09-07-2020, 11:39 AM
I love talking history with folks. Something which fascinates me is hearing how people received the news on that tragic day.
I was delivering a free ad paper the local weekly distributed on Tuesday in my small town. The bundles always arrived after breakfast so I was putting everything together while watching the news. My cat loved to play with the bundle ties. So as I watching and becoming more worried about what the heck was going on, my cat was wrestling with the ties as if she didn't have a concern in the world.
It was a beautiful day so I walked the route. I met a woman walking who complained the coverage of the tragedy was the only thing on television. She didn't grasp the enormity of what was happening.
I remember even KFMW, a hard rock/metal station, interrupted their playlists to pick up coverage. It was first time I could recall them doing that.
This is such a silly thing to mention, but it is a memory of mine from that time.
I was in my seventh season of covering Iowa high school football. The Friday night before, we had some massive rainstorms move through the state. Many games were postponed/concluded on Saturday or Monday night. I noticed kind of a difference in how schools did things. The weather had impacted the entire state, but eastern Iowa schools played through, while central and western Iowa games were more likely to be stopped.
Fast forward to Wednesday. I was at the public library in Winthrop. Winthrop is located about 25 miles to the west of where I lived at the time. Winthrop was (and is) a fantastic rural Iowa town. Home to the East Buchanan school district, Winthrop was full of nice, decent, caring and friendly people. The high school had about 200 kids. The town had a grocery store, several businesses and a beautiful library with a friendly staff. All of that along with the good times I had covering East Buchanan football games means Winthrop will always have a special place in my heart.
Anyway, I was at the library doing prep work for the Friday's games. The Iowa High School Athletic Association posted a notice to high schools in regards to those games. The article said they were going to allow schools to decide for themselves on whether to play on Friday night.
The NFL had postponed the coming weekend's slate of games and the MLB was also taking time off. So there was some debate if other levels of athletics should call off their events. The IHSAA was letting schools make their own decisions. I thought that was fair of them.
But then I saw an article about the situation in one of the state's dailies on Thursday. It quoted a school administrator who wished the IHSAA had provided more guidance. I rolled my eyes as I had often heard administrators say they wanted more local control. Well, they were given local control and didn't know what to do with it.
There were several games which were postponed to Saturday. Again, there were more of them in central and western Iowa than eastern Iowa. On the way to my game, I was listening to WHO-AM. They had an interview with one of the Des Moines area coaches who explained why it was important to play. After the interview, WHO said they had an update which was that coach's game was now also postponed.
I'm interested in hearing your memories.
I was delivering a free ad paper the local weekly distributed on Tuesday in my small town. The bundles always arrived after breakfast so I was putting everything together while watching the news. My cat loved to play with the bundle ties. So as I watching and becoming more worried about what the heck was going on, my cat was wrestling with the ties as if she didn't have a concern in the world.
It was a beautiful day so I walked the route. I met a woman walking who complained the coverage of the tragedy was the only thing on television. She didn't grasp the enormity of what was happening.
I remember even KFMW, a hard rock/metal station, interrupted their playlists to pick up coverage. It was first time I could recall them doing that.
This is such a silly thing to mention, but it is a memory of mine from that time.
I was in my seventh season of covering Iowa high school football. The Friday night before, we had some massive rainstorms move through the state. Many games were postponed/concluded on Saturday or Monday night. I noticed kind of a difference in how schools did things. The weather had impacted the entire state, but eastern Iowa schools played through, while central and western Iowa games were more likely to be stopped.
Fast forward to Wednesday. I was at the public library in Winthrop. Winthrop is located about 25 miles to the west of where I lived at the time. Winthrop was (and is) a fantastic rural Iowa town. Home to the East Buchanan school district, Winthrop was full of nice, decent, caring and friendly people. The high school had about 200 kids. The town had a grocery store, several businesses and a beautiful library with a friendly staff. All of that along with the good times I had covering East Buchanan football games means Winthrop will always have a special place in my heart.
Anyway, I was at the library doing prep work for the Friday's games. The Iowa High School Athletic Association posted a notice to high schools in regards to those games. The article said they were going to allow schools to decide for themselves on whether to play on Friday night.
The NFL had postponed the coming weekend's slate of games and the MLB was also taking time off. So there was some debate if other levels of athletics should call off their events. The IHSAA was letting schools make their own decisions. I thought that was fair of them.
But then I saw an article about the situation in one of the state's dailies on Thursday. It quoted a school administrator who wished the IHSAA had provided more guidance. I rolled my eyes as I had often heard administrators say they wanted more local control. Well, they were given local control and didn't know what to do with it.
There were several games which were postponed to Saturday. Again, there were more of them in central and western Iowa than eastern Iowa. On the way to my game, I was listening to WHO-AM. They had an interview with one of the Des Moines area coaches who explained why it was important to play. After the interview, WHO said they had an update which was that coach's game was now also postponed.
I'm interested in hearing your memories.
