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American Morning

Dust Created by Collapse of World Trade Center Reminder Worth Keeping for Some

Aired November 20, 2001 - 09:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The dust created by the collapse of the World Trade Center covered much of lower Manhattan, seeping into apartments, stores and offices, making many of them unusable. For many New Yorkers, that dust is a reminder after terrible time, but for some, it's a reminder worth keeping.

Here is CNN's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You can sweep it away, you can vacuum it up, or you can just leave it, leave it right where the dust settled in an unsettling display.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's scary is what I think, but I think it's really is important. It's hard to see, but it's important.

MOOS (on camera): How bad was the destruction here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we see behind is exactly how the store looked like.

MOOS (voice-over): Chelsea Jeans is located just a block from what's left of the World Trade Center. When the tower collapsed, that infamous cloud of ash came through smashed windows and smothered David Cohen's store.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like a black and white movie, used to be some colors.

MOOS: More than two months later, the store has reopened, but in memory of September 11th, Levi jeans and Ralph Lauren sweaters remain covered in ash, enclosed in glass.

DAVID COHEN, OWNER, CHELSEA JEANS: Years from now, the city will build a beautiful memorial. Everything will be beautiful, nice, green, you know, flowers and trees, but that's not the truth. That's real September 11th. That's what happened.

MOOS: Just around the corner at 10 Toe Shoes, the new arrival don't look so new. The new shoes are inside. Those in the window were there on September 11th. Passers by stop to take photos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Remnants of what happened.

MOOS: Business is awful and owner David Cohen is reluctantly planning to clean his front window.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have customers buying the shoes with the dust. They didn't want it buy it to wear it; they wanted to buy it for memory, you know.

MOOS: It's even more eerie how you recall how some terrified New Yorkers lost their shoes in a stampede to escape the collapsing showers. The dust shrine at Chelsea Jeans is permanent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It gives me some comfort, I don't why.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The goosebumps.

MOOS: Though some suspect the store's out to cash in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's nothing to make money off; it's something to remember.

MOOS: Cohen says he spent $10,000 constructing the display. He remembers the day a woman showed up with her 10-year-old child.

COHEN: They walked in and she asked if she can take some dust, I said sure. What for? And when is telling me, the father of this child was in one of the buildings.

MOOS: These days, the store plays uplifting music, and passers by are free to do some window shopping for the soul.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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