Tarrytown Man an Integral Part of 9/11 Project

Photo by Donaldroszz / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

My article about one Hudson Valley resident’s personal story of this horrific and tragic aftermath, and his part in our nation’s healing, was initially published in 2013 and was updated to reflect the landmarks’ completion. He was sworn in as Chief of the Tarrytown Fire Department in April 2026.

After living through the nightmare and subsequent aftermath of September 11, 2001, Ray Tuohy learned his boss had a contract for construction on the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, part of the World Trade Center (WTC) complex. Tuohy, who has worked construction in New York City since 1997, requested to be part of that job — and was made foreman.

“It’s what I do,” the Tarrytown resident humbly said, four years into the project. No stranger to the WTC, Tuohy worked there from 1990 to 1993, leaving his job before the building was first attacked on February 26, 1993.

“It sounded like a freight train with the devil riding on it,” he said when the North Tower crashed into the clear September 11 morning. “There was dust everywhere, and it looked like something out of a bad Godzilla movie.”

Television depicted the visual and auditory; one could only imagine the emotional impact of being there. “I saw shoes everywhere, in the street, it was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen,” he said.

The steel towers twisted as they fell into the Manhattan streets. One woman fell, he said, and another person picked her up.

“Everyone came together, no barriers of race, religion, beliefs — we were all one that day, and for a few months,” Tuohy said quietly. “I miss that. I’d like to bring back the feeling when people were friendly to one another.”

Making his way home that day was no easy feat, he said, despite acumen and training as a proud member of Tarrytown Volunteer Fire Department. Once back in Tarrytown, he joined the entire department on standby for the duration of the day.

The next day, Ladder 37 was called to the Bronx for mutual aid to cover FDNY Truck 37’s calls, and Tuohy joined the crew. Two days later, he went to work on the site.

“My brother, Andrew Tuohy, was in town; my father, Matthew Tuohy, though retired from Engine 85, the Bronx, said he ‘needed to be with his boys,’” he said. Despite ending his own 15-hour tour with the TVFD, Tuohy set off with them.

One of the amazing experiences, he recalled, was that people reached out to help one another, like those on the West Side Highway handing water bottles to emergency personnel and first responders. Thousands of people lined the highway, cheering those headed for lower Manhattan to help search for friends, loved ones, colleagues, and bodies.

The community rallied support for its own and for those less fortunate, taking up collections, organizing fundraisers and drives. Diane Tuohy assembled 10 family members to help trucks at the American Red Cross in White Plains. Tuft’s boot drive raised $6,000 for the Andrew A. Fredericks National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, honoring one of the 343 firefighters who died that day rescuing others.

One landmark built at the WTC site is the transportation hub, known as the Oculus. Its retractable skylight opens each year on the morning of September 11, allowing a beam of pure sunlight to fall directly onto the floor inside. Nearby, visitors pass behind the bronze panels of the reflecting pools.

Two of the nearly 3,000 names engraved in the bronze panels edging each pool — victims of the 1993 and 2001 attacks, and symbolically grouped together — are Tuohy’s cousins, Port Authority officer Paul William Jurgens, and Supreme Court officer Thomas Edward Jurgens, 26.

Set in the footprint of the former Twin Towers, and dedicated on September 11, 2011, they symbolize a void and also healing, he said.

The new One World Trade Center, north of the memorial, stands 1,776 feet tall, its 200-foot dimension is the same square footprint as the Twin Towers. Its observation deck is 1,362 feet, the height of Tower Two; the glass parapet, reflecting light in it like a kaleidoscope, is 1,368 feet, the height of Tower One.

“We’re building what the hate tore down,” Tuohy said, his voice quiet.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2026

My Ghosts from Teenage Halloweens Past

They’re he-e-e-e-ere: plastic pumpkins with an upright hand in the center of each, gauze draped over signs, witches and spiders and orange and black everywhere. One store had small bags with designs for trick-or-treating.

Holiday creep season is here. A few supermarkets dedicated the center of an entire aisle to candy and decorations.

Thursday afternoon I was doing errands and stopped in the supermarket for a few things. One wall was lined with rows of candy, stickers and decorated trick-or-treating bags for the little ones.

When I was in junior high, friends and I would each take an old pillowcase and head out to collect the night’s candy. It was easier to carry than a bag with handles.

We lived in a complex of apartment buildings, and the lobby of every building had someone stationed there to let in trick-or-treaters. Then we’d go from floor to floor and do our thing.

People who weren’t home would usually leave a bowl of candy by the door. We loved those ‘take all you want’ signs.

Silly String ™ and Crazy Foam ™ or Reddi-Whip ™ were our props. These were necessary to fend off older kids who might surprise us. They sometimes did.

One of those surprises, a telltale piece of egg white, remained affixed to the side of our building for decades. The thrower of said egg remains unknown, yet I can see it if I look sideways from the terrace, a permanent reminder of Halloween past.

Then there was the other side of Halloween: a no-holds-barred candy event because the next day was a new month, the start of a new diet.

For a heavy teenager who wore pants from the local Army-Navy store because they fit, it was a chance to overindulge. I told myself I would never eat sweets again.

That didn’t work out so well.

November brought Thanksgiving and celebrations with family, and then came December and more holidays. So my best friend and I decided New Year’s Day was the day for resolutions. We were seniors in high school.

She succeeded yet despite my best intention, well, you can guess. It took an acceptance letter to college the following month to motivate me once and for all.

By graduation I was minus 30 pounds and feeling better about myself. My motivation to lose the remaining 30 pounds during freshman year while going to parties, including at Halloween, was the boy next door.

He was two years older, and I had a crush on him all through high school. While still shy, I was no longer the heavy teenager from the school bus stop. That’s for another post.

Losing weight was one of my most difficult teenage challenges.

– – – – –

This past Thursday at the aforementioned store I looked for a chocolate bar. One of my favorites was on sale two for $3.

It was a regular size; the wrapper said 200 calories, though anything up 250 calories is fair game. I only wanted one and always check labels, a habit that will remain with me forever.

High school was a long time ago yet now and then I feel like the shy teenager, albeit thin, from the school bus stop.

I’d like to know what you think.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2026

Where Did the Accountability Go?

Photo by chris robert on Unsplash

If I had to name one thing that got to me out of every atrocious, insulting, condescending, demeaning and more thing he said, then it would be that clip. I was furious when I saw it. How dare he? I won’t dignify what he said.

He turned our closest allies against us, started foolish trade wars and spends his time cozying up to tyrants. Everything on his agenda seems designed to weaken us at home and isolate us abroad.

Has he so few real responsibilities that he probably gets up in the morning and decides what he’s going to ruin next?

Besides the White House, its grounds and landscaping, the Oval Office and the entire District, he’s doing his best to destroy our Constitution, our 250-year-old country, our freedom of speech, our voting rights and anything else on his personal to-do list.

They’re distractions from the real issues. Last night I was watching cable news and was disappointed that anchor after anchor repeated the same news. A different way.

He wants that. He wants the endless, repetitive distraction.

If the media did its job and ignored these distractions, then they would eventually leave the news cycle.

I blame the Republicans in Congress and especially the Supreme Court for looking the other way and for refusing to hold him accountable or limiting executive overreach. Instead of supporting and defending the Constitution, they protect their political careers and are complicit in this ongoing disaster.

As an election inspector, I see how our system works from the inside. Our elections are free, fair and secure. He votes by mail while attacking the process and trying to make us doubt the results.

The 2000 election was down to the wire with hanging chads in Florida. What a mess. After a fierce legal battle, Al Gore conceded to George W. Bush and told the nation, in part:

”Now the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court’s decision, I accept it. I accept the finality of this outcome which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College. And tonight, for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession.”

That’s how leaders behave. We are a laughingstock to the rest of the world. He treats our country like his personal demolition derby.

The ongoing standoff with the arts community sounds and looks like a childish jealous rage, a temper tantrum gone awry. He threatened to destroy The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts over a naming dispute and a desperate obsession with personal branding.

I can’t wait until his insecurities and petty grievances are scrubbed, removed, bulldozed and demolished. From everywhere.

Early voting is underway in many states. Election Day is November 3. VOTE.

I’d like to know what you think.

Copyright © Janie Rosman and Kaleidoscope Eyes 2026