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Friday, September 11, 2009

Where Were You?

You know its September 11th today and you know what that date means in history. I never ever dreamed that when I went to bed on the night of September 10, 2001 what I would wake up to the next morning.
I had been working the night shift at CJME doing my thing and watching a Monday night NFL game between the Giants and the Broncos. It was in that game that Rob Vanstone's favourite player, Denver receiver Ed McCaffrey had suffered a broken leg. I remembered saying I will have to get Rob's view on that at Rider practice the next day.
My phone rang on the morning of September 11 and it was the legendary Dale Isaac. Dale wanted to know if I had a contact number for former Regina Pat Garth Murray--who was in the Rangers training camp at the time. I told him where it was and then asked him why never ever imagining what he would say.
In fact all he said after asking if I had just gotten up was to turn on the TV because it would be self-explanatory and its worse than any movie you would ever see. I turned on the TV and then just became transfixed with what was happening in front of me. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The World Trade Center was in flames after two hijacked airliners crashed into them.
I must have sat in front of the TV for an hour without moving before realizing I was probably needed at work.
Its still a little surreal to see the now infamous videos of those planes slamming into the buildings and then the buildings crumbling to earth and the way the world changed after that. To tell you the truth, I'm still amazed that many more didn't die on that day--both at the Trade Center and at the Pentagon. Yes, almost 28-hundred lost their lives, but I truly thought it would be in the 5-thousand area. If it had been around the noon hour when it happened, that figure may have been expanded.
I can only hope I never, ever have to experience something like that again whether I am involved in radio or not.

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