watching these real time replays of the news coverage as it happened that fateful morning of September 11th 2001 is still very unnerving..those billowy clouds of smoke rising from the doomed Towers. The scramble to get information on the air...sometimes wildly inaccurate (as you guess in the ensuing chaos). The sense as you watched the coverage on TV that this was something more..something developing that we could not imagine.
Back then I was hosting the Mark Bros morning show on KKFM..our discussion that morning had centered on the Broncos-Giants Monday night game the night before.But then that first plane struck...and then minutes later the second, And nothing would ever be the same for any us , ever again.
I have two lasting impressions of that week. One was coming home on that Tuesday and not hearing any air traffic ( I lived out by the airport at the time) and it was eerie. Except for one sound: jets on patrol high above us. It still sends chills down me to this day. Just that sound of military air patrols...cascading through the skies.
The other lasting impression was Thursday 9/13. At KKFM and the other Citadel stations there at Tiffany plaza..we decided to set up shop outside the building and do a fund raiser for the American Red Cross. We really didn't know what to expect. What we got , to this day remains for me the single most amazing radio memory I have. Hundreds..thousands maybe came by and donated. Some just wanted to talk. Shake some hands...got out of the house and see real people and not watch any more painful TV coverage. We went over 13 hours straight until it got too dark to channel traffic into the lot. I remember looking up and seeing a wall of headlights on Woodmen that still wanted to come by and donate and ...touch people.
To this day it remains the most amazing , incredible display of honest emotions and feelings and sadness and human spirit I have ever been privileged to be a part of . The amount of money raised was staggering $500,000 plus..but it was the sheer "human-" (is there such a word?) that has stayed with me all these years.
Let us never forget . Let us always strive to be better people and honor those who sacrificed and were lost, both that terrible day, and the years since in the two wars
We all recognize and have our own very personal recollections of 9/11. It forever changed things then , and continues to do so, to this day.
Mark Stevens
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I was an instructor at a local technical college on 9/11. It was so strange going to work and not seeing any students. Most of them were military wives and were under lock down. One of my co-workers was a retired NYC Transit Police Officer and he lost many friends that day. Those of us at work watched the events unfold on TV like so many Americans did. We had a moment of silence for those that had lost their lives then were sent home to be with our families. I remember pulling my kids out of school that day because I wanted to be close to them. I was lucky to have my family with me, but so many that day were not. I still cry when I think of the lives lost and those shattered by such a ruthless and bloodthirsty act and those still being lost today so that we may keep our freedom. WE REMEMBER AND ALWAYS WILL!!
Post a Comment