Oconee ceremonies mark 9-11’s 22nd anniversary

“We must never forget”.  That’s the admonition stressed to those attending this morning’s Walhalla ceremony to remember the worst attacks on the U-S mainland, the three that occurred September 11, 2001 and have since become known as 9-11.  It was a small crowd at Oconee’s 9-11 memorial, but most were of an age that 9-11 is an indelible memory.   And a number of those who spoke recalled where they were when they became aware of what happened that blue sky morning — a sky not very different from the one of this morning’s.  One of the speakers was the Rev. Tim McCall of Walhalla’s Golden Corner Church and the pastor of Chief Brandon Shirley of the Keowee Fire Department and leader of the county group that built Oconee’s memorial.  McCall was 16 years old on 9-11, and he happened to be a student in a Walhalla High history class.  He’s never forgotten that his teacher, at that moment, told the class that they were experiencing history.  Several Oconee fire fighters were in attendance this morning.  Some others repeatedly climbed the stairs of the West-Oak High School football stadium, a symbolic exercise to denote the number of stairs in the doomed World Trade Center buildings.