Never forget

It was a Tuesday, and at that time, I was off on Tuesdays. I got in the car that morning to take my 9-year-old son and the neighbor girl to school at Paramount Terrace. The car radio was on ESPN, and I wasn't sure what was up, but something was when Mike Greenberg said, "It feels a little odd to be talking about sports at this time, so we'll be switching to ABC news shortly."

What was up? I took the kids to school, and stopped at Pack-A-Sack at 34th and Western for coffee. I heard a man there tell a woman that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I thought, some idiot in a Cessna hit the building.

I drove a couple of blocks to home and flipped on the television. My God. My wife, a teacher, called minutes later saying they had just received an e-mail and what was going on? Not being able to see anything, she was fearful of a nuclear attack.

Even though I was sports editor, I knew the newspaper would be all hands on deck on this day. I called and said that I was going to Coffee Blood Center to give blood. Would you like for me to do a story on what's happening there locally? They said sure. From then on, it was a blur, especially after watching both towers fall.

That was Sept. 11, 2001. Those little events will be as clear in my mind on Sept. 11, 2030. We all knew where we were that day and what we did. May we never forget.

God bless America.