This month marked the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. While that event encompassed a little over two hours of time, as opposed to the current pandemic situation which has affected our lives for months, I think we will always be able to recall what was happening in our lives for either occasion.

I distinctly remember being at work at The B. B. Bradley Co. in Painesville, Ohio. My desk was just outside my boss’s office and he had a TV in his office. Someone must have notified
him to turn on the news. Several of us were in and out of his office all morning watching the events unfold in total shock and disbelief. One of my sisters was living in Manhattan at the time and none of us had any way of getting through to her to see if she was OK. Thankfully, she was.

Between the hours of 8:45 and 10:50 am that morning, four terrorist-controlled planes crashed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center and The Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania. Three thousand people died and many more were injured. I think besides the feelings of loss and mourning for the lives lost, many Americans couldn’t help but feel a new sense of fear for dangers that they had never felt would touch them and confusion about how this had happened. The sense of security that we all felt in this country was somewhat compromised that day.

To mark the occasion, I asked some of our staff here at Truckmen where they were when the 9/11 attack occurred. Some were home. Dennis W. recalls working in his garage and hearing the news from his wife. Melissa J. was in her bedroom folding clothes and babysitting a friend’s children along with caring for her own when she heard the news on the TV. Jim N.
was hard at work on his ranch in Bennett, CO rounding up cattle that day. Bruce F. was working out of his home office at the time for J & R Sales when his wife came in to tell him what was going on. Two of our youngest, Brett F. and Kevin W. were about 13 or 14 at the time, so they would have been in school.

Many were at their workplace, as I was. Lisa J. was working at K-mart and ended up watching the events unfold on the full wall of TV’s in the electronics department. John T. was driving a truck at the time and saw the news at a truck stop in Joplin, MO. Tom B. worked at Basic Aluminum Castings in Cleveland. Bonnie C. worked at the Ashtabula County Auditor’s office and watched the TV down in the basement of that building. Two people were here at Truckmen at the time- Mike M. and Dave J. Dave was working in the shop and Mike in the warehouse and both came over to our old office building at the time and watched the news unfold on the TV there.

That day will live in our memories forever and will serve as a
testament to the lives lost. We will not forget them.