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Like many people who were adults in 2001, I have a pretty vivid picture of the events of September 11 of that year. I watched it all unfold live on TV, and like everyone else, I was shocked that this attack on American soil could actually happen.
And, I remember wondering what exactly was going on, and what was going to happen next.
But I lived in rural southern Minnesota, quite a distance from New York, Washington DC, Boston, and Pennsylvania. It didn’t really impact me directly.
This was not true for everyone, however.
I was visiting my next door neighbors, Don and Fran Beckendorf, this week, and they have very strong personal memories of the 9/11 attacks.
The Beckendorfs were with 26 other people from the Fairmont area on a tour of the East Coast.
They landed at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on September 8, 2001. The group toured the city that day, a tour that included a tour of the World Trade Center.
Then they boarded a cruise ship in New York Harbor on September 9 and left the city. Many of their fellow travelers took photos of the New York City skyline and the Statue of Liberty on the way out, photos that included the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
The ship headed north, with stops in Newport, Rhode Island, Martha’s Vineyard Island, Provincetown on Cape Cod, and Boston Harbor, which is right next to Boston Airport. Boston’s Logan International Airport was where the attack flights originated.
The cruise ship was in Halifax, Nova Scotia on September 11 when they all learned of the unfolding events. The Beckendorfs had another reason to be upset, as their daughter, Kim, must have been on a similar flight to the one that crashed in Pennsylvania. At first they couldn’t contact her, but eventually they found out that she was okay.
Security immediately improved for the ship’s 2,000 passengers. Everyone’s luggage and cabins were searched. And divers were sent under the huge ship to search for possible bombs.
The ship began the return voyage and returned to Boston Harbor. However, they were not allowed to dock, as there was a possible bomb threat there. And, they couldn’t return to New York, and of course all flights out of La Guardia Airport, including their scheduled return trip, had been canceled.
At that point, everyone on the cruise ship, including the Beckendorffs, just wanted to get home safely. So two coaches came from Fairmont and picked up their group and brought them back to Fairmont, with stops in Maustin, Wisconsin and Austin, Minnesota.
Don and Fran say they’ve never been happier to be home than coming back from that trip in 2001.
In the Fairmont Sentinel front page article of September 20, 2001, Fran is quoted as recounting the trip.
“Looking back, the trip was the best and the worst of times” she said. “The cruise and the people we met were wonderful, but above it all was the veil of the tragedy of these events.”
She also added, “We thank our tour guides for their help and patience with travelers anxious to get home in the safest way.”
We were all shocked by these terrible events of September 11th. Some of us more than others. It changed our perception of our country and our security.
And how we travel and how we feel about traveling.
Ask my neighbors …
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