Middletown NJ: A Town Reels in Grief (2001)

The soldily middle class town of Middletown New Jersey is a peaceful suburb populated largely by people who left the city for a quieter life of green lawns and Little League.  Many residents work in Manhattan and take the ferry or the New Jersey Transit train home.  On September 11th 2001, upwards of 45 residents lost their lives in the World Trade Center, devastating the town, which tried to cope and help its own. This is a profile of several residents and officials soon afterward.

It is followed by a mini-doc of similar length which I made near the first anniversary of September 11th 2001 in which I interviewed many of the same people, in order to chart and report on their trajectory of continued grief and healing.


Posted in Americana, History, September 11th and Its Aftermath Tags: , , , , , , ,

Grieving New Yorkers Search for Their Loved Ones (VOA 9/14/01)

I was living in Washington at the time of the September 11th 2001 attacks, but was able to get the first train into Manhattan when the island opened on the morning of September 12th. I worked 17 hours a day in the week following, chronicling the human impact of the World Trade Center attacks on the city I love and have always loved. This story was one of several I filed in those first days.


Posted in Americana, History, New York, Oral History-oid, Person on the Street Interviews, September 11th and Its Aftermath Tags: , , , , , , ,