It must have been about 1975 or 1976 when we had this family night out. I don't recall the date or too many specific details, but do remember the ride up the express elevator to the top of what was then one of the tallest buildings in the world. Every table in the restaurant had an amazing view overlooking New York City and New Jersey. I couldn't tell you what I had for dinner, but do remember thinking at the time that it was probably the most expensive meal our family had ever bought.

I always enjoyed seeing the Twin Towers together. Maybe it was the fact that I shared something in common with the structures-we were both twins, destined to spend our lives intertwined with our mirror-image clones. Still, I'd have to say that my twin and I took the buildings for granted living in the Bronx until moving to California when we were 13. When I moved back to New York in the early 1990's to take a job with the New York Mets, I would occasionally take notice of the buildings on a clear day, amazed that I could see the tower tops miles away out on Long Island, but for the most part they would stand as overlooked dual bookends for one of the world's most impressive skylines.

Of the hundreds of times I probably saw the buildings during my second residency in New York, I really just recall paying attention to the towers one day. That fateful afternoon in February, 1993 when I first noticed smoke rising from near downtown when returning in my car to Shea Stadium after lunch. Turning on the television back in my office, I learned of the horrible bombing at the towers and breathed a sigh of relief that the terrorists' attempt at destroying the buildings hadn't fully succeeded.

A third memory of the buildings is etched in my mind when my family went to The Big Apple for a vacation in the summer of 2000 at a time when my wife was making her first-ever trip to New York. We didn't actually go to the World Trade Center that trip but did go to another lower Manhattan landmark, the Statue of Liberty. It was a cloudy day, but as we climbed to the top of the Statue of Liberty the cloud cover broke long enough to provide us a view of the tops of the Twin Towers, two needles piercing their way towards the heavens. It was a special moment that I was able to share with the woman I love.

Besides affecting me and my immediate family of twins, the events of September 11 personally affected several of my other brothers and sisters as well. One of our brothers, a radio reporter for a CBS affiliate in San Francisco, spent two weeks at Ground Zero filing reports and talking to families of victims. Another brother lives in Queens with his daughters and emailed us to let us know that the Twin Towers were no longer visible from his apartment window. His two daughters, motherless since the loss of their mom to Cancer five years ago, wrote a touching letter to the editor of the New York Times that offered advice for the children who lost parents in the tragedy, and were also interviewed by ABC's Prime Time Live on the same subject. And a sister who lives in Westchester County was perhaps having the most difficult time coping with the tragedy. The mother of four, her children were adjusting to the events well enough, but she found herself troubled by the societal changes we all now faced.

My brother and I were scheduled to make a business trip to New York City the week following September 11 and we did continue our travels as planned. Our company, Avatar Technology, has an office six blocks from the Twin Towers and we were in these offices on September 20. That rainy afternoon my twin brother and I walked up Broadway to within two blocks of Ground Zero (the below photo was taken by Mark near the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street).

As my twin and I neared the sites of the former Twin Towers, we quietly joined the other passers-by who were all now brothers and sisters in the somber atmosphere that covered New York City. Just as when you pay last respects to a loved one at a funeral, there wasn't much you could say or do.

We paid our collective silent tribute to the fallen buildings and moved on. Goodbye Twin Towers, we will miss you.

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