The Twin Towers
What it was like, rocketing up 107 floors in a tin can.
I had a strange day when I was trying not to get a banking job in New York City. I somehow left Ithaca with a nice blue suit but no wallet for summer intern job interviews at Citibank and Bankers Trust.
What do you do when you have no money in New York and time to kill in 1975? You walk. I walked to the WTC Towers. I took the elevator to the top. Which was free. It felt free. Cheap and cheesy. A tinfoil box swaying like a bitch all the way up. I swear. You could feel the whole building moving back and forth. I don’t get seasick but I was tempted. The slanty elevators of the Eiffel Tower also sway but at least afford you a view. At WTC, it was all Alcoa, and not even shiny.
Later, I had interviews. They didn’t want Cornell students. The Bankers Trust guy thought I was as boring as I thought he was. We parted cordially. The Citibank guy gave me a pep talk about working for the government instead of the world’s biggest, most glorious bank, to make life better for the little people he didn’t care about. I thanked him and was only sorry he didn’t want to buy me lunch. I was hungry.
I got back to Ithaca somehow. Tip: Don’t go to New York without your wallet.
Wound up interning at Scott Paper in Philadelphia. In the tax department. Where I learned that tax accounting is a Hell I would never survive. End of MBA plans.
Everything works out. In the end. I got out of the WTC Towers years before they fell down. But after my ride up and back I always knew they would fall down. Eventually.
What do you do when you have no money in New York and time to kill in 1975? You walk. I walked to the WTC Towers. I took the elevator to the top. Which was free. It felt free. Cheap and cheesy. A tinfoil box swaying like a bitch all the way up. I swear. You could feel the whole building moving back and forth. I don’t get seasick but I was tempted. The slanty elevators of the Eiffel Tower also sway but at least afford you a view. At WTC, it was all Alcoa, and not even shiny.
Later, I had interviews. They didn’t want Cornell students. The Bankers Trust guy thought I was as boring as I thought he was. We parted cordially. The Citibank guy gave me a pep talk about working for the government instead of the world’s biggest, most glorious bank, to make life better for the little people he didn’t care about. I thanked him and was only sorry he didn’t want to buy me lunch. I was hungry.
I got back to Ithaca somehow. Tip: Don’t go to New York without your wallet.
Wound up interning at Scott Paper in Philadelphia. In the tax department. Where I learned that tax accounting is a Hell I would never survive. End of MBA plans.
Everything works out. In the end. I got out of the WTC Towers years before they fell down. But after my ride up and back I always knew they would fall down. Eventually.
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