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(Courtesy Bergen Record)

This was pretty much my experience driving on Route 17 in Ramsey, NJ after being dismissed from work at around 1pm on 9/11. I also saw it at other spots along the highway as well.  I lived in Rutherford at the time. My other two roommates came home shortly after I did. The three of us hugged and cried in our living room. Then we draped an American flag from our porch. Rutherford was not all that far from Ground Zero. We experienced a haze, unusual quiet and, of course, we could smell it.

Dennis Elsas, sounding shell-shocked and distraught on WFUV-FM provided this soundtrack for my drive home. None of it seemed real - the thick smoke on the Lower Manhattan skyline, the Policemen & State Troopers all along  17 South waving everyone on, the ambulance screaming up 17 North. It was as  though it was all in slow motion.  An awful day that we will never forget!