Main Street Musings: Sorrells Farm Supply

Sorrells Elevator - January, 1996

The following information appears in Raymond's 125 Years of Memories Book, published in 1996:

Merrill Sorrells was born May 5, 1903 and died October 29, 1972. He married Nora Stillan who was born October 11, 1903 and died February 25, 1979. They were the parents of two children, Earl C. Sorrells, born February 4, 1928 and Dorothy Joan, born June 7, 1929. Dorothy married Clifford Betzold, of Nokomis on October 24, 1948 and they became parents of two children: Barbra Sue, born Dec. 4, 1954 and Bruce Lee, born April 11, 1959. They continue to reside in Nokomis.

Earl and Doris Marie Pocock, of Nokomis, were married June 20, 1948 and became the parents of four children. Mark Earl was born March 23, 1950. He has a Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He does plant breeding at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He married Nancy Rick of Ithaca and they have two sons, Shawn, 14 and Trevor, 8. Jean Marie was born December 21, 1951. She attended SIU at Carbondale for one year before marrying David Fuchs of rural Farmersville. They reside near Raymond with their three children: Gwen, 18, a student at EIU at Charleston; Rachael, a sophomore at Lincolnwood High School; and Garrett, a seventh grade student at Lincolnwood Junior High. Jean works part-time as a secretary in the family business and part-time as a seamstress at the General Store. Davis is part-owner of Agri-Tech, Inc. and a farmer. Brenda Sue was born February 4, 1954. She married Blake Cloyd of Raymond and they reside in Springfield with their three children: Ben, a freshman at Southeast High School; Bart, a sixth grader at Hazel Dell School; and Brooke, a second grader at Hazel Dell School. Brenda received her B.S. degree from SIU and works as a medical technologist at St. Johns Hospital in Springfield. Blake operates a construction business in Springfield. Kent Samuel was born January 27, 1959. He attended SIU Carbondale and earned a B.D. degree in Ag Economics. He manages the Raymond and Atwater Elevators and is also a commodity broker. He is married to the former Sandy Leonard of Farmersville, and they have two daughters, Tara, a fourth grader at Raymond Grade School and Megan, a first grader at Raymond Grade School. They reside in Raymond and Sandy works as a registered nurse at the Springfield Clinic in Springfield.

Earl and Doris Sorrells on Broad Street in Raymond in November, 1995.

Earl began farming the same year he graduated from high school. Merrill was very busy hauling livestock and selling farm supplies for famers. Merrill lived on the 200-acre farm homesteaded by the Ripley’s southeast of Raymond. To his acreage, he added the Fricke sisters’ 160 acres, the Hermann 80 acres, and the Ritchie 80 acres. Hedges lined most 80-acre tracts so he did a lot bulldozing hedges. Earl and the hired men cut posts and made the fence to keep the livestock. Cattle was pastured on the stalk fields in the fall.

Merrill liked and always owned new machinery. His choice of combines was an international 31 T, which would take a week for the men to assemble under the shade tree. Earl remembers the first F20 Farmall, on rubber, acquired in 1935. It could be rolled out of the shed by hand, and an extra road gear was added to get it to run up to 10 miles per hour. Oliver 70’s and Massey Harris combines took over in later years. Merrill always speeded up the tractors to get more speed and power. The throttles on the Oliver 70’s were extended about two inches. He also liked to use straight pipes -- sounded more powerful. Merrill preferred International plows purchased from Walter Zimmerman at Litchfield.

Merrill started with Ann Arbor balers made in Shelbyville. Before that came the stationary baler using a sweep rake on the front of a truck, then the Ann Arbor baler mounted on a truck which took us faster field to field, then Case balers with the shuttles, then New Holland automatic twine balers, then Minneapolis Moline wire balers, then John Deere wire balers, then International wire balers, and back to John Deere balers.

Sorrells Elevator - January 1996

Earl remembers all the hard work, but also all the fun of working with many young men and all the good dinners served by Mrs. Vanzant, Mildred Rebhan, Betty Fesser, Rosalie Fricke, Bonnie Gorman, Mrs. Sumner Wilson, Eileen Matli, Florence Krause, and Pearl Hitchings. The winter months were occupied by working in the shop making baler blocks, hog houses, and cutting logs in the timber for fencing.

Merrill started hauling in 1915 and enjoyed doing custom work for the neighbors. He had a machine for anything that needed done whether it was combining, baling, digging post holes, cutting trees, scooping coal at Hillsboro Glass, or picking up one animal or a whole load of livestock for St. Louis. He would grade ditches and haul coal for schools and houses.

Merrill and Nora moved to Raymond and built Sorrells Farm Supply in 1949. He started hauling livestock and grain with four semi-trailers to Indianapolis, Chicago, and St. Louis. Grain was picked up on the farm and he hauled bulk and bagged bean meal.

Earl and Doris married in June of 1948 and lived on the Sorrells farm. Earl did the farming and added to Merrill’s 440 acres by buying another 80 acres from Mae Stein, 40 acres from Mrs. Fricke and 80 acres from Otto King. Earl rented 80 acres in the Butler flat and 40 acres in Raymond Township owned by Frank Doyle.

Merrill passed away on October 29, 1972 from emphysema caused by all the dirt he had inhaled due to combining and baling. Nora and Earl ran the Farm Supply and farm until Nora died on February 25, 1979 from cancer.

David Fuchs took over farming 1,400 acres of the Sorrells Farm and feeding cattle. In 1982, an addition was built on to the farm supply building and Kent began commodity futures trading. Earl operated Sorrells Farm Supply adding many farm supply items including seeds, chemicals, tile, Master Mix Feeds, etc. He added five stock trailers, running 11 tractors, hauling hogs and cattle to Indianapolis, Logansport and Muncie Indiana, and to Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Louisville, Detroit, and other cities. Chemicals were hauled all over the United States including California and the Chesapeake Bay. Exported horses were hauled to Seattle.

In 1985, Sorrells purchased the Ralston Purina elevator on Broad Street and Kent took over as manager. This added much to their grain business as they had always picked up grain on the farm from farm grain systems. Due to increased grain hauling, Earl made the difficult decision to quite hauling livestock, which Sorrells had always done.

In August 1990, Sorrells Farm Supply purchased the Atwater Elevator, which had about a 500,000-bushel storage capacity.

On November 20, 1994, Earl moved the farm supply business to 203 Broad Street across from the elevator. Earl had purchased and remodeled the old bank building which was built in 1898. He continues to sell supplies and handle the books with Doris as his secretary.

People from the Past: Leonard and Hazel Beiermann

 The following appears in Raymond's 125 Years of Memories book, published in 1996:

Leonard Beiermann was born May 31, 1904 in Jerseyville. He was the son of August and Francis (Weitekamp) Beiermann. He married Hazel Marie Brown on February 15, 1928 at St. Mary’s Church in Farmersville. Hazel was born in Harvel on December 7, 1904, the daughter of John and Hannah Coen brown. Leonard and Hazel were members of St. Raymond’s Church. They made their home in R.R. Girard where they had eight children: Jim of Litchfield; Marion Hill of Dallas, Texas; Howard (Wimp) of Harvel; Donald (Dutch) of Litchfield; Bernard (Pete) Raymond; Richard of Waggoner; Lorraine Amolsch; and Raymond of Raymond. In 1943 they moved to the rural Waggoner area and had three more children: Ruthann Gaither or Taylorville: Barbera Tomek of New Orleans; and Jerome (Jerry) of New York.

Leonard and Hazel then purchased a farm in Zanesville in 1950, and purchased still another farm in Barnett in the early 1960’s. They lived at the first farm in Waggoner for 24 years before they built their home in Raymond in 1967.

Leonard served on the Panhandle School Board from 1946-1954. He was also township supervisor from 1971-1988. He was a dealer for Golden Harvest Seed Company, a member of St. Raymond Knights of Columbus Council #4696, and a member of the Montgomery County Pork Producers and Montgomery County Farm Bureau. Hazel was a member of St. Raymond’s Altar and Rosary Society.

Leonard passed away at home on January 29, 1992. Hazel later passed away on May 17, 1994.

Big Shoes to Fill

Today, October 14, 2021, would have been Charlie Bandy's, 100th Birthday! In honor of the occasion, I'm sharing this blog post about my dad, that was originallly published in April, 2014: 

While on a recent shoe shopping trip with my thirteen year old son, I had a sudden realization: the kid has Bandy feet. As we walked out of the store with his brand new sneakers, size 11.5, I thought back to a minor crisis in our family in 1971 when my dad had trouble finding dress shoes to wear with his tuxedo for my brother's wedding. He wore size thirteen or fourteen and back then, it was uncommon for men to wear that large of a size. In fact, none of the stores in Hillsboro, Litchfield, or even Springfield carried sizes that big in dress shoes, and the shoes for the wedding had to be special-ordered from St. Louis. Traveling down there was a big deal, and I remember riding in the back seat of our red Chevy Impala from Bandy's Chevrolet (It's a dandy if it's from Bandy), and pestering dad to turn up the KXOK a little louder, so I could hear Heart of Gold by Neil Young through the static.

While growing up, I had heard a lot of stories that involved dad's feet. Like the time when a tornado touched down in Raymond right at the intersection of Route 48 and 127. It happened on April 24, 1937 when Dad and grandma were living in a second floor apartment in a brick building on Main Street (located where the current fire department and ambulance building is today). Grandma owned and operated Bandy's Cafe, the restaurant directly below the apartment. As the storm grew worse, Grandma became concerned that the strong winds might blow in one of the plate glass windows in the front of the restaurant. She woke up dad (a sophomore in high school) at 1:30 a.m., not to send him to safety in the  cellar, but to have him lie down in front of the plate glass window and use his feet to push against the glass and hold it in place. The window stayed in and there was no damage to the restaurant, but a large section of Raymond sustained considerable damage as the tornado swept North through town. Fifteen homes were damaged and the power and phone services were cut off. Traffic on Route 48 was halted for eight hours. The worst damage occurred a few doors down from Bandy's Cafe at the intersection of Broad Street and the highway, where Haarstick Implement Company, the pool room, the tavern, and Guthrie's Jewelry Store were located. 

Dad was fitted for Army boots on November 20, 1942 and began his journey "across the pond" on the Queen Mary on May 27, 1943. Not long after arriving in Europe, he got separated from his unit, and unknowingly walked across a live mine field. Apparently his drill sergeant was both upset and impressed that Bandy had made it across that $%^#* field with those big #$%*^# feet of his (needless to say, dad was not fond of his drill sergeant). Luckily, he managed to stay out of harm's way and two and half years later, those feet were planted firmly on the the deck of the S.S. Exchange as it sailed back into New York Harbor. Most of the men in his unit were from the Northeastern part of the country and planned to stay in New York City to celebrate their discharge. My dad and his big feet went straight home to Raymond.  

A few years after the war, my brother Joe and Rex Pitchford were born within a day or so of each other at Hillsboro Hospital. Joe was born first, and the next day, Cecil Pitchford brought Frances to the hospital. Dad was there visiting, and the privacy curtain was pulled around mom's bed, exposing only dad's feet. As Frances was being wheeled down the hall to the delivery room, she glanced at the feet under the curtain and said, "Well, Charlie Bandy, what are you doing here?" She told him that she was sure it was him behind that curtain because she would know those feet anywhere.  

I've heard other stories too, like how the Raymond Bowling Alley had only one pair of bowling shoes that would fit both dad and Rise' Johnson's dad, who also wore a large size. Apparently it was a weekly race to see whose family could get uptown first on Sunday night to get that pair of shoes first. Eventually, Dad bought his own bowling shoes, and kept them in a locker at the bowling alley. The size of his feet was always a running joke at the firehouse, and he had his very own pair of fire boots because no one else could wear them. 

I can't say for sure if my son will make it all the way up to a size thirteen or fourteen, but it looks promising. I think it would be great to have another pair of those feet in the family.  

Lincolnwood High School Band Receives Superior Rating

Article published in The Raymond News on April 28, 1977

I was only a beginner in band when this was published, but even throughout my high school years, the LHS Band was still receiving "Superior" ratings. Back then, band was a priority and we practiced during first period every day, and had individual lessons throughout the week. Thanks to Mr. Cannedy, the LHS Band had a great reputation throughout the state and a lot of support from all the communities in the Panhandle School District. Many of my favorite memories of growing up in Raymond involve the band in one way or another. 

Hair-Raising Prices

 The following appeared in The Raymond News - 8/28/1975:

Country Kids

Since we're currently in Colorado for Kayla Lanter's wedding(!), I'm posting an encore of a TBT post from February, 2015 that is about one of my favorite families from Raymond.

(Originally posted on 2/5/15)

Earlier in the week, I saw this recent picture of Carl and Martha Beeler's kids on Facebook (from left -- Rosemary, Moe, Resa, Phillip, Margy, Tom, and Joanie). I swear those Beelers never change and they are all just as cute as ever. Even though they were “country” kids, I've known them for as long as I can remember -- at least 45 years now. Tommy Beeler sat at my table in Kindergarten. Seeing their photo reminded me of a couple of funny stories from when we were growing up. 

It was sometime during grade school that I was invited to a boy/girl party at the Beeler farm in honor of Tom’s birthday. I remember that Martha, and I believe Rosemary and Joanie, were trying to corral all of us. It was mid-March and the spring thaw was underway so there was mud everywhere. After we had cake, they sent us outside (I’m sure Martha was relieved to get us out of the house). All the girls at the party immediately proceeded to pile up together on the porch swing and the chains gave away, tumping us all on the ground. After that, all hell broke loose with girls chasing boys, boys chasing girls, people having cooties, and everyone running amok all over the farm. Being the “city” girl that I was, I didn’t realize that when I fell into the pig pen that the brown stuff in there wasn’t just mud. I proceeded to run through it. Many times. They had to call Mom to come and get me and I was lucky that she let me ride in the car on the way back to town.

In 1977 when I was in 8th grade I volunteered, along with my friends, Pam and Sherri, to be a school cafeteria helper. This meant that every day we got to go over to the high school side of the cafeteria and help serve lunch. That's when we met high school senior, Maurice “Moe” Beeler.  Moe would come through the line and flirt with us. I thought he liked us but he really just wanted extra mashed potatoes and dessert (obviously he was cute AND smart). Pam and I had a major crush on Moe as did probably most of the girls in the school. After all, he was a mysterious older man and he was tall, dark, and handsome.

One day there was quite a commotion in the lunch line and it turned out that Moe was giving away wallet-sized senior pictures. By the time he made his way through the line and got up to the counter, he only had one picture left. He flashed his last senior picture in front of us, and held it there just long enough for us to admire his adorable sideburns and blue leisure suit. Pam and I both asked for the picture, begged for it, while he tantalizingly waved it back and forth in front of us. And then… he… gave it to…PAM! I was crushed. I begged her to give it to me, but she said there was no way she would ever part with that picture.

Moe Beeler's Senior Picture

Later that day, Pam and I walked Sherri home and then the two us continued on to the other side of town. We stopped at Mizera’s Market. Pam didn’t have any money on her and I selfishly bought a Hostess Apple Pie for .30 cents. It was fresh off the truck and the Hostess delivery man had just put it on the shelf. It turns out that Pam was really hungry. As we were walking down Main Street toward home, I told Pam I would trade the Hostess Apple Pie for Moe’s picture. She thought about it. Nope, no way would she do that. I crinkled the package, um-ummm, look at this nice fresh apple pie. No, she would not part with that picture. I opened the corner of the package and waved it under her nose hoping that the aroma of all that wholesome apple pie goodness would influence her. And boom, it did. It got to her. She caved. By the time we got to Convery’s corner, I was holding Moe Beeler in my hand.

And that’s the story of how I got Moe Beeler’s last senior picture. To this day, almost forty years later, when Moe sees Pam and me together, he always tells us that he can’t believe that he’s worth less than a Hostess Apple Pie.

I kept the picture on my bulletin board in my room for a few years. In fact, I still have it somewhere, but in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I could not locate the original for this week’s blog. A special thanks goes to Terri Lanter Olack for working some magic and sending me a yearbook copy.

Remembering 9/11

For this week’s TBT Blog, I decided to share a unique perspective of the events that occurred on 911 from several people with connections to the Raymond area. Please note that the italicized text is taken directly from Shelley Lebeck’s personal notes that were written on the evening of 9/11/01.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001 at 8:45 a.m., I was stuck in traffic in Paterson, New Jersey. About 15 minutes earlier, WCBS 880 traffic reporter, Tom Kaminski, had warned of a crash in the northbound lanes of the Garden State Parkway, so I opted to take Exit 53 (eggzit 53 as they say here in Jersey), and cut through the city of Paterson to get to my job at William Paterson University. Traffic was heavy and had come to a complete stop when I was still at least two miles from the WP campus, located in the city of Wayne. At 8:48 a.m. when Tom Kaminski came back on with his “Traffic on the 8’s” report, it was business as usual. He was in the CBS helicopter hovering over the George Washington Bridge, discussing the typical delays that plague that area, when suddenly he said, “Something has happened here at the World Trade Center, and there’s an awful lot of smoke coming from one of the towers.” While I was used to hearing him report on accidents and other problems, I detected an unusual tone in his voice that I had never heard before; whatever this was, it seemed really serious. 

I immediately thought about Shelley Lebeck who worked on the 44^th floor of WTC 1.  Shelley is my brother-in-law, Tim’s sister (my sister’s sister-in-law), and she grew up in Harvel and graduated from Lincolnwood High school in 1972. I had known her since the mid-70’s when Tim and Susan started dating, and I had been to her office and to the Windows On The World when I visited NYC for the first time in the 90’s. I hoped she was okay. I called Paul and was relieved to hear that he had heard from his friend, Wayne, who worked in lower Manhattan. Wayne said that he heard a Cessna hit the north tower by accident, about ten stories from the top, but that things were under control and they were not even evacuating the buildings. Based on that information, I figured that while Shelley would likely have an interesting story to tell, it didn’t appear that she was in any danger. I continued on my slow journey to work. By the time I was pulling into the parking lot at the university (a few minutes after 9:00), Tom was back on the air again, and this time the serious tone in his voice was unmistakable. A second plane had hit, and WTC 2 was now burning as well.  

Lower Manhattan (Shelley’s Story)
The day started as any other ordinary workday with clear blue skies. I took the bus to work, went inside the WTC concourse to get the paper, and picked up my coffee from the same place and from the same guy where I’ve gone for six years. The guy said, “See you tomorrow.” 

I had already been at work for almost an hour, and was on the phone with my friend and colleague Barbara, just a few minutes before 9:00 a.m., when the building shook violently.  It was as if some big thing pushed the building in [which of course it did] and then it bounced back. It’s hard to say how long it shook, just seconds most likely, but it was unbelievably scary. Our thoughts ran from explosion to earthquake, to a small plane hitting the building, but we didn’t know the truth. I thought the building was going to collapse then, but amazingly, it did not.

My assistant, Maria, and I were stunned. We knew something bad had happened and that we should get out of there. We grabbed our purses, and she left right away, but I wanted to see what was going on.  I walked down the hallway and noticed that debris was flying past the windows from the floors above. A couple of pictures had fallen, smashing the glass, and the water in the toilet had spilled out onto the floor, but everything else seemed okay. I went back to my office, and in my practical nature, I grabbed a bottle of water and some Hershey’s kisses (in case we felt faint after going down the stairs).  Also, since I didn’t know how long we’d be gone, I turned off the computers and the lights, and closed the door. I had a computer backup tape in my purse, which I carried out of the building and back to work every day. Legend has it that I thought to grab the backup tape, or even better went back to get it, but it was in the most practical place it could be -- in my purse. And, for all those who know me, or even those who don’t, yes, I went to the bathroom before I left, knowing it could be quite a while before I had a chance to go again.  I also called my sister, Elissa, who lives in midtown Manhattan, to tell her I was fine and we were leaving. I had also spoken to my fiancé, Tom, after the building stopped shaking.  He told me the building was burning, but it just didn’t register.

Meanwhile, back in New Jersey
News did not travel as quickly back then, before the days of Twitter and widespread social media use. As I entered the building where my office was located, I realized that most of the people on campus remained unaware that a national emergency was occurring a few miles away. I turned on the radio in my office and discovered that the Emergency Broadcast System had been activated. Looking back, I think that for me, hearing the Emergency Broadcast System was one of the most traumatic things about that day. I had gone my entire life hearing that tone on television and radio stations followed by the statement, “this has been a TEST of the emergency broadcast system,” but this time, the tone kept sounding repeatedly, and it was not a test. I was so overwhelmed by the fact that this was an actual emergency requiring the use of this system, that I couldn’t even focus on the announcements that followed. I just remember thinking holy shit, this is real and it must be bad. And then, suddenly, I was very concerned about Shelley. Where was she? 

Back Inside 1 World Trade Center
Then we headed down the fire stairs, Mary, Wayne, and I, and hundreds of other people.  It was quite orderly and calm, no panicked running, but we kept up a good clip. We had heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into the building, but it wasn’t until we were halfway down that we heard the news that TWO planes had been hijacked by terrorists and had crashed into both World Trade Center Towers.  I thought I had felt a rumble while we were walking down, but was not aware until much later that the second plane hit while we were in the stairwell. Still, none of this really registered though, it was too surreal and we were just concentrating on getting out of the building.

The walk down the stairs took about 45 minutes, and there was water rushing through the stairwell on the last couple of floors. There were dozens of police officers, firemen, and other official personnel directing everyone out of the building, and it seemed they had the situation under control.  It is distressing to think of what happened to all the people who were trying to help us. They were urging us on, telling us they knew we were tired but had to keep going and to please move as quickly as we could. My memory has them in a big long line kind of handing us off from one to the next to keep us moving and encourage us.  We came out onto the mezzanine level of 1 World Trade Center, and that’s when we were first really hit with the enormity of the situation. The plaza was covered with rubble, windows were broken and there were bodies within the rubble.

Shelley Lebeck at her office on the 44th floor of 1 WTC

The officials sent us down to the main floor, also covered in water, with water dripping from all kinds of places. We went through the revolving doors into the concourse, which had water raining down from above us for several feet, plus water on the floor. My shoes were soaked at this point, which made it more difficult to move quickly. After getting through the concourse, they headed us out past the PATH train escalators, around a corner, up another escalator, and out to the street. They were urging us to move faster now, and I thought that was plenty scary. Up until then, just concentrating on getting down the stairs and being inside kept us ‘in the dark’ so to speak (there were lights in the stairwell, fortunately), but this urgency was another dose of reality, after the rubble and bodies.

We walked over a couple of blocks, and met up with another one of our colleagues,  Rosalie, but we lost Wayne in the stream of people. It turned out that everyone in my office and the NYSSA offices got out okay. They kept urging people to keep moving, and Mary, Rosalie, and I kept walking north. We could only stop and look briefly to see the two fires, one in the middle of 2 WTC and one higher up in 1 WTC.  At that point, we still didn’t really know what had happened, and were speculating on how long it would be before we got back in the building.

In Midtown Manhattan
Shelley’s sister, Elissa Lebeck, who also grew up in Harvel, moved to NYC around 1960. She lives on the east side of Manhattan one block off 42^nd street, near the United Nations building. On that morning, Elissa happened to be outside on her terrace when she noticed a silver, low-flying plane heading south over Manhattan. She went back inside, and a few minutes later heard the news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. She was relieved to hear from Shelley right away and continued watching the news in disbelief. When the second plane hit, she went out on her terrace and could see the smoke in lower Manhattan, about four miles away from her apartment. For the next several hours, she stayed in her apartment with Shelley’s fiancé, Tom, near the phone, hoping for an update from Shelley. After both towers had fallen and hours had passed with no word from Shelley, they feared the worst. Did she make it out of the building? And even if she did make it out, would she have had enough time to leave the area before the buildings collapsed? Elissa tried to keep busy by fielding phone calls from concerned relatives and friends, and ironing linen tablecloths and napkins that she had washed after a dinner party the week before.

Harvel, Illinois
Back at home on the Lebeck farm near Harvel, my sister, Susan, was busy helping the kids get ready for school, and Tim was outside working on the combine in preparation for the upcoming harvest season. They had no idea about the attacks in New York until Shelley’s fiancé, Tom, called. They watched the news for a while, and then Tim went back to work, checking in periodically for updates. They were both watching when the south tower collapsed, and that’s when Tim told Susan he thought he just lost his sister. He went back outside and tried to keep busy while Susan waited by the phone for news about Shelley. 

Back in New Jersey
I finally got through to Mom and Sue. There were still no updates on Shelley. We kept the conversation brief so we didn’t tie up the phone lines. At that time, Paul and I were living 15 miles from Ground Zero and we had an eleven-month-old baby at home who was staying with his sister. I left work and found myself in traffic that was even worse than earlier that morning. It seemed everyone was driving slowly and gawking at the black smoke billowing into the sky from lower Manhattan.I realized that I was low on gas and didn’t have any cash. After becoming accustomed to living in a city with 24 gas stations on almost every corner and ATMs/banks everywhere in sight, I was never concerned about running out of gas or not having access to money. On that morning, many gas stations closed due to the news, and the ones that remained open were unable to process ATM and credit card transactions due to the failure of the communication systems. I immediately thought of my dad who rarely let the gas gauge go below the halfway mark, and always kept a folded $50 bill in a special compartment of his wallet. I could just picture him shaking his head at my predicament. I was on fumes when I finally arrived at home, but I made it. Baby Jonathan was happy and blissfully unaware of the tragedy that was unfolding across the river, and I picked him up and hugged him tight. I think I carried him around on my hip for the rest of that day. 

Downtown Manhattan
Not too long after we were safely over by City Hall (this is normally about a 5 minute walk but was at least 10-15 minutes with the crowds), we looked back to see the top third of  2 WTC topple off. A huge cloud of dust and debris started working its way up the street so we moved even faster to get away from it. We kept walking, stopping a few blocks later to rest and get a soda at a deli. We had no idea that the whole building came down, and while we were in the deli, WTC 1 must have collapsed as well. We could see nothing but smoke, and were far enough away that other buildings blocked our view, so we wouldn’t have been able to see the WTC buildings even if they were still standing.

It was so frustrating not to be able to let Elissa and Tom know that I was okay.  All the pay phones had big lines and cell phones were not working; besides I didn’t even have a cell phone at that time. My thought was just to get the heck home, and fortunately, I lived right in the city and had that option. All the subways and trains were completely shut down. There were ambulances and police cars all over the place heading downtown to the scene, but no other vehicles. At one point, Mary, Rosalie, and I separated when Rosalie decided to try to catch a bus to Queens, and Mary was going to wait at the train station until the trains started running to New Jersey again. There were people in line for every pay phone so I kept trudging home. It was a few miles, and being a bit out of shape for a long walk, I was really struggling at the end. I was also getting more anxious as time went by, knowing that people were so very worried about what had happened. Near the corner of my apartment building, I tried one last time to call Tom, but the call didn’t go through. I got upstairs to the apartment and Tom wasn’t there. He was supposed to go to a meeting in Connecticut, so I thought he had left before he knew what had happened. I tried to call my sister but the phones were dead. It was unbelievable to me that I made it home safe and sound, yet I couldn’t let anyone know!

I went next door to see if the neighbor’s phone was working, but it wasn’t.  She had the news on and I sat there for a while and drank a glass of water while she filled me in on what had actually happened. At that point, it was almost noon and I had been out of the building since just after 9:00 a.m. and was just finding out what really happened. When she told me that both buildings had collapsed, I could not even begin to believe the possibility of that. Later, I found out that the first plane hit 1 WTC at 8:48 a.m., and another plane hit 2 WTC about 20 minutes later.  2 WTC collapsed at 10:00 a.m. and 1 WTC collapsed around 10:30 a.m. During that time, the Pentagon was also hit and Flight 93 went down near Shanksville PA.
I went back to my apartment to lie down and relish in the safety of my own little snug, quiet, safe place. Just as I was trying to decide what to do and how to let my sister know I was okay, which would have involved walking another couple of miles, amazingly, the phone rang.  That is one of the many mysteries of the day -- I was not able to call out but Tom got through and let me know he was waiting with Elissa at her apartment. The two of them were extremely glad to hear my voice (understatement of the year). Tom started home, and Elissa said she would call everyone and tell them the news. Luckily, I was able to receive calls, because soon my brother, Alan, called from New Mexico, and my brother, Tim, called from Illinois.  Then, being the practical person that I am, I went out to buy milk and cat food. I had so many calls from people who said they were hoping I was okay, and I have very warm feelings knowing there are so many people who cared. Only as I watched the continuous news coverage did I slowly start to realize how very, very lucky I am to be alive. 

Midtown Manhattan
Elissa and Tom were elated to find out that Shelley was safely at home. Tom left to go home immediately and Elissa called relatives and friends while baking cookies to take over to the nearby fire department, Engine 21, on 41^st Street. She didn’t know it at the time, but the Engine 21 Captain, William “Billy” Burke, whom she knew from the neighborhood, had been killed that morning when he arrived on the scene in lower Manhattan. Elissa said that other than worrying about Shelley's fate, one of the most memorable things about that day was hearing the sirens of all the firetrucks that crossed into Manhattan via the 59^th Street Bridge and the Midtown Tunnel. She remembers hearing the sirens throughout the entire day as truck after truck arrived from cities and towns all across the tristate area. Everyone wanted to help.   

Final Thoughts from New Jersey
In the days following the attack on the WTC, it was shocking to learn that the 911 terrorists were walking among us in plain sight. A group of them had rented a car for their drive to the airport from a car dealership that was located within a 5-minute walk from my office on the WP campus. They also used computers in our university library, which were later confiscated by the FBI, and they lived together in an apartment a few blocks away from where I currently reside.

The first time we went to Manhattan following the attacks was the weekend of 9/22-23 for dinner at Elissa’s to celebrate Shelley and Tom’s birthdays. It was both scary and comforting to see the police in full riot gear armed with assault rifles at the entrances to the Lincoln Tunnel and on the corners of the busy intersections. The smell of burning rubble still filled the city. I had a feeling that things would never be the same again, and I was right. 

A special thanks to Shelley Lebeck for allowing me access to her notes and for being willing to share her experience of being a World Trade Center Survivor. She is currently happily retired and living with her husband, Tom, in Columbus, Ohio.  Elissa still resides in New York in the Tudor City neighborhood, near the United Nations building.