9/11 memories: What we kept

10 years after two planes flew into the World Trade Center, people who were at or close to the site of the attack in New York City still have objects from September 11, 2001 - like shreds of a t-shirt and "Admit One" tickets - to help them remember what they cannot forget. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"What I have kept is some W.T.C. dust I gathered from the windshield of a lonely car left abandoned on Fulton Street, near Nassau Street. I scooped up the dust on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2001, and brought it home in a small bag that I had found. When home, I transferred the dust to a jar, where it has been since." -James Marturano. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"I ran down to the World Trade Center after the attacks on Sept. 11, when I was still in school, and felt such a sense of loneliness after taking note of my surroundings, the air thick, and seemingly still, weighted down by the snowlike material covering every street. I filled my backpack with the debris, and completed this conceptual artwork out of acrylic/plexi in October 2001." - Eric Parnes. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"After Sept. 11, I packed an archive box with my W.T.C. ID badge and other items that were spared, but my red shoes evoke the strongest memories. They were relatively new and terribly impractical for what happened that morning. Yet somehow, they carried me as I ran from the building and later as I ran from the collapse and still later as I trudged northwards to my friend's apartment. The soles are almost worn off; the dust is still creased into the seams. I contemplated having them resoled and cleaned but I couldn't bring myself to wear them again. So they sit in my box, along with my other relics, waiting for a day when I can try to explain it all to my children." -Rebekah Forlenza. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"I was a New York City police officer and picked up a thin ribbon of metal from the site. I feel kind of dumb because it didn't occur to me that there were others doing this kind of thing. I didn't want a 'souvenir,' but I wanted something tactile just so I knew it really happened. I like that it is just a piece of scrap to anyone who sees it, not that I display it. I try not to think about it most of the time and something tells me I'm not going to enjoy reading about what others kept, but thank you for helping me not to forget." -Dante Messina. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"I'm a priest. I was having an early breakfast at a diner with a friend when the first plane hit. I went home to put on my clerical collar and go to the church when the first tower fell. I went to the church, opened the front door and put up a sign that said, 'Pray.' The little calendar was a gift for my ordination. I used to change the date every month. But after Sept. 11, I left it. I would look at it, sitting on my desk. Sometimes I would cry. Later I put it high up on a shelf, the date still set for September 2001." -the Reverend Paul D. Fromberg. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"It's my ticket to the Yankee game that was to be played that night (which, of course, was canceled). I put it in my wallet that morning before I headed into my office in Manhattan. I'm not sure why I saved it. I just could never bear to throw it out." -Eric Beckerman. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"It was Primary Day and I was near a polling site on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. A truck driver yelled out, to no one in particular, that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Over the next several minutes a surreal vibe began to fall over the block and the colour of the brilliant blue sky began to turn gray. As this was years before practically everyone (including myself) would have a mobile phone with instant Internet access, I ran into a hardware store and purchased this battery-powered radio so that I could turn on a news station. I will never forget the words that I heard spoken after the towers fell: 'The World Trade Center is no more.'" -Jason Goldberg. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"Red and flimsy, it's the kind of ticket you get at a carnival; the kind of ticket that can get you on the ride of your life. On that sunny, awful day, I made my way to Chelsea Piers. It was a triage center jammed with ambulances and firefighters, and crammed with frightened people looking to escape onto a ferry. Among the jumble, an organized crew of workers answered questions and handed out cups of water and one-way tickets to cross the Hudson. I held it in my hand until I boarded, kept it in my pocket during my 6-hour journey home and it's been in a jewelry box ever since. The Admit One was my prize, my ticket home that terrible day." -Amy Shigo. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"I was an emergency medicine resident at the N.Y.U./Bellevue hospitals on Sept. 11. On the days following the disaster, we were charged with setting up a medical station at the site of the collapsed twin towers. I recall the surreal van ride down there, driving underneath huge pieces of the towers set askew between buildings and into the fluffy debris close to the site. As we got out of the van, a construction worker (steelworker, I believe) walked by and said, 'You'll need this.' He handed me this hard hat. Responsible for airways and IV's on the medical team, I fashioned a green cross (I had no red ink), and wrote the words "Airway/IV" on it. I never saw him again to say thanks." -Lars K. Beattie. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"I was standing in front of the World Trade Center trying to cross Liberty Street to get to a 10 a.m. meeting when the first tower came down. The debris and dust cloud enveloped me and I thought I was going to die. As the dust cloud settled, many of us started running toward the East River. A man who had a roll of fabric ripped a piece off so I could cover my face to keep the dust out of my lungs. It only helped a little but I clung to that fabric like my life depended on it. The next day, I put it inside a tea jar and marked the lid 'save 9/11/01 cloth' so I would always have it." -Grace Garinger. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"I lost my shoes when the plane hit Tower 2. We were in a freight elevator and had come down from the 78th floor. The force of the impact threw us all to the floor. Then I ran down the remaining 44 floors and out of the area barefoot. We walked to Chinatown, where I bought these tai chi slippers in the first store I saw. They felt like heaven and cost $5. Now I put them on and they hurt and are incredibly uncomfortable, but I can't bear to throw them out." -Connie Vlamis. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"This is the bag from a bag lunch given to me from a volunteer who was handing them out to rescue workers at the 9/11 site two days after the attack. It was prepared by an elementary student in New Jersey. I was working as a news photographer doing network TV live shots. I tried to decline it because I wasn't really a rescue worker and felt undeserving, but the volunteer insisted. It means a lot to me." -Mark Rast. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"This Metro-North train ticket was given to me by my father. He had taken the train in for a business meeting that morning on Sept. 11, from Scarsdale. I can't remember what he said about the meeting, or if he said the meeting even took place, but on the train ride home none of the tickets were collected." -Tamar Stone. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"I was standing in Battery Park when the towers came down. I didn't know that they had come down, and in fact, because I heard popping noises above me, I thought I was being shot at. I later figured out that it must have been a helicopter that was above me. Anyway, when the towers came down there was the dust in the air and I couldn't breathe. A man took off his shirt and his undershirt, ripped them apart and handed the pieces out to me and others so that we could put the material by our mouths and breathe." -Susan Horn. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"This is one of the shoes I was wearing on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when my apartment building at 1 West Street was evacuated. I lost its mate a short while later when I tripped and fell near Battery Park, running after the first tower collapsed." -Andrea Coron Richardson. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"In the immediate grief and fear and relief after surviving these attacks, I was certain these attacks would define me forever -- that I would always be stuck as Deborah Feldman, 2 W.T.C., 44th Floor. Ten years later, and most people don't even know I am a survivor -- or they forget, because it's a part of my story that gets jumbled up with the other, more wonderfully mundane pieces of me. Since then, I've moved on to work at great companies like Google, I've gotten married and had three kids, and am a professional classical singer." -Deborah Feldman. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"We live in Greenwich Village. During the days after Sept. 11, soot and ashes rained down over our neighborhood and poured into our open window. A lot accumulated on the windowsill and it didn't seem right to throw it away. We gathered it in a jar, which we still keep until this day." -Kevin Goodman. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"This was my ID card to get into 1WTC. My office was on the 79th Floor. I went to vote on Sept. 11, so I was a few minutes late getting in. I was in the lobby when the plane hit and quicky ran out of the building. As I stood on Church Street and watched the events unfold, I saw terrible things that I will never forget. I believe that voting saved my life." -Joe Mendola. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"This is a dust mask that was given to me by some workmen in the sub-basement of 71 Broadway. I had taken refuge there when the South Tower collapsed. The concierge told everyone in the lobby to sit on the floor and be quiet. Then he directed us to go to the sub-basement where he said we would be safe and the air would be clean. I was one of only a few people who did this. I am grateful to these men for what they did for me. I hope they see this because I don't know what happened to them after the police ordered us to leave the building and go to the Brooklyn Bridge." -Meredith Lewin. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"I was downtown when the planes hit the towers on Sept. 11. I walked back to Brooklyn over the bridge to where my family and I were living on Sackett Street near the waterfront in Cobble Hill. By the time I got home, the towers had fallen and our neighborhood was littered with papers and debris that had blown across the water from the towers. This is a piece of paper I picked up in the street in front of our house -- a Peace Corps application burned around the edges." -Nicholas Arauz. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"Recovery workers gave these to me while I was volunteering at ground zero. I believe the pin is from a steel beam. There is a fragment of marble, and to me the most disturbing artifact, glass from one of the towers. I do not display these at home. They have been in a drawer for over nine years." -Stephanie Zessos. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)

"My husband, Bryan Jack, was killed on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. Although we had been together for many years, we were newly married, on June 16, 2001. When it was my turn to look for items of Bryan's that were found in the debris (the Army had prepared a book for this purpose and passed it around to family members), the one thing I hoped to find was Bryan's wedding ring. I found it and some time later his ring was returned to me. Months later I had a jeweler make it into a necklace, but I've never been able to wear it." -Barbara Rachko. Read: 9/11 memories - What we kept

(Photo courtesy: Tony Cenicola, The New York Times)