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I will never forget where I was or what I was doing on that fateful day 5 years ago. I was late for work, driving well over the speed limit trying to get to work that day. I was listening to my 95.3 Country FM radio station here in Toronto, listening to Tim McGraw or Toby Keith at the time when a news bulletin came across the radio.

“World Trade Center on Fire…” with little more detail than that.

Minutes later, follow-up bulletins came across the station interrupting the music…

“An Aircraft has hit one of the towers of the world trade center.

At that moment, I did what I rarely ever do, I switched my FM to AM to 680 or 640. It’s an all news station here. I then listened and absorbed as much of the details as possible. When I got into work.. few had heard so I was the harbinger of bad news.

I then spent the next 30 minutes or so trying to hook up a working TV to piss poor cable so that we could follow the CNN broadcasts. All of our local Toronto and Canadian news were carrying the CNN feeds anyways.

Around 11am that morning.. I had to pull myself away from the TV at work.. and go down into the city to a dental appointment. (root canal)

Heading down into the city (I at that time worked north of Toronto) it was like entering a Ghost town. Toronto, around the same time as the Pentagon hit, Our own City Hall had been evacuated for a small fire (although.. given the news from the states, I’m sure some people in City hall that morning assumed the fire was related). Driving across the lake at the bottom of the city… and passing all the key landmarks and major streets, and seeing that they were deserted.

I was making such good time with the lack of traffic on the road I visited my wife at work before my appointment. It felt good to see her that morning. After a short embrace, I was off to the dentist.

Arriving early for that appointment, I sat outside in the sun, looking at the few people on the street. Clearly, everyone was concerned, and probably somewhat paranoid.

When my dentist arrived.. we went upstairs, and he proceeded to attempt 3 times to freeze me. It didn’t take. We opted to move along anyways.. and I felt pain like I never had before.

Against his best wishes, I got into my car, drove back to work, and put in 2 more hours that day because it needed to be done.

Going home that night, I never felt so relieved to get home and out of the car. Seeing my wife.. and later calling friends and family to chat and ponder the events of the day.

911 today.. is just as sharp as it was for me 5 years ago. Maybe more so.

At 33 years of age.. I’ve had what I call two JFK events. The first shuttle explosion, and the 911 incident. Both stand out sharp in my mind. 911 however, is the only one that has felt personal. I was moved to recount my day from 5 years ago after watching the Never Forget 911 segment from Howard TV. It was an awesome retrospective of the events of the Stern Show that day. I was moved to tears at one point after watching Robin in however comment on the Pentagon taking a hit.

For some, 911 is a morbid memory that no one wants to remember. For me.. It’s something I never want to forget.

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