI am sending encourageing thoughts to you NYorkers.
Andrea
Great tribute. Buildings are important part of history. All to often people tear down something old and beautiful to put up something new & modern & often ugly.. with no concern to History. So I can understand you mourning those buildings as well as the lives lost.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you and all of NYC.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of us are thinking about you
and your City on this sad day.
I am fortunate to be one of your friends; someone who has known you for a very long time. But today's
ReplyDeletepost is another of your delightful offerings...a very poignant gift to each of us who appreciate you and your art, in whatever form.
Thank you for sharing.
sjersyboy
In all the other losses of that day, the loss of the building itself tends to get overshadowed .. you expressed it beautifully, both in words and in your painting. Thank you
ReplyDeleteJoanna
joannasfood.blogspot.com
How soothing to read your post today. Thank you, Carol.
ReplyDeleteI lived through 9/11 in Washington, DC.
This afternoon, I was walking along Graben and Naglergasse and then having coffee , six hours removed from the American East Coast, yet still thinking of those minutes when I heard about the first plane having hit one of the Towers, then the second one. And I was watching a local news station, when all of a sudden a huge black cloud rose up from what looked like behind the Executive Office Building, next to the White House. this was one third plane came crashing down into the Pentagon. I implored my husband, to rush home (he worked a block from the White House). There were conflicting news about all airplanes being grounded, yet four not being accounted for. There was concern at least one of them was flying towards Washington. I remember that I looked out the window and saw that absolutely beautiful blue sky above us and it seem threatening all of a sudden. I was sure we would not see the end of the day.
I remember distinctly Peter Jennings, the ABC anchor, his calm, how his presence took us through the day. Never watched so much television as on that day, so frightening and totally confusing.
It took me several years and moving to Vienna, to learn to love blue skies again. And even here, in autumn, when the days get golden and the sky ever bluer, memories keep coming back of that horrible day in September 2001.
oh...
ReplyDelete*can a building be a friend*
?????
but of course!
so can a tree,
a bicycle,
a rose garden.
any place or thing
that holds your heart...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
oh, merisi, no...
how shocking to be so close...
i was on my way to the airport
in orlando
to fly to philadelphia.
my mom thought i was on the plane
and in the air flying north
towards DC...
everyone knows where they were,
like when Kennedy was shot..
Just to say I was thinking of you today.
ReplyDeleteWe celebrated our first wedding anniversary at Windows on the World. I remember being a tad "seasick" in my seat next to the floor to ceiling windows.
ReplyDeleteAfter we moved to TN, the towers were the kids landmarks that they were home. They yelled the whole way on the NJT, "the twin towers; we can see the twin towers!"
May they all rest in peace.
We were in NYC a month before it happened and I saw it on TV when it did. Very sad without WTC in the skyline and so many still missing. I hope everyone will be able to re-connect with their missing loved ones.
ReplyDeleteThinking of you and NYC on this day.
Winston Churchill said, "We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us." Even in their demise, the WTC towers shape our awareness and determination.
ReplyDeleteThank you for a lovely post.
A very arty and hearty post to commemorate the event!
ReplyDeleteA nice "allégorie"...
Yes, "they" knew everything...
I remember the first time I saw the towers and they literally took my breath away. They were so tall, I was too fearful to go inside. How I wish I would have now.
ReplyDeleteLike was mentioned, everyone remembers where they were 6 years ago today...I too have a story.
We had been living in France most of that year and decided to come home a month early. We randomly chose September 10th to leave. We flew out of Paris that afternoon and with all the layovers and security delays, we arrived just a few hours before the first plane hit. We were the last international flight back into our airport.
Finally in bed back in the USA, we drifted off to sleep, only to be awoken by my father saying "Planes are crashing into buildings!" I thought in my delirium that we were still flying.
We could not believe our eyes and could not believe we got home when we did.
-toulousaine
Such a nice tribute. The skyline will nerver be the same again....I miss them too. I like spoting them in old reruns of 'Friends' or in older movies set in NYC. Such a sad, sad day.
ReplyDeleteCarol,
ReplyDeletedo you remember that Farmer's Market, right there on the square? The contrast between the very modern towers and the down-to-earthiness of the market and the people there struck me as quintessentially New York.
In his novel "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", Jonathan Safran Foer's little hero encounters a woman on top of the Empire State building who, seemingly unbeknownst to the authorities, lives on top of the building, sleeping either in the maintenance room or under the stars, weather permitting. The little boy asks her, if "they" know that she's living up there, to which she answers "Who's they?". Turns out that the owners and the workers, who came and go, think she simply belongs up there, they assume she's supposed to be there.
The Twin Towers were suppused to be there, too.
Thank you Carol, for this wonderful post.
ReplyDeleteIt is very touching to read all the comments that you inspired.
Thank you for sharing your memories of the Trade Towers here.
ReplyDeleteThey were a good friend to us all :)
Ahh, Milton Glaser!
ReplyDeleteI can instantly recall so much of his graphic illustrations and solutions!
A MASTER.
Peace
What a lovely painting, so evocative, especially with your words added to it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous post. I'm sorry it took me this long to see it! I hope you know how meaningful this is for me, and I'm sure others, to read.
ReplyDeleteThank you Carol. Your words give life to our city!
a beautiful sentiment...
ReplyDeleteenough said.....