There is a little something special about riding or sitting under those big, bright portable lights tonight at the rodeo arena for the finale of the National High School Finals Rodeo.
Most people don't know it, but they have a story of their own.
Those same lights, four sets of them mounted high above the arena on each corner, were used in the rescue and recovery operation at Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 on Sept. 11, 2001, after the World Trade Center was destroyed.
The lights can't talk, but Scott Larson can.
He just won't.
Not, anyway, when it comes to what he saw on that solemn day at the disaster site known for America's worst terrorism attack. That horrible event cost thousands of lives and plunged us into a war against terror that continues today.
"I'd really rather not talk about the emotions of that day, about what I saw there," Larson said. "I'd just rather not."
I told him I can respect that.
He did, however, share some interesting background with me.
"We were, myself and three other gentlemen, were at the Gravity Games in Providence, R.I.," he said. "They're kinda like the X-games and things like that. We were there when it happened."
It's not hard to doubt him, even after almost eight years.
How many of us remember exactly where we were on that day?
Most of us.
Sept. 11, 2001 — much like the World War II generation that still remembers Pearl Harbor Day on Dec. 7, 1941, each year — is a day of
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Scott and his fellow crew members immediately were called to action from their sporting event.
It didn't take long for their day and their life to change forever more.
"We actually drove into the site that night," he said. "We got there around 6 p.m., and we had a full police escort through New York."
The guarded escort actually met them outside the city and traveled with them much of the way to their destination, where they were much needed as officials tried desperately to sort through the chaos and make some sense of the disaster.
Rescue workers frantically fought against time and destruction to find survivors.
"We parked at Shea Stadium that evening, and they brought us in the next morning," Scott said.
His crew from the Musco Lighting company based in Oskaloosa, Iowa, finished putting up their lights and ensured their working order so that rescuers could continue their fight around the clock.
Because of the lighting Scott and his crew helped provide so quickly, the lights standing tonight above the rodeo arena in Farmington, N.M., on that night and for months to come helped save lives, and then helped comfort families and loved ones as body after body was uncovered in the debris.
But when I asked about his first sight of Ground Zero, that's when Scott interrupted me.
"I'm sorry about that," he kindly said again later. "I just don't like to talk about the emotions of it."
I visited the Ground Zero site myself as a journalist soon after 9/11.
It's easy to respect Scott's request.
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There are other, more pleasant stories to share about those lights shining here tonight.
Musco Lighting along with Scott and his crew get the opportunity to light up some of the more prolific sporting events in the nation.
"We do a lot of college football games, all over the country, like at campuses like Michigan," he said. "We do a lot of college football games for TV.
"Our company is more about permanent lighting, but we do the temporary lighting too," he said. "All the NASCAR tracks with permanent lighting use our lights, like Daytona, Atlanta and Darlington."
Scott hails from the same town as his company, in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and they have worked the national high school rodeo the past several years, including last year in addition to this week here in Farmington.
"We've had a lot of fun," he said.
Scott, we're glad to have you.
And we're honored that the same lights shining above our piece of proud dirt for this bit of reflection on Old West cowboy culture are the same lights that shined over the heroes and the fallen at Ground Zero in New York City.
Somehow, knowing this, those lights will seem a little brighter when I sit under them tonight.
God Bless.
Troy Turner is the editor of The Daily Times. He can be contacted at P.O. Box 450, Farmington, N.M., 87499; or at tturner@daily-times.com.
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