I wasn’t alive when we put a man on the moon, or when JFK was shot. I don’t remember when Elvis died, or when the United Skates hockey team believed in miracles and beat Russia when no one thought they could.

I do, however, remember Sept. 11.

Two days after the eighth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, I remember it vividly. I remember where I was, what I was doing and what was happening in my life.

I was the sports editor at a weekly paper in Prineville, Ore., a town that’s as small as it sounds.

It was my first job out of college and a time of early mornings and long nights.

The weekend before Sept. 11, I flew to my best friend’s sister’s wedding in Minnesota.

The day I flew out, my girlfriend at the time had a nervous look on her face.

She had never flown on a plane, and the concept was as foreign to her as playing an instrument was to me.

And even though she wasn’t going on the trip, she was scared that I was.

“What if you get hijacked?” she said. “That doesn’t happen here,” I responded.

The latter statement was the dumbest thing I’ve ever said.

The flight to Minnesota was fine, as was the wedding and the flight back.

That Tuesday, of course, was a different story.

I woke up early as I often did and headed into work to get my sports section out.

At the time, I worked on the same street I lived on, and the commute was just about three minutes.

It was enough though, enough time for me to hear the reports on the radio and enough time to learn that in an instant, thousands of lives were lost.

I went on with my work, and my sports pages got out, but I wasn’t the same.

I thought about the men and women who lost their lives, the ones who were on those planes and the ones who were in the Twin Towers. I thought of those who unconditionally worked through the rubble and gave so much of themselves to help other people. And I thought about all of the families.

Sept. 11 is one of those days you never forget.

It’s a reminder that anything can happen to anyone at anytime and how when people need help, others will do everything they can to be there.

It was a sad day in our history, and one that I will never forget for a long, long time.