Memories always come flooding back on this day

Queensbury’s new artificial turf field is ready to go and looks great, but was it worth it?

By Ken Tingley

This wasn’t the column I wrote originally. Then I watched “60 Minutes” last night and realized I was missing the story.

It was 22 years ago today that the world as we knew it was turned upside down and the Twin Towers came crashing down.

So when Scott Pelley introduced the story “9.11: The FDNY” Sunday, the first inclination was to change the channel. The trauma was still deep in my psyche. Seeing the planes hit the towers. Seeing the people jump from the burning buildings. And hearing story after story from the families of the firemen who ran into the flames and never came back.

The feeling was still visceral.

But I kept watching.

I’m scheduled to speak to a college journalism class today. They weren’t alive on 9/11, so I’m wondering what it means to them. Do they understand how we came together as a people?

I was a new editor when the first plane hit with little experience in hard news coverage. Yet, on that day, I think our reporters and editors were at our best. I suspect most newspaper editors would say the same thing.

At the time, I thought 9/11 was a national story.

But it wasn’t.

This was a story of importance to every neighborhood in the nation.

As the events unfolded that day, reporter after reporter made there way into the newsroom. I made one assignment that morning. I sent one of our feature writers to Albany airport shortly after the second plane hit.

“What do you want me to do when I get there,” I remember Martha Petteys asking.

“You’ll know when you get there,” I told her.

Dave Blow, a veteran reporter and assistant city editor at the time, sent out an email asking everyone in the newsroom to contact anyone they knew in New York City and Washington to see if we could localize the story.

It wasn’t long before Dave was on the phone with a man trapped in a basement at ground zero.

Another reporter heard from a local men who worked at the Pentagon.

By the end of the day, we had turned out a special edition and 23 local stories. That’s twice what we usually did.

Terry Pluto, a sports columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, was in town that day to give a seminar on writing. Instead, he asked for a desk and he started writing.

Before he left for the evening, he stopped into my office. He told me I should be proud of the people in my newsroom.

“The atmosphere in the newsroom today was one of people with a purpose,” he told me. “There was no panic.”

We came together that day as a newsroom. We need to do that as a country now.

The story continued to unfold for months.

The newspaper coverage provided context, answered questions and helped the community grieve.

President George W. Bush had a 90 percent approval rating after climbing a heap of rubble at Ground Zero. Nobody talked about him being a conservative. He was our president.

We came together as a nation.

People flew flags on almost every house on every street.

There is a case to be made that this was the worst moment in our country’s history.

There is also a case to be made we were united in a way we haven’t been since.

I wonder if the college students I’m visiting with today believe this is the worst of times for our country.

It would be 13 years before I learned I knew someone who had died in the Twin Towers.

Tim O’Brien was a star basketball player at Hartwick College that I covered in 1982-82. He was a great player, a leader and a good interview. Out of curiosity I Googled his name one day.

His named popped right up.

He had worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the first tower.

It was probably over quickly. He was just 40.

He had become a successful financial guy with a wife and three kids. When they held the memorial service a week later, 3,000 people turned out.

The attacks were personal now.

It would be another year before I heard from his sister, Kathleen Tighe. Her husband had worked with Tim on the 105th floor too and didn’t come home either. He left behind her and four children.

I wrote another column.

I told Kathleen I would be thinking about her on the 9/11 anniversary.

I told her many people would be thinking about her family. That was seven years ago.

I had not thought about Kathleen in awhile. Then “60 Minutes” came on Sunday night and the memories came back about that day, those feelings and about the people who suffered the greatest losses of all.

“This time of year is always anxiety-provoking, but we attend the various services, we keep in mind the devastation brought upon our entire country that day and make peace with the fact that all the lives lost will live on through the next generation. It is up to us to educate the young and tell the stories of those lost.”

But here is the most important part of the story.

“Evil tried to destroy our family, but I am happy to say it did not succeed,” Kathleen wrote seven years ago.

That’s what the college students need to know today.

That’s what we all need to remember.

Queensbury High’s new artificial turf field is ready to go and is complete with lights for night games.

New field

I took a walk around Queensbury High School’s new turf field this weekend. It is a marvel to behold and can be used for soccer, football, field hockey, baseball and softball.

That said, I still think the millions could have been used on something more educated-oriented than sports facilities.

Sports participation is important. Where the athletes play is secondary.

Maybe I’m just getting old.

Law firm pulls plug

The village of South Glens Falls could be without legal representation in 30 days.

I don’t recall a law firm firing its client in all my years reporting on local events, but that is what Miller, Mannix, Schachner & Hafner, LLC, recently did. In a letter to the village board, it wrote,

“Our treatment by certain Trustees has become unacceptable and we are not prepared to tolerate it any further. All of the other municipalities we represent treat us with the utmost respect and professional courtesy and we have no interest in continuing attendance at Village Board meetings at which that is not the case.”

The behavior of several  local boards has been bad at times, but apparently in South Glens Falls it has reached an intolerable level. Local government often pays good money for legal advice, so for a law firm to decide it isn’t worth the hassle anymore is significant.

Crandall Library event

Some interesting new technology is coming to Warren County.

Sara Frankenfeld and Dan Forbush will introduce a soon-to-be-launched mobile app that delivers GPS narratives to your phone as you drive or walk around the region on Thursday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at Crandall Public Library. The event is being hosted by the Warren County Historical Society.

The new app will offer visitors three audio tours starting in January.

Frankenfeld and Forbush are seeking 25 volunteers to try “Explore Warren County” for three months and provide feedback.

This could be an enormous step forward in promoting tourism in the future.

New book

For all my faithful readers out there, I hope you will help me spread the word about my second volume of columns coming out next month.

There are 90 more columns chronicling the people and events that have made Glens Falls and its surrounding communities such a great place to live.

You can preorder below.