By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
Just like the day President Kennedy was shot, if you were old enough to have clear memories, you remember where you were.
September 11, 2001 started like an ordinary Tuesday. I was at work by 7:00 A.M. It wasn’t until coworkers who started at 8:00 began to arrive that I knew something was wrong. Those who had their radios on had heard that a plane had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The terrible news was continuous throughout the day and for many days after.
Joann and I have never really talked about that day. We have an agreement that even if we speak about something unpleasant, we’re only allowed a minute or two to kvetch and then we turn our attention to the backroads.
It wasn’t until 2016 that we stumbled on a memorial in Ohio dedicated to 9-11 and including a piece of twisted steel from the Word Trade Center site.
The program of giving 9-11 artifacts to communities began in 2010, after New York City claimed thousands of artifacts. The artifacts were free. They had to be used for a public display and the application had to describe the display so that they could match an artifact to the project. Some pieces of steel were so large that they were cut into smaller pieces, some as small as 6 inches.
The program gave more than 2600 artifacts to 1,585 fire and police departments, schools, museums and other non-profit organizations in every state and 10 other countries. The artifacts were stored at JFK International Airport's Hangar 17. The last artifact left the hangar in the summer of 2016.
After finding our first memorial, I started to research before our trips to make sure we weren’t missing any in our travels.
On the first day of our 2017 trip to Ohio, we visited Rockford, Illinois and their First Responders and 9/11 Memorial.
And just last fall, at the end of September, we made our way to Soldiers Walk Veterans Memorial Park in Arcadia, Wisconsin.
This park had also been on my list to visit for several years. It is 54 acres, and the largest Memorial Park in the United States, outside of Washington D.C.
The park is about 40 minutes north of La Crosse and is free to visit. You can visit their website to find out more.
Whatever you do today, take a few minutes to remember those who perished that day, and those who have died since from illnesses related to their work at the site.
We will never forget,
Ruth
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Shunpiking To Heaven Backroads Blog
Showing posts with label 9/11. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 9/11. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
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