[Jim] The New Haven railroad train was running, ya know, no schedules just as they filled up they left. There were peop-there were people literally standing where you would be sitting down. It was one of these things where, whatever it takes, everybody was totally cooperative. Many people on the train covered from head to toe with the soot and the dust from the Trade Center almost in shock they were just totally bewildered didn't wanna even talk. Got back here at uh Port Chester and Marilyn picked us up took us to the house here gave- [Marylin] While I was waiting for you, um, I guess they had these fighter planes or something over NY and it was the first time I had left the house and I was-I was waiting outside the car an these two planes zipped, and there's this old cadger at the train station and he saw me look an he said, 'Well last time I saw anything like this was Pearl Harbor, this feels like Pearl Harbor.' You know people were trying to put this in some sort of context. [Marylin] It was it was very normal except when people would get off and they would when he came off and when they when he came off it was-it-it-you didn't have your mind wrapped around it yet at that point. I don't know how else to put it. I was very glad to see you, but I-there were just these dusty, bedraggled-looking people pouring out of the train. [Marylin] One of the ways I sort of describe it, because again, the majority of Americans and New Yorkers witnessed it, either saw it from out-outside or watched it on TV. It's kind of like being in a car accident, your own personal accident that the entire world knows about and is constantly asking you about. That was the reaction I had for the first 6 months. Yeah, you know, so somebody's like watching this accident take place on video let's say but I'm in the car and I went through it and I thankfully survived walked away from the accident...again none of us knew at the time that it happened-believe me if anybody had told us that at 8:40 this building would be collapsing in an hour and 10 minutes you have an hour and 10 minutes, you have 59 minutes to get out of the building, it would have been mass panic. The-the firefighters handled the situation in an incredibly professional manner, in fact, the entire emergency procedures, I thought, were handled very, very professionally. Um, I guess there's nothing you can do about the number of people going down in a confined space, but there were, everyone was very under control, I didn't see any, ya know, no panic at all. I just hoped that these guys got out of the building, I hope they had enough time that when the second building went out they had enough time to get out of our building. It's just senseless, pointless to lose their lives. I know they were trying to help us but in many cases, I'm not sure they helped us, you know, I mean there's nothing they can do, and basically I thought I could have got out of the building in 10 minutes, I got out in 45 minutes. [Marylin] How much time between the time you got out of the building and the time the tower two collapsed? [Jim] 5, it was within-under 5 minutes from the time we got out of the building. The first tower collapsed about 10... 9:50 I'm not sure exactly what it was. Within 5 minutes of our getting out the other building collapsed. Now I don't know how that would have impacted us in the North Tower. But... [Marylin] Why did they make you take that long way out? [Jim] I-I-I think, I have talked, I've talked to several other people in the firm, umm and one of the guys was almost semi-traumatized by the whole process. He, uh, he had-didn't leave the area basically. He-he-either he had come in, he had come in late I guess it was so he hadn't really progressed up into the building and he couldn't deal with the people probably jumping, ok, so he there was a small construction site that had orange plastic netting basically to capture any debris that covered over a 2 story area. He and a bunch of guys had climbed and were ripping this thing off cause he wanted to use that as a net to hold the people coming down, and the cops they told him, 'you gotta be outta your mind, you're going to get killed,' and apparently other people he witnessed, ya know, terrible things so-. [Marylin] So the main exit was taking you past places- [Jim] ...that people were jumping from the north side of the North tower down onto the front of where Seven World Trade was, I guess, is what I get the impression. Apparently there were all sorts of covered bodies when I was walking across Church Street at the time. I didn't notice it personally, I didn't see anything. [Jim] One of the things that was the most disturbing, I guess, having been-I still don't-I don't understand the curiosity of, and-and-and, the commercialism that has developed around the site I-I that's-that's-that still bothers me to this day. I mean-I-when we went back as a family we drove down Ð [MG: just the two of us] Ðwe drove down Ð [MG: the kids weren't home] Ðwe parked in Chinatown cause we couldn't get near we walked on our way, we got close. The smell was horrendous, um, it just, ya know, the it's strange, I just don't-it's-it's-no-no-no one took pictures of-there weren't that many of them when it was two magnificent buildings up, now they're taking pictures of the hole in the ground. That's a personal observation of that. [Interviewer(Craig)] Did your kids come back? [Jim] We took them all down; didn't we take them all down? [Interviewer(Craig)] I mean did they come back [MG: from school?] [Jim] No, no... [Interviewer(Craig)] Did they come back? [Jim] No, no, no... [Marylin] You know the interesting ...My son apparently; I mean this is, he's just, he's nervous. It's just-his...his personality. He didn't believe his dad was alright until he spoke to him. He was convinced that Mom was just trying to hold it together because he was so far away and that soon I was going to be driving up to give him bad news or someone would be taking him home, but he kept saying, 'OK, mom I need to talk to dad! Just, just can you-When can I talk to Dad?' And then he told me later that he just didn't believe me. Fran was a little better she believed me, I guess- [Interviewer(Craig)] Where was she? [Marylin] She was at-at-at [Jim] ...boarding school... [Marylin] No, she wasn't at boarding school then, she was at, uh, no this-this-this was-was her senior year, she was at the... [Jim] Oh I'm sorry she was in high school. Sorry. [Marylin] So she came home, ya know, later that afternoon. But umm- [Interviewer(Craig)] Did the school do anything for her? [Marylin] They-they-they had great records, I'm just amazed, they, they, ya know, well after, ya know, they realized, the school called here first to see if I had head anything and by the time they called I had heard from you so they were able to reassure her, but they did, she did lose a-a classmate did lose her father. [Jim] You know I lost, yeah, my lost (?), two of the guys I commuted with everyday. Ah, One guy worked for-who did Bob work for?... Saff (?), Sandler O'Neill and the other guy worked for Keefe, Bruyette [& Woods] Just two of the greatest-two of the nicest... [Marylins] You knew when you came home that night... [Jim] ÐTwo of the nicest guys and that's the just-just, you know, awful-just awful. [Jim] The Company regroups very quickly, an amazing situation. Our company is owned by eight of the largest Wall Street securities firms. We did not have a relocation plan. We weren't a big enough company, and didn't-no one gave that enough thought. We were able to, um, find, re-um-disaster recovery space in a disaster recovery firm-with a disaster recovery company in Jersey City. I think one of our parents; First Boston Corporation had a contract with this company. Basically it has, you know, it's one of these companies that has I think 300 trading desks and the way they rent out space to fifty companies. Overcapacity cause what are the odds on 50 companies needing the space at the same time. So we moved into that space within 2 weeks. Our company was-it was September the 11th, on October 1st, our company was back up and running only because we have a London operation, all of our computers we have a duplicate computer operation in London we needed a lot more equipment in London but essentially on October 1st we were back up and running, which, and uh, it was-it was just miraculous that that happened, I mean it, so we were very lucky. Now we relocated in a spot directly across from the World Trade Center in Jersey City and that-that was awful to be honest with you because-the-our windows looked directly across onto this, ya know, on the steam and the smoke that was coming out of the site for the first, ya know, 3 months-2 months of it-just a constant reminder. The company was good in that they hired a team of psychologists, I guess it would be. We all met at a hotel within about-within about a week and a half, a couple of guys went and found space-located this space, and then we met as a firm. We had these psychology-.psychologists there that got us into teams and then we did a lot of group therapy-an entire afternoon. It was, ya know, it was ok, I mean, it was a nice attempt, I mean, people needed to discuss it, but it was still too recent and too soon, and not enough, not enough information came out about what really went on and what was going on about it. [Jim] I-I-I don't-I'm not a person who has had any kind of trauma or bad memories about the situation I feel incredibly fortunate that, ah, I'm here to talk to you about it. Um, I'm-was a history major in college-I, um, I feel like I was standing on, the, you know, the Arizona at wor-at Pearl Harbor, and I don't know how I survived but I survived, you know, this, this insta-this is...amazing historical event. I mean-I-I don't think we have the right perspective on it, I mean-I think that our recent Iraq War, I mean everything is gonna be-goes-go back to September 11th. It's an event that changed the way U.S. vulnerability, our perception of ourselves, perception of the world. I think it's a ma-one of these major, you know, watershed events that is every bit as traumatic as Pearl Harbor, and maybe, maybe more so, it's never happened before on our, you know, the Continental United States, so in that respect I-I-I'm sort of fortunate that I, that I got, that I lived through it, and-and witnessed it... [Marylin] He was on the sofa. You were-Not great. [Jim] Yeah, well, I mean-we-we were-there was a lot of nervousness...about whether we were going to continue as a company, um, where is it going to be, how's it going to happen, ya know, it was-there was a lot of concern... [Marylin] You weren't functioning as well as you think you were... [Jim] No, I mean, but there was a lot of coming up with-very honest-we were all traumatized by it, there's no-that-that-th-it was a shock [Jim] There's not a week that goes by that we don't have groups of us sit around and just go, ya know, 'what if, what-what do you think about this?' These are ridiculous comments to make, but-The two guys that own, that-that run the firm, that started the company-why did they select a lease on the 51st floor? I'm sure that they were shown space on the 89th floor, or the 101st floor, or-I mean, I'm just trying, I-I mean the fate-the luck of-of being, you know, of being on that floor, or I mean there's just whatever incidents go by and I haven't even discussed it with Jim Toffey, but it would be interesting-did you ever see any other space?-what made you decide on that space? You know, little fates that determine why you live and why you don't live in a situation that you have no control over so...