Where were you? That question was asked of me several times during the Sept. 11 Observance on Saturday morning, Sept. 11, 2021.
Well, I got to thinking about the answer and I know exactly where I was. I was in Northern Wisconsin, staining the deck on the new house we had just built that spring. Most of the time I never listen to a radio or TV while I’m up there because I like the peace and quiet. But for some reason, I put a portable radio on the deck while I was working, listening to the local Rice Lake station.
About 8:50AM or so, they broke in from New York to say a plane had just hit one of the Twin Towers down in the Financial District in New York City. Then the report said another plane hit the second tower and I went inside and turned on the television just in time to see a replay of the second plane hitting the tower!
As I was thinking back, I wondered. Where was I on Dec. 1, 1941?
Anyone who is at least 83 or older remembers, I am sure.
I was sitting in the living room playing with my brick block (My favorite toy!), building a house. My dad was listening to the radio. All of a sudden, he yelled, “No!”
I thought I had done something wrong and began to cry. My mom came in and told me Dad was reacting to something on the radio. Years later, my dad recalled the day by telling me he was listening to the Bears playing the Chicago Cardinals when the announcer broke in with the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The next big “Where were you?” happened on Nov. 22, 1963. I was a high school band director in Milledgeville, Illinois, in the middle of a pep assembly for an upcoming basketball game with rival Polo High School.
The social studies teacher stuck his head in the door of the gym and said to us teachers, “The President has just been shot.”
Well, some teachers laughed because the teacher who told us was always playing tricks on us. Then he assured us that in fact President John Kennedy had been shot. About an hour or so later, we heard that the President had been killed. Another sad day in U.S. history.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the 58th anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination and the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11.
Let us never forget who we are and why this nation continues to endure.
Thank our military and all our first responders. Whenever I listen to some of their stories and see the tragic messes they respond to, I am amazed at their commitment toward saving others who are in danger.
We shall never forget!
