17 Years Later

The gray that has dominated the weather the last few days around Princeton stands in stark contrast to the brilliant sunshine and cloudless sky of that Tuesday that TigerBlog and so many others can remember so vividly even 17 years later.

Actually, TB will never forget it. Long after he can't remember the final score of any Princeton game he's been to, he'll remember the details of Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, 2001.

And the first thing he'll always think about is the sky, the before sky and the after sky.

Before? It was so perfect, so crystal clear. It was the bluest sky you ever saw, with sunshine, warmth and low humidity. You can't ask for a better day.

After? That was at night. TigerBlog stood on the edge of his driveway and looked up. The sky was filled with stars - but completely devoid of airplanes.

On an average night, if you look in the sky around here you'll see airplane after airplane. It's between Philadelphia and Newark, not to mention really close to Trenton Mercer, and there are an endless stream of flights on approach to those airports.

That night? Nothing.

Today is the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that took the lives of 3,000 people in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Western Pennsylvania. The details of that morning are seared into the memory of anyone who was old enough to remember, which by now excludes every current Princeton athlete.

If you're a Princeton senior, odds are you were born in 1996 or 1997. Maybe, maybe there are one or two whose first memory has something to do with that day, but there can't be many more than that.

From now until forever,  no Princeton students will know anything about 9/11 other than what they're taught by those who were there. For those who were there, the memories endure. 

TigerBlog remembers more than just the sky. 

There are two days each year when TigerBlog's subject is predetermined, and it will never be any different. One is Feb. 12, the day that TB's colleague Lorin Maurer died in a plane crash at the age of 30. 

The other is Sept. 11. 

The reason is simple. No matter how painful, they need to be remembered.

TigerBlog has written a variation of the same thing each Sept. 11 since he's been doing this. For this year, he decided to repeat what he wrote last year, changing only "16" to "17," since it captures exactly what he would want to say again:

TigerBlog can remember every detail of that awful day 17 years ago today.

He remembers most of the details of the day after, 17 years ago tomorrow.

He wishes that he could remember the day before, back to Sept. 10, 2001. He wishes he could remember what he was thinking on that day, what his world was like on that day, because that world changed forever on Sept. 11 and has never come back.

Each year since Sept. 11, 2001, TigerBlog has gotten an uneasy feeling in the hours before the next anniversary. This year is no different.

The date is enough to bring it all rushing back.

TigerBlog has gone through this pretty much each year he's been doing this. It's important though. It's important not to let what happened on that day ever fade in importance.

The only day in American history that can compare with Sept. 11, 2001, is Dec. 7, 1941. That's the day that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II.

Yes, there have been battles in wars that have featured unimaginable death totals. Nearly 10 times more American soldiers were killed in the Battle of Normandy (the entire battle, not just D-Day) in World War II than died on 9/11.

As for 9/11 or Pearl Harbor, though, those were direct attacks on America, not overseas (yes, Hawaii was not yet a state in 1941).

Now, nearly 76 years after the Pearl Harbor attack, the day Dec. 7 still lives, as FDR said it would, in infamy. It just doesn't haunt the national consciousness the way 9/11 does.

Part of that is because the vast majority of Americans who were alive 76 years ago no longer are. The other, though, is that it would take less than four years for the U.S. and its Allies to defeat the Axis powers.

The aftermath of 9/11 has not been anything quite so tidy. There are still military operations as a direct result of 9/11, and even though Al Qaeda never launched another massive attack in this country, the threat is still there.

Like TigerBlog said, the world of Sept. 10 vanished and has never come back. In so many ways.

TigerBlog knows people who saw 9/11 from so many different angles. Everyone has a story to tell from that day.

TB has friends who were on airplanes at the time of the attacks and landed nowhere near New York, as all flights were immediately grounded. They had to try to rent cars to drive home, including one who was on a flight to Newark that landed instead in Nashville, from where he drove home.

He knows another who landed at Newark around the time that the flight that would crash in Pennsylvania after the passengers fought back against the hijackers was leaving and saw the Towers burning as she drove down the New Jersey Turnpike.

He knows another who was unaware of the attacks until, after being told about them, looked out the window at home on Long Island and saw the smoke from the Twin Towers. FatherBlog was in his office in midtown, four or so miles from ground zero.

Princeton had more than its share of graduates, a lot of them athletes, who were in one of the towers at the time.

As for TigerBlog, he was dropping off TigerBlog Jr. at the University League Nursery School, on the far side of the parking lot outside Jadwin. It was the most perfect weather day, crystal clear, sunshine, no humidity, not a cloud to be found.

TB dropped TBJ off at the school, and the woman who was the office manager said that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center.

TigerBlog walked outside, looked up, and thought "how in the world did that happen?" By the time he got to Jadwin, he found out how.

Most of that day was spent huddled around the only television around, the one in the athletic training room in Caldwell Field House. It was a day where people spoke very little, where everyone had dazed looks on their faces.

By mid-afternoon, he went back to get TBJ at the nursery school. He can still see the children, swinging on the swings, playing in a sandbox, oblivious - happily oblivious - to what had happened to the innocence of the world outside that playground.

Later that night, after it was dark, TigerBlog walked outside to the end of his driveway and looked up. There were no planes in the sky. They'd all been grounded. TB remembers it vividly, the sight of the stars, without planes, above a world of confusion, angst, uncertainty, fear.

Those were TB's memories. They come rushing back each year on this day, and they bring with them all of those emotions all over again. It's important that it does. This isn't a day that should ever fade from anyone's memory.

All of those children from the playground have grown up. Miss TigerBlog was 1 at the time. She's a high school senior. That means that basically anyone who is younger than a high school junior wasn't even alive on that day. They need to understand what happened.

The next day, TigerBlog was able to track down former Princeton football captain Dan Swingos, who had been in the second tower but managed to get out. He told TigerBlog a wild story of survival, and luck, one shared by so many others who'd been there at the time.

TigerBlog tells this story each year. He'll continue to do so.

He'll also continue to remember all of the people who were lost that day, the ones who didn't get out, or the ones on the planes.

It's a group that includes John Schroeder, a member of the 1992 men's lacrosse team that won the first of the program's six NCAA championships. He'd been in the World Trade Center and did not get out.

Anytime that TigerBlog has been around the men's lacrosse Class of 1992, no matter what the occasion or celebration, they remember their teammate. They talk about him. They include him in whatever they're doing. They keep his memory alive.

It's been 16 years now.

It seems like yesterday. The memories are vivid, for TigerBlog and everyone else.

And those lost - like John Schroeder - are still missed.