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Jim Serger talks Thursday about one of the people’s stories included in his new book, “9:11 A Time to Always Remember.” Serger visited the Hardin County Public Library to promote the book.
Jim Serger talks Thursday about one of the people’s stories included in his new book, “9:11 A Time to Always Remember.” Serger visited the Hardin County Public Library to promote the book.
Author Jim Serger says time “literally stood still” for him on Sept. 11, 2001.
But time really doesn’t stand still ever. Twice each day, the time is 9:11. And that stayed on Serger’s mind for years.
“For about five or six years, I kept thinking about the time 9:11,” he said. “I would look at my watch for no other reason when I would cut the grass and it would be 9:11 a.m. when I was edging. I’d pop popcorn with my wife and kids and on the microwave it would say 9:11 p.m. And that would happen to me three or four times a week for about five or six years.”
But Serger said he didn’t just notice the time, he recalled all the memories of 9/11, and knows that so many Americans still vividly remember the day in 2001 when the twin towers in New York City were hit as well as airliners crashed into the Pentagon and downed in a Pennsylvania field.
“We have 735 times a year when we’re possibly reflecting where we were, who we were with, who we spoke to, what strangers became our friends that day,” he said. “So i interviewed 90 people across the U.S. and I put together a story of what happened to them on that day.”
He collected the stories of these 90 people and included them in a coffee table book titled “9:11 A Time To Always Remember.”
On Thursday, the Cincinnati author visited the Hardin County Public Library to promote the new book.
Serger dressed for the occasion, wearing a suit and tie with the pattern of the American flag on it. As he waited for library patrons to check out his display, he flipped through the book, telling the stories of each of the people featured.
One of those is Serger’s long-time friend Pat who lives in Elizabethtown and joined him Thursday at the library event.
“The days after 9/11 were different,” Pat wrote for the book. “The skies were empty. Security everywhere was heightened. But the one thing I noticed most was the great patriotism that just kept growing.”
Serger, a U.S. Navy veteran, emphasized that this sense of patriotism, which he said was felt all across the United States, was his impetus for writing the book. Serger did not include last names in the book, which he said was to maintain that sense of unity.
“No matter what our differences were, religion, politics, race, gender, it didn’t matter that day,” he said. “It just didn’t. And it didn’t matter the next day. Or the three weeks after 9/11, or for a few years after 9/11.”
The book includes stories from people from a variety of backgrounds, including a retired salesman, a major league baseball scout and a politician.
It also includes lots of clock photos, each displaying the time 9:11.
“I ran around, literally, and I took pictures of clocks all through Kentucky and Ohio and parts of Indiana, that when the time was 9:11 on the clock, I took a picture,” Serger said. “And I had other people in their cities take pictures too on their clocks.”
Everyone old enough remembers what they were doing on Sept. 11, 2001, Serger said.
“We can’t even remember what we were doing back in March of this year, but if we go back to 9/11, everybody, like a time capsule, can remember minute by minute where they were, who they were with, all day long.”
Serger himself was delivering ice and was known to customers as “Ice Man Cometh.” He stopped this day at a grocery store, and someone said “Ice Man, come here.”
Moments later, he found out on his route, and found himself huddled with cashiers around a black-and-white TV, a rabbit-ear antenna on top, watching the news coverage.
“9:11 A Time to Always Remember” is Serger’s sixth book and is available on Amazon.
Part of the proceeds from sales of the book go to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which helps veterans and first responders and their families obtain homes and with other financial help.
“It’s an amazing, amazing foundation,” Serger said. “It’s unbelievable what they do for veterans and first responders.”
Kelly McKinney can be reached at 270-505-1404 or kmckinney@thenewsenterprise.com.
Kelly McKinney can be reached at 270-505-1404 or kmckinney@thenewsenterprise.com.
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