This photo of the Twin Towers, with their reflection in the Hudson River at night, was taken in 1995, by the late Artie Pomerantz, a former New York Post photographer and Pultizer finalist. The photo was placed in a glass-covered 8 by 12 frame as a going-away present to Henry Frederick, then a metro reporter covering cops and courts for The Journal-News of Rockland, Westchester & Putnam counties, who worked out of the West Nyack, NY newsroom from 1989-1996. Frederick left his beloved reporting position there for a similar beat with the Daytona Beach News-Journal, 1996-2004. Pomerantz was always enamored by Frederick's adventures in the Big Apple and the young reporter's love of the World Trade Center, the Statute of Liberty, and Yankee Stadium, visiting all three frequently. BELOW (left to right): A picture of my newborn son, Henry Frederick IV, was taken moments after his birth on Oct. 16, 1993, by Nancy Kriz, spokeswoman for Nyack Hospital. Henry Frederick with his toddler son at a New York Yankees game. A vintage pic of Artie Pomerantz.
By HENRY FREDERICK / Headline Surfer
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- As someone who lived and worked in a suburb of New York City, 9/11 is the biggest news event of my lifetime, and certainly to those near and far, it's the biggest milestone of modern times for the majority of Americans.
For some reason, we think of major anniversaries in 1s, 5s, 10s, and so forth. This is the ninth anniversary so look for next year to be played up big by the media: 9/11 a decade later.
Still, I wanted to reflect on the terrorist attacks that changed forever how we deal with terrorism and the adversity that comes with it. I had been living in Florida for six years at that time, and on vacation from my reporting job with the Daytona Beach News-Journal. I helped out by sending in some quotes and reactions but was encouraged to take that well-deserved and often-postponed vacation, which started that morning.
When I saw on TV that the Pentagon had been struck after the Twin Towers were toppled by hijacked jet airlines, my first instinct was to go get my son out of his first-grade class, which I did. I was not alone in following that instinct. My boy is now a student at New Smyrna Beach High School.
I was particularly sensitive to what was happening in Manhattan as my former newspaper, The Journal-News of Rockland and Westchester counties, had to deal with the truck-bombing attack on the World Trade Center the first time around that killed seven people, one of them from our Rockland County village of Suffern. I was pleased to contribute to that coverage.
I was particularly sensitive to what was happening in Manhattan as my former newspaper, The Journal-News of Rockland and Westchester counties, had to deal with the truck-bombing attack on the World Trade Center that killed seven people the first time around, one of them from our Rockland County village of Suffern. I was pleased to contribute to that coverage.
Born in Central Massachusetts and raised in northeastern Connecticut, I grew up loving everything Boston -- from the Red Sox to the Kennedys, although my second favorite Kennedy behind JFK, was a New Yorker - Bobby Kennedy.
When I moved from Connecticut to Nyack in Rockland County, N.Y., I loved my frequent visits to the Big Apple, whether it was reporting a story or going to Yankee Stadium, Ellis Island, or my favorite place of all, the World Trade Center.
I'd either take the Palisades Parkway into Bergen County, NJ, and cross the George Washington Bridge into NYC or the Tappan Zee Bridge in Nyack to Tarrytown on the Westchester County side and then straight down I-87 into the Bronx.
My very first visit to the World Trade Center was back in high school in 1979, on a class trip, and the second time before graduating from Central Connecticut State University in 1984, with a trip with my father before we attended a Red Sox-Yankees game. Five years later, visits to the World Trade Center were a regular occurrence several times a year, once I became a reporter in the northern suburbs of NYC.
In 1989, I left my daily reporting job in Willimantic, Conn., for New York, in what would become my love affair with the Twin Towers -- the great height -- the breathtaking view from the top. New York was my home for seven years years before I moved my young family to Florida and Volusia County.
My son, Henry IV, was born at Nyack Hospital on Oct. 16, 1993, so I have proudly instilled in him his New York roots, even though he's been in Florida since the age of 3.
It was in New York at The Journal-News that I became friends with Artie Pomerantz, a retired New York Post photographer, and Pulitzer finalist, who would tell me all kinds of stories about life in New York City.
Knowing how much I loved going to Yankee Stadium, by then becoming a Yankees fan, and to the World Trade Center, he surprised me with a nighttime photo he had taken, showing the WTC's Twin Towers with their reflection in the Hudson River.
I always knew home was close by in returning from family trips to Florida when the view of the World Trade Center followed us as we traveled north in the car on the New Jersey Turnpike/I-95.
The Twin Towers even made the Empire State Building look small. In the years that followed 9/11, trips back and forth to Connecticut from Florida for work and family visits always felt empty when driving by or flying over where the Twin Towers stood tall, reminding us of our economic and Democratic might.
I'm pleased this year to have opened up the opportunity for New Smyrna Beach-area residents to reflect on 9/11. I'll leave the politics side of it all to my colleague, Peter Mallory, and his blog, "The Right Side."
My life seemed to come full circle through the World Trade Center with New England, New York, and Florida all coming together, once I moved to the Sunshine State.
About the Byline Writer: Henry Frederick is a member of the working press and publisher of Headline Surfer, the award-winning 24/7 internet news outlet launched in 2008 along the I-4 tourism corridor in greater Daytona Beach to Orlando from Lake Mary, Florida via HeadlineSurfer.com. Frederick has amassed 115 award-winning bylines in print & online. He earned his Master of Arts in New Media Journalism from Full Sail University in 2019. He was a breaking news reporter (metro cops & courts beat) for the Daytona Beach News-Journal for nearly a decade. And Before that worked the same beat for The Journal-News/Gannett Suburban Newspapers in Rockland/Westchester counties, NY, dating back to 1989. Having witnessed the execution of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Florida's death chamber and covering other high-profile cases such as the George Zimmerman murder trial, Frederick has appeared on national crime shows on Discovery ID, Reelz, and the Oxygen Network series "Snapped" for his analysis. AWJ: