WHO KNEW---MY FIRST TIME WOULD BE---MY LAST?!?!?!
What a ride! I’m not a weakling but I’m certainly no dare-devil!
The second the huge elevator door closed, I regretted my decision to have lunch with my friend, John Ernest, at the World Trade Center’s restaurant called “Windows On The World’. I felt like I’d just been shot from a cannon!
The enormous elevator was packed with people talking, laughing, excited about their ride to the top while here I was---shaking like a leaf, desperately trying to prepare for the ultimate crash. Nothing had prepared me for the “launch” from Hell. I was now in complete shock mode.
When the elevator-missile began violently rocking from side to side, I knew we were about to “land” or crash. I couldn’t wait much longer to get on solid footing and find a bathroom. My body told me-- in no uncertain terms-- it was only a matter of time before I’d wet my pants.
Yes, the view from the “top” was magnificent. Like the song lyrics sing, “On a Clear Day…you can see forever….and ever..." But--sitting at the table closest to the window with only a piece of plate glass separating me FROM HERE TO ETERNITY---I was "frozen" to my chair---in fear. The table setting was elegant, the food looked delicious , and the service was exceptional….but for two hours… as I "perched" precariously on-top-of –the-world... all I could think about was: “what goes up….must come down.”
Life has taught me that some of us aren’t meant to fly faster than the speed of sound, or venture into space without a steering wheel and brakes, or travel to the top of the world without a parachute….and a diaper.
PS....I could never have imagined the horror facing The World Trade Center...on September 11,2001. God Bless America.