Even now, so many years later, I remember as if it were yesterday.
When the ambulance tones dropped, I turned off my office lights and by the time I made the 6 block trip to our ambulance quarters, I was greeted by several members - some we had not seen in months or years.
We called surrounding towns to confirm they were doing what we were - taking one rig but leaving another rig with a crew to handle the normal day-today calls.
At staging points, ambulance caravans were formed - ours went to the Hoboken ferry terminal.
Enroute and throughout the days and weeks afterward people volunteered whatever skills and resources they possessed.
Truck drivers who were not emergency workers used their trucks to block Turnpike entrances (and then opened the way as our red lights approached) so we would have a clear road to our destination.
Iron workers shut down their job site and loaded their cutting torches and tools and reported to staging areas.
In Hoboken, a waiter with a tray of free water circulated through the EMTs triaging patients ferried from NYC.
Days later, when we sent an EMT crew to assist at the pile, we were told to bring extra gloves. When I explained our need to the hardware store owner, he handed me every glove in the store - no charge and Godspeed.
Shortly every overpass sported at least one US flag.
So different from today.
This evening I will once again attend a memorial service for our townspeople and all those lost that day and in the years that followed.