9/11

BY GLYNIS CRAWFORD SMITH

THE HIGHLANDER

The 15th Annual 9/11 Day of Remembrance Ceremony of the Rotary Club of Marble Falls was held at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 11, at Lakeside Park.

Mayor John Packer read the proclamation that followed the national designation of the day as Patriots Day and Burnet County Judge James Oakley, a proclamation of the State of Texas designation of 9/11 as First Responders Day. Members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10376 posted the colors and, as the flag was lowered to half staff, Marble Falls Fire Chief Russell Sander performed the 200-year-old "Ringing of the Bell" ceremony--three times repeating the sounding of a bell three times for fallen firefighters.

By LEW K. COHN

Managing Editor

HIGHLAND LAKES NEWSPAPERS

It was a Tuesday morning in September and it was deadline day for getting the Bowie County Citizens Tribune out the door. I was in the office early, like I usually am when it is deadline day, and the phone rang around 7:50 a.m.

“You won't believe this!” my (now former) wife said. “A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. It's on Good Morning America.”

“That's horrible!” I said. “Let me know if you hear anything more about it.”

I ended the phone call and went back to work on the paper, thinking a plane crash in New York City was tragic, but would have very little impact on my job locally as managing editor of a small-town Northeast Texas newspaper.

Then the phone rang again at a little after 8 a.m.