Hi, I am a New York city resident who lives downtown in an area where there is still no phone service, because I can’t call home, I have been sending e-mails home to my parents and just recieved this one back from my dad, I know you are doing a special issue on the WTC and Pentagon tragedy, and I thought maybe you would like to see or print this letter, just from someone who lives there’s perspective, if you do choose to use it, please just say it was submitted by Rebecca, a sophmore, I would rather not have my last name of e-mail on it, I hope its helpfull, thanks!For a little clarity, we live below 14th street, and my mother works in a building very close to the WTC, the building (which was luckily evacuated quickly enough that she got out fine) holds state and city offices and is partially damaged now so will not be re-opened for a while._______________________________________________ Hi yuh kid, Just got back from Long Island… House looks fine. We put some sample paint trim colors on the garage to help us decide what to go with, a blue that looked great on the chart but looks completely grey on the door, the old yellow color that we used to love and a soft grey/green that may be just the ticket. There are an incredible number of flags on the houses and stores, and lots of cars and trucks are flying the colors too. Think I’m gonna buy a couple of flags. Driving back to the city over the Williamsburg Bridge we saw the Empire State Building lit up red white and blue…. At the southern tip of the island a halogen-suffused cloud of smoke hangs over the unimaginable pile of rubble where those two towers stood. They’re still working, working…. Driving down Great Jones Street to the loft we passed the firehouse. You know how I always had a love/hate relationship with that place. You gotta love the guys because of the job they do, but the noise has always driven me wild. Anyway, we noticed a memorial in front of the firehouse, and I walked by for a closer look after putting the car away. I counted the photos of about a dozen men and their fire truck…. I was too touched to hang around, but there was a big rugged looking fireman talking to a small crowd of people paying a sympathy call…. This was about 9:30 tonight. Anyway, Jen is back at school since Thursday. Mom went in to work on Thursday too, but not to her regular office, they sent her by city van to a temporary place. She wasn’t able to get much done because she didn’t have access to her computer. She’s still not sure about Monday. My AES convention was canceled. It was supposed to be Sept. 20-24… They’ve moved it to Nov. 30-Dec. 4. Hopefully we’ll be back to some kind of normal by then. Please do keep trying to call. We should all be home tomorrow night around 7:30 or 8:00 we’re supposed to have dinner with grandma on Tuesday for the first nignt of the Jewish holidays.Keep well, keep working hard and we’ll talk to you soon. Love, Dad, Mom & Jen