9/11.

“Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day

Out in the yard with your wife and children

Working on some stage in LA

Did you stand there in shock at the site of

That black smoke rising against that blue sky

Did you shout out in anger

In fear for your neighbor

Or did you just sit down and cry”

For anyone who is old enough to truly remember September 11, 2001, it’s very likely you remember exactly where you were when you heard America was under attack. Depending on your time zone, you may have been at work, on your way to work, or waking up to go to work, school, or preparing for a day with your children or other love ones. But chances are, you remember.

Right now I keep hearing, “I can’t believe it’s been 10 years” and all I can say is, “it has.”

Today’s “Snap.Shot.” is not about that Tuesday that I will never forget, it’s all about that cold Sunday morning nearly 60 years prior. When I was growing up, there was a date that was etched in my head ever since I can remember…it was December 7, 1941, “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy.”  For those of who you who are looking this up on Yahoo, it’s the day Pearl Harbor was attacked.

It doesn’t feel good that I am able to remember an attack on America in my lifetime, but in some ways it places me in a position to be able to tell my kids and their kids about the day my grandparents and parents told me about, that changed their lives. I want them to know that America is a great country, one that came together in 1941 and united like no other time in modern history. I also want them to know it was repeated in 2001. We can never forget what happened, and we can never say it won’t happen again---we just cannot say for sure but I pray it never does.

In 1941 my parents had recently turned 11 and 13; they remember sitting around the radio listening to the horror happening in what was a world away. At that time, Hawaii was not even part of the United States, so it was really not familiar to the average person; that changed very quickly. Unlike what we saw on TV, they had to listen and try to grasp the enormity of it all. I can’t imagine how they did it---but they never forgot and passed on the story to the next generation. That’s me.

I do hope I never put aside the morning I was listening to the radio at the office, and heard on the “Eric and Kathy Show” that a “small plane was believed to have crashed into the World Trade Center Building”---at that point in time we had no idea. A few minutes later we did.

The photo above has been in “Snap.Shot.” and for this day, it’s worth showing again. Draped over the side of the Wrlgley Building in Chicago is a 9-story American Flag. Unfortunately it is removed after event like 9/11 and the 4^th of July, but I wish it wasn’t. I love America and am very proud to be a citizen; I wish this flag was up every day to let anyone who visits our city, state, or country that America is a great country that will never forget. At least if I can help it.

Thanks for stopping by.