The morning could not be more different.
It will always be the first thing I remember about that fateful morning eight years ago.
It was just a gorgeous morning. A brilliant blue sky. A touch of fall crispness in the air. Simply perfect.
But not for long.
After my morning sojourn to the Wawa for my cup of coffee, I returned to the office on Sept. 11, 2001, just before 9 a.m., sat at the main news desk in the newsroom, and went back to work.
That’s when I first glanced up at the TV and saw the smoke billowing from the World Trade Center tower.
It had begun.
Eight years later, the morning could not seem more different. Very simply, it’s downright miserable out, pouring down rain and howling winds. It’s supposed to be this way much of the day.
Maybe that’s appropriate.
It seems like yesterday, not eight years ago, that our world changed so radically. Most of that day went by in a heartbeat.
But there are a couple of images that have stayed with me. One is the video of that second jet slamming into the other World Trade Center Tower on live TV.
One of the things I always tell my staff in the event of a cataclysmic tragedy like this, is that inevitably there will be a connection to Delaware County.
Sept. 11, 2001 was no different.
The next day United Airlines released the passenger list of Flight 175, that second jet that slammed into the tower.
Among them was First Officer Michael Horrocks.
Home town? Glen Mills, Pa.
Funny how these things always seem to come full circle.
Tonight at Penn Oaks County Club, they will hold a fundraiser to create a scholarship fund and erect a memorial to Horrocks at his alma mater, West Chester University. Horrocks was a star quarterback there.
Before that he was Marine. Became a captain. Flew a squadron of KC-130 tankers.
Horrocks married and settled in Glen Mills. His kids went to Rose Tree Media schools.
He is one of the morer than 3,000 lives that we lost that day.
Make no mistake, we are not the same nation, not the same society today that we were on Sept. 10, 2001.
Sept. 11 changed all that.
Today there will be memorial services at Ground Zero in New York City, Shanksville, Pa., and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. There also will be a ceremony in Rose Tree Park in Upper Providence at 11 a.m., weather permitting.
The clouds and rain are a fitting reminder of what we lost on Sept. 11.
We lost all that sunshine and brilliant blue skies.
And a lot of people like Michael Horrocks.
It will always be the first thing I remember about that fateful morning eight years ago.
It was just a gorgeous morning. A brilliant blue sky. A touch of fall crispness in the air. Simply perfect.
But not for long.
After my morning sojourn to the Wawa for my cup of coffee, I returned to the office on Sept. 11, 2001, just before 9 a.m., sat at the main news desk in the newsroom, and went back to work.
That’s when I first glanced up at the TV and saw the smoke billowing from the World Trade Center tower.
It had begun.
Eight years later, the morning could not seem more different. Very simply, it’s downright miserable out, pouring down rain and howling winds. It’s supposed to be this way much of the day.
Maybe that’s appropriate.
It seems like yesterday, not eight years ago, that our world changed so radically. Most of that day went by in a heartbeat.
But there are a couple of images that have stayed with me. One is the video of that second jet slamming into the other World Trade Center Tower on live TV.
One of the things I always tell my staff in the event of a cataclysmic tragedy like this, is that inevitably there will be a connection to Delaware County.
Sept. 11, 2001 was no different.
The next day United Airlines released the passenger list of Flight 175, that second jet that slammed into the tower.
Among them was First Officer Michael Horrocks.
Home town? Glen Mills, Pa.
Funny how these things always seem to come full circle.
Tonight at Penn Oaks County Club, they will hold a fundraiser to create a scholarship fund and erect a memorial to Horrocks at his alma mater, West Chester University. Horrocks was a star quarterback there.
Before that he was Marine. Became a captain. Flew a squadron of KC-130 tankers.
Horrocks married and settled in Glen Mills. His kids went to Rose Tree Media schools.
He is one of the morer than 3,000 lives that we lost that day.
Make no mistake, we are not the same nation, not the same society today that we were on Sept. 10, 2001.
Sept. 11 changed all that.
Today there will be memorial services at Ground Zero in New York City, Shanksville, Pa., and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. There also will be a ceremony in Rose Tree Park in Upper Providence at 11 a.m., weather permitting.
The clouds and rain are a fitting reminder of what we lost on Sept. 11.
We lost all that sunshine and brilliant blue skies.
And a lot of people like Michael Horrocks.
Comments
Yesterday you said you won't talk about the group of 5 huffers who crashed their car into a tree on Route 1 near Glen Mills because you wanted us all to move on, right? So why did you talk about 9/11/01 today? Don't you want to move on from that?
As a member of the media it is your job to report the facts! Please don't water them down or not report something because the father of a drug user told you not to. It was negligent not to report the 5 huffers in yesterdays story since they were so similar cases. It also would be negligent not to report 9/11/01 on 9/11/09. You were wrong yesterday and you pandered to others.
Luther Sloan