What Shoes Are You Wearing Today?

Amy Payne /

Look down at your shoes. Could you break into a run in those if you needed to?

Twelve years ago, the men and women getting ready to go to work at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon didn’t know they would be running that day.

For many New Yorkers, the shoes they picked up off the closet floor that morning would later carry them down flights of stairs and through the streets of the city. They would become worn, covered with dust, and perhaps broken in a matter of minutes.

Some would become pieces of history.

Finance executive Michele Martocci was one of the New York survivors. The shoes she wore on September 11, 2001, will be in the National September 11 Memorial Museum, which is slated to open next Spring.

So will Mickey Kross’s helmet. Parade magazine reports:

At 10:28 a.m., FDNY lieutenant Mickey Kross was in the third-floor stairwell of the north tower when he heard a “tremendous roar,” and the building began to crumble. Kross crouched down in a corner. (“I tried to crawl into my fire helmet … to protect myself,” he recalled.) Hours later, Kross and 15 others climbed out of the rubble—among the few survivors of the collapse.

That day will forever serve as a generation’s reminder of the fragility of life. Today, we give thanks for those who survived. We remember those who were lost in the horrific terrorist attacks. And we salute all the heroes who set aside their own safety in the chaos of that day to help their fellow Americans—whether firefighters, police, emergency responders, or strangers in the crowd.

We will never forget.

9/11 Never forget (600 wide)

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