'I'll never forget that image'
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Carlos Payne has seen a lot of the United States. As a tour-bus driver, the Calhoun County resident frequently makes trips to California, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington D.C. and Florida. Ask him what trip he remembers the most, and Payne will tell you about Sept. 11, 2001, a day when his itinerary took him within a few blocks of the World Trade Center in New York City. He was driving a senior adult group from Liberty Baptist Church of Chelsea to see a Broadway Musical. They never saw the show, but none of them ever will forget the sights they did see that day. As Payne was driving the group that morning on a side trip to view the Statue of Liberty, the twin towers of the World Trade Center came into view through his bus window. Payne saw a giant hole in the building. “We were just sitting there with our mouths open,” he said. He and his passengers had come in view of a tragedy that was still playing out. They became aware of a plane approaching in the distance. “Why is this plane coming in so close? What good can he do?” Payne remembers thinking. “We never thought he was going to hit the second building.” The second plane disappeared from sight, then burst through the building with explosions and smoke, Payne said. “I’ll never forget that image,” he said. The bus was four or five blocks from the buildings when the second plane hit. “If we had been 30 minutes earlier we’d been underneath all of that,” he said. Payne decided that now was not the time to go to the Statue of Liberty. He turned the bus around and turned on the radio to try to find some news. He and many of his passengers began trying to call family members on cell phones. The cell networks were jammed for three hours, Payne said. His family back home in the Alexandria-Wellington area knew Payne was in New York, but they did not know where the day’s itinerary would take him. His wife, Debra, was at work at Anniston Anesthesia when the attacks happened. She did not hear the news until her sister-in-law called, asking where Carlos was. When she couldn’t reach him on his cell phone, Debra began to worry. “I didn’t do much work the rest of the day,” she said. Her daughter called from school in a near-panic. “She just wanted to know where her daddy was and if he was OK,” she said. “I just had to trust that that he was safe where he was and he was going to be OK” The bus company was first to contact Carlos and relayed to Debra that he was safe. Meantime, for Carlos Payne, the rest of the day was surreal. “New York City was quiet that night for the first time I’d ever been there,” Payne said. He’s surprised now at how well the city recovered. Even two or three years after the attacks, he said, the city seemed back to its typical horn-honking hustle and bustle. But five years later, the memories of what he saw that day are never far from his mind. Any time the attacks are mentioned, he said, he vividly remembers the scene. “I always think of those innocent people,” he said. His experience comes up frequently on long bus rides. “If someone gets to talking about it, I’ll say, ‘Well you know, I was there and I saw it happen,’” he said. His captive audience always is eager to hear his story as the miles roll by, he said. Payne takes tours to New York City about three times a year and frequently ventures into Canada on those trips. Last week, he was in Branson, Missouri. “Some people think it’s crazy, but I enjoy driving,” said the 20-year bus veteran. “Where else can you get paid to go around and see the country?” Not yet a grandfather, Payne said he looks forward to the day when he can tell his story to his grandchildren. “When they get old enough, we’ll tell them, ‘Grandpa was there when that happened,’” he said. “I’m sure it will be in their history books.” Sept. 11 EventsAnniston Fire Department Memorial Ceremony 8:30 a.m. Monday Centennial Park Jacksonville State University "9/11: A Remembrance" 7 p.m. Monday Leone Cole Auditorium |
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