Do you remember where you were & what you were doing on September 11, 2001 — the day the world came to a halt?
Here it is years later, and I can remember exactly what I was doing on that day.
…As I’m sure you can, too.
This Is My Recollection…
I was working from home that day and watching the morning news on TV.
Like usual, I kept flipping between Good Morning America, The Today Show, and the CBS Morning Show (…I’m a television marketer’s nightmare: I have no favorite channel).
All of a sudden, CBS was the first to break in with information and photos of the first plane as it crashed into the World Trade Center, setting the building on fire.
When I switched the channel and saw all of the other stations were covering the same thing, I realized it was incredibly serious… incredibly tragic… and incredibly real. Especially when the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania plane crashes followed soon thereafter.
I quickly called Jim at work, and he said everyone’s spouses had just begun calling the office to inform their loved ones of what had happened. Jim and his co-workers immediately turned on a TV and followed the events of the morning.
From that day on, practically every television channel on the dial began airing something about this tragic day — even MTV, CMT, and HGTV. “Normal” TV programming didn’t resume until about 2 weeks later.
But it was clear to me — as it was happening — that this was history in the making, so it seemed anti-patriotic to even think about switching to a channel that wasn’t covering some angle of the tragic September 11th events.
September 11th… Gone But Not Forgotten
I had been to the World Trade Center several times before September 11th — a couple of times — as a tourist doing the typical tourist things in New York City.
But my most vivid memories from inside the World Trade Center are from the times when I worked at Paul Smith’s College.
Each year, we hosted a huge private party at the World Trade Center (at “Windows on the World” — the restaurant with panoramic views of the City that was at the very top of the north tower).
Video Tour of Ground Zero In New York City
Here’s a 5-minute video from the site of the World Trade Center… taken a few years after the tragedy. The author describes what it looks like now, compared to what it looked like then, as well as what the crowds are like, the type of attention given to Ground Zero in New York City several years later, and some of the tributes that can be found at Ground Zero.
Here’s the Darryl Worley video “Have You Forgotten” (…the guy on the guitar is the songwriter, Wynn Varble)
