In the Buf with Jo: Remembering 9/11

It was such a beautiful morning on that Tuesday in 2001. I had voted first thing, then came home to watch The Today Show when "the world stopped turning".

I have a garage in the city that has 2 tvs, tables, and chairs for us to watch Bills games we aren't attending, grill and party. (Never had a car in it!). But on this day, 9/11/01, friends just kept stopping over all day and night. We watched horrified, like the rest of the world, but we did it together. We all spent the next month in grief and in a daze, like the rest of the world. But on October 14th, 2001, the Bills' bye week, I invited those friends over again to watch a Bills' game. It was a tape of the Greatest NFL comeback of all time: January 3rd, 1993, Bills vs Oilers. Remember, that game was blacked out in Buffalo because it hadn't sold out. Many of us had only HEARD the game! There would be NO mention of 9/11/01 permitted this day. We cheered on Reich, Reed, Lofton, Smith and Christie! OJ Simpson did sideline reporting that game. We even talked trash, dissing the Bills at halftime with: "They suck! They'll never come back!"--knowing full well the outcome. It was so wonderful to laugh again. It was healing.

These days on September 11, I go to Clement Mansion that houses the Red Cross on Delaware and Summer in Buffalo, The Western New York Families of Sept. 11 place 2,996 flags for every life lost that day. There is a special wall with 26 pictures of young people from Western New York that died that day.

When I go there I always think about that sign at Arlington: "Silence and Respect".

Here are some places to go for remembrances in Buffalo: 2:30pm at Canalside, Sept. 11, the 4th Annual 9/11 Dawn to Dusk Moving Tribute. Sunrise to sunset at Delaware Park Agassiz Circle Entrance. and the 3rd Annual Peace-Justice-Nonviolence Festival and Walk. It will begin with a peace walk to the Erie Basin Marina gardens and there'll be food, music, and fun for kids.

In Niagara Falls, Sept. 11, at 9:30am, a 9/11 Tribute, Police and fire officials in Niagara Falls will honor those killed at Firehouse 8 at Royal Ave. and Hyde Park Blvd.

Also, at 7pm, a Remembrance Ceremony with Police and Fire Departments in North Tonawanda and the City of Tonawanda holding a remembrance ceremony at the Renaissance bridge between the two cities.

Huge warm hugs, my friends,

Jolene