Central New York's proximity to the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, made the event have a particularly strong effect on all of us.

I was sitting in my high school English class when the social studies teacher burst in to tell us to turn on the television -- a second plane had flown into one of the twin towers.

I remember sitting there, mouth agape, watching the smoke billow and, eventually, the towers came down.

After school activities were canceled that day and kids whose parents worked in the city were released early. By the time I arrived home, my mother, who worked as a local stock broker, was already home watching television.

Volumes have been written about the day none of us will forget. It was my generation's Pearl Harbor and JFK assassination. There was the day before 9/11 and the era after.

Where were you that day? Comment here and on our Facebook page. We'll remember the day together.

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