I know! In many ways those two decades feel as though they passed in a blink. I had only flown out of the country once prior to 9/11 and it was to Cancun Mexico. Pre-TSA things were a lot more relaxed. I actually brought a Leatherman multitool with me on the flight not realizing that it would be an issue (I was very naive back then). The flight crew took it, locked it up during the flight and gave it back to me after we touched down. These days I wouldn't have been detained for that.
We spent a lot of time in NYC in 2017-18 but I couldn't bring myself to visit Ground Zero. Maybe on some future trip.