John Breunig (opinion): What do you remember from 9/11? A Connecticut history center is collecting narratives

A man stands in the rubble on Sept. 11, 2001, calling out asking if anyone needs help, after the collapse of the first World Trade Center Tower in New York City. Doug Kanter/AFP via Getty Images On 9/11, 9/12, 9/13, 9/14, 9/15 … of 2001 we worked in the newsroom to document the lives of area residents killed in the terrorist attacks. A decade later we marked the anniversary by shifting the focus to chronicle the stories of survivors. Advertisement Article continues below this ad But anyone who watched that day unfurl has stories to tell as well. Michael Macari took over as executive director of Stamford History Center on July 1 this year and went right to work to preserve memories residents have of Sept. 11, 2001. He never saw this as a sprint to mark the 25th anniversary that arrives Friday. 'It's not going to ever lose its place in history for a thousand years,' he says of 9/11. The Hour Logo Want more Norwalk Hour? Make us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search. Add Preferred Source His inspiration is the Shoah video project filmmaker Steven Spielberg launched in 1994 to preserve the testimonials of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust. Advertisement Article continues below this ad 'Every resident of Stamford, whether they were 8 years old or 80 years old, has a story, and we need to collect them,' Macari says. 'And the History Center gave me the platform to do that.' There are collections of related testimonials elsewhere in Connecticut. Voices Center for Resilience (formerly Voices of September 11th), for example, collects narratives from survivors and first responders at voicescenter.org. Macari, though, is seeking the stories of the everyperson, aspiring to capture ephemeral details before they permanently fade. He shared the invitation through the museum's internal channels and has already received about a dozen responses. The invitation asks that submissions be limited to the 250-500 word range. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Preserving 9/11 memories Stamford residents can provide 250- 500-word accounts of 9/11 to exec@stamfordhistory.org. Written accounts, along with photos, articles and artifacts can also be delivered to the Stamford History offices at 1508 High Ridge Road any Thursday, Friday or Saturday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. 'Nobody listens,' he has already learned. 'You're telling me that?' I respond as someone who facilitates reader contributions for a living. The invite is already reviving chilling memories, such as how everyone at Ground Zero in the days following the attacks stopped and hushed every time a body was recovered from the rubble and passed through a cordon of responders. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Macari emailed me a draft of his own account Friday, which is (ahem) 650 words. It's a sample of how compelling tapestries can be woven from the details. He recalls his former TV production partner filming on the 30th floor of the World Trade Center when the first plane hit, leaving his camera behind as he escaped. Another friend exited the building as a body landed in front of him. 'And a month or so after that, I had a project in Harlow, England,' Macari writes. 'I will never forget the British taxi driver who picked me up at Heathrow in London, and as I got in, he turned, looked to me and said, 'So how are you all doing, Yank?' ' Yes, there was a time when foreigners expressed compassion toward Yanks. When our Connecticut newsrooms produced a special section dedicated to survivors for the 10-year anniversary in 2011, I urged reporters to ask each subject if they saved any mementos from 9/11. Fairfield firefighter Doug Chavenello pocketed a shard of glass from the dust and had it mounted. New Canaan's Christopher Murphy wouldn't let his wife discard the blue Brooks Brothers shirt he was wearing when he watched the North Tower collapse. Stamford's Michael O'Leary held on to the key card key that granted him access to the World Trade Center. Brookfield's Matt Grimes commemorated the day with a tattoo on his right deltoid of an eagle, an American flag and the words 'Remember — 9/11/01.' Advertisement Article continues below this ad As the Stamford Advocate's city editor, I was coordinating coverage in the newsroom 25 years ago. I long ago erased the white board on which reporters scrawled confirmations of the dead. So, my professional memento is a M&M dispenser that was perched on the corner of my desk long before 9/11. When we brought a therapist to the newsroom to support staff members who were relentlessly covering bleak news for weeks, I asked her if there was anything small I could offer colleagues as respite. 'Chocolate never hurts,' she suggested. 'Already got that covered,' I countered. I refilled the dispenser with so many M&Ms 25 years ago. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The dispenser is now in our house. Our personal 9/11 memento is a book. We could build a cottage from the thousands of books our home contains. This tome stands out as the heaviest in both weight (10 pounds) and subtext. We received it as a Christmas gift in 2001 from my wife's aunt, who bought it from the Borders bookstore at the WTC. The only reason Lisa's aunt survived is because she was running a breakfast meeting for Aon on the ground floor of the South Tower. She abandoned her high heels during the scramble through rubble. A stranger spotted her in the street and gave her a pair of her own running shoes, reasoning that they were about the same shoe size. I can't imagine any Christmas gift being more fitting in 2001. Martin W. Sandler's 'America A Celebration!' is a collection of Getty photographs documenting our nation's most memorable moments. The photo of the World Trade Center in the book is during its construction in 1970. The final image in these 1,024 pages is of the new millennium arriving with the sunrise in the nation's farthest point east in Lubec, Maine. A glint of hope followed 21 months later by a defining morning of despair. I still can't wrap my mind around the book being at the World Trade Center just before the site was transformed into Ground Zero. So, it resonates with me that Macari is inviting contributors to share artifacts for a future exhibit. He's still brainstorming about whether the content will be hosted in a digital archive, a website or a permanent exhibit. He's a filmmaker, so recorded testimonials seem inevitable. He also envisions a 'book for all eternity.' But he's not putting deadlines on this 'perpetual project.' Advertisement Article continues below this ad '9/11 was world history,' he says. 'It will be remembered for as long as the planet is populated.' Leave it to a historian to look to the future. Advertisement Article continues below this ad