The way they were: The Twin Towers long before 9/11

The way they were: The Twin Towers long before 9/11
Flickr/Seline Fade
The way they were: The Twin Towers long before 9/11
Flickr/Seline Fade

The way they were: The Twin Towers long before 9/11

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In two days, we mark decade that has passed since that terrible day.

I, for one, could do without seeing replays of the towers rumbling to earth in a cloud of dust; of the innocents who never returned home. So today, I turn back the clock to take a look at the World Trade Center way before 9/11. As is the case with the above commercial advertising the WTC’s observation deck, these videos make for a bittersweet look. It’s like watching old home movies of a loved one in his prime—strong, vital and young—yet knowing all the while the horrors that lie ahead.

Here’s a late 1970s Texaco commercial featuring the towers, although the spot is marred a bit by the tag at the end:

And we close with Bobby Short on top of the world: