Each of us has memories of where we were when we first heard the news that morning. Many from our industry were in Las Vegas attending the NBWA. Stories poured out from Las Vegas about renting cars – even buying cars – to carpool to points across the country to get home. None of us knew at the time how long the airports would be closed. We longed to be with our families.
I was at home myself. I woke a bit fuzzy after a late night of beers with business friends who were in town. I had a Board of Directors meeting early that day for the brewery I was involved with at the time. We sat in the hotel room where we had gathered for the meeting – glued to the images on TV. The meeting was not productive and we eventually gave up. All of us were trying to track down family and close friends.
I learned later that day that a close family friend, who I had worked with for a few years when I was young and who I considered a mentor, was on United flight 93. A one-time traffic controller at SFO, I knew he had tried to get into the cabin to help take over the plane.
Life stopped for all of us for a few days. But soon, things slowly retuned to a semblance of normal. Good beer had to be brewed and sold after all!
And so it is; our family of craft brewers has remained a family. An industry unlike any other I know of in terms of support and camaraderie for one another. Many things have changed since 9/11 – and some things have not.
Feel free to share your story of where you were on this day in 2001 at https://www.probrewer.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=34711#post34711