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Big Norm's September 11, 2001

09/11/2014

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September 11, 2001 has always been a touchy subject with my family. Having immediate family that was born in the five boroughs of New York City, seeing the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center demolished was personally troubling. The closer and closer the date gets to September 11 each year, I get down. The main reason: my father was right near the situation that day.Even before the horrific display on 9/11, my father had narrowly avoided the 1993 World Trade Center bombing by a matter of months. Big Norm used to work at Chemical Bank (which then became Chase Manhattan, which then became J.P. Morgan Chase, which then became J.P. Morgan) in the 1980s and early 1990s. My mom told me a few times I visited my father in the Towers as a baby. In the summer of 1992, my father was moved to 55 Water St to work out of that location. Thankfully, my old man avoided the tragedy that happened on February 26, 1993.

For the next 8 years, my father worked on Water St, which was 1 or 2 long blocks from the Towers. There was even one time in the summer of 1997 where after a “Take Your Kids to Work Day” event took place, my father took my brother and me to a lunch truck right in front of the Towers. In front of the Towers was a small concert happening to promote New York’s newest country music station. I literally can’t remember the station off the top of my head, but I do remember the situation very vividly. It was a good day for the three of us.

Unbelievably, I’ll never forget the morning of September 11, 2001 BEFORE the tragedy unfolded. I remember a few minutes before 7 am, right before my Dad would drive to the East Brunswick Transportation Center to take the bus to the city, he gave my mother a kiss goodbye and told all 3 Harder Boys he’d see us later. That always stuck with me, as one way or the other, we were always running around the house getting ready for school. However, on this day, we were all packed into the kitchen.

At 8:48 am in the morning, I was in the beginning of my 2nd period class of gym, looking to get my lock for my locker, when the world as we knew it started to change. By 9:15. I was in my printmaking class, watching everything unfold. Knowing how close my father, and coincidentally my Uncle Jim, was to the Twin Towers, I immediately got nervous. Around 9:45 am, I got called to the Main Office of South River High School, where I was told my father was OK.

Normally, if my father was running early, as he would be most mornings, he would have stopped off in front of the World Trade Center at a little muffin stand and got a muffin. However, on this morning, the traffic from New Jersey into Manhattan caused him to run a little late and he bypassed the muffin stand to go immediately to the Water Street office.  Just knowing that there might have been a chance my Dad would have been there when stuff went down freaks me out to this day.

Once everything started happening, my father went and called home. My mother was in the shower and little 4 year old Benny was downstairs watching Blue’s Clues. Benny picked up the phone and had a brief conversation with Big Norm, then went and knocked on the bathroom door. My mom, not knowing anything major was happening in the world, told Benny that she would call him back. A few minutes later, she got out and saw what was going on. She put 2 and 2 together and tried calling him back. The phone lines were jammed. My mom asked Benny “Was your father OK?” In return, Benny said he was.

As the Towers went down, I was for a loss of words. Without a clue at the time, I realized that the world had forever changed. New York, the state where I was born, had its skyline forever tampered with. More importantly, I was incredibly worried on how my Dad was going to get home.

I remember rushing home from school with my ex-girlfriend and just waiting in my house for any type of notice on the whereabouts of my Dad.  Around 3PM or a little later, my mother got a phone call. It was Big Norm on a cell phone. Not owning a cellular device, it was strange to hear that. After a minute or so, my Mom hung up and told us that Dad had gotten on a ferry out of Manhattan to New Jersey, which then led him one way or the other to getting to a rest stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. He would then get on a bus home to the East Brunswick Transportation Center.

5PM, my two brothers and I waited in the living room. All of a sudden, we were hearing car honks coming from up the block to the house. Mom and the boys all came outside and saw the 1998 GMC Safari pull up in front of the house. My Dad was safe. I think we all gave him a hug that day.

At the time, I remember asking my Dad about what was it like, and I got some standard basic answers, like “They gave us a mask to wear once I left work,” and “I got a free hot dog and water on the street!” For the most part though, I know it bothered him.

My Dad worked in the city for another 6 months, until he got laid off and worked the remainder of his life in the great Garden State. However, for the next 6 months, he walked to his job every day through the toxins of that air that was still burning for months later at Ground Zero. I will NEVER say that my father got sick due to 9/11, but I will go on record and maintain that my father’s awful cough, which he had for the final 10 years of his life, came from that awful air that polluted Water Street in Manhattan. I have seen some skeptics call this “the World Trade Center Cough”. It has never been diagnosed as an official disease, but I can feel like that Big Norm’s cough was legitimately caused by that fateful day.

Two months before he died, on 9/11/13, I finally asked my father about that day. Being 12 years older, I just wanted to know what it was like for him on that day and to experience what had transpired. He opened up and told me some things. He, again, was late that morning, so he avoided the muffin stand entirely. He was in the office when he felt the building shake multiple times. He was told to wait at his desk until further notice. He indeed did talk to Benny, who was clueless to what was happening. Once all that happened transpired, he vacated his building and received a mask from the fire department and walked around aimlessly, trying to figure out how to get home. He then followed the police’s signals on where to go and ultimately got to the Seaport, where the Ferry took him to New Jersey.

You know what the most incredible part was? If my father continued to work at the Towers before he left in 1992, the plane would have smashed right into his work floor. To hear that from my old man stunned me. I had no idea. It honestly made me think of how lucky I was to have had him for another 12 years after that day. Others weren’t as grateful.

Life sadly goes on and forward. People never forget though what happened. I look back on that day and almost every time, I get upset thinking about the loss of life on that day. Firefighter Chris Pickford, my Uncle Jerry’s cousin, wasn’t as lucky. He always will remain in my prayers as a hero.

I guess I just needed to talk about this day and my father as a calming method. I miss my Dad every day, but I’m thankful that I found out about his trials and tribulations on that day and saw him home that night. To all that lost their loved ones 13 years later, you are still in my prayers. God bless all of you.

Jon Harder
jon@thejonharder.com

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#IceBucketChallenge For ALS & Pennies For Norm

08/24/2014

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People can love it or hate it due to its cultural impact on mainstream and social media, but the Ice Bucket Challenge has been a tremendous success for raising money towards ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease. Earlier today, Leon St. Giovanni and myself did our own Ice Bucket Challenge, where not only would we be raising money for ALS, but for the Colon Cancer Alliance and the Pennies for Norm movement. I hope awareness for these two diseases have money raised for them. Spread the word!

To donate to the ALS:
http://als.org

To donate to the Colon Cancer Alliance via the Pennies for Norm Movement:
http://support.ccalliance.org/goto/penniesfornorm

Thanks guys and keep spreading the word on these two great causes!

Jon Harder
jon@thejonharder.com
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"Oh Come On!" - UPDATE 7/31/14

07/31/2014

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Hey guys, wanted to update the Pennies For Norm blog.

I was hoping to have had the official announcement for the P4N Tournament show by now, but sadly, the original idea fell through. We are back at square one.

This is STILL the object of my affection and something I am 100% attached to this vision, so within the next several weeks, we will have more of a definitive view of when this will happen.

No regrets. Keep moving forward.

To donate to the Colon Cancer Alliance, click on this link to help out this great organization & the Pennies for Norm Movement: http://support.ccalliance.org/goto/penniesfornorm

Thanks guys. Keep checking back for updates.

Jon Harder
jon@thejonharder.com

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"No Regrets"

06/22/2014

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With the start of PenniesForNorm.us and the laying down of “the Ground Floor” of the Pennies for Norm Tournament, I can honestly say that I haven’t been this excited about wrestling in a long time. It’s a long way from where I once was, obviously, but developing and planning for this idea is my biggest undertaking yet in life, and it’s bringing my passion back. However, in 2012, it was the last thing on my mind, due to my Dad’s health.

I personally see this site as an open book and as an open invitation to this ordeal, so I will spill my guts through here.

In late April 2012, my father was locked into stage 4 colon cancer and had a serious tumor right in the colorectal region. The doctors knew that to even attempt to get him through this serious issue at the time, they needed to go in and basically “gut” him, as my old man put it. It was a very risky surgery that was a true 50/50 and could have possibly killed him. Needless to say, it was a risk that needed to be taken.

The one thing about my father was that he didn’t want anyone to worry about him. A true independent free spirit, Big Norm despised the attention the cancer had brought to him. He just wanted it to be over and done with. Realistically, his fight had only begun. However, for his wife and kids, my Dad went through with this very real “life or death” surgery.

Around this time period, one of the true bonds my old man and I shared was pro wrestling. In the midst of all of this, I had finally gotten the Professional Revolution in Beyond Wrestling and into a rivalry (a dream rivalry at that) with Dan Barry. It was my biggest break to date. I know my father would have wanted me to keep going and do what I had to do, but with serious surgery on his horizon and the length of rehab time in Care One he would have to deal with, I knew I couldn’t go to the biggest Beyond show to date “Burst the Bubble”. I cancelled on the booking to stay local, in case something happened.

My old man went in for surgery on a Monday in the last week of April 2012, and after a more than 8 hour ordeal, he came through alive. Granted, he no longer had his rectal area, his bladder, and other organs, my father was alive. However, nothing else truly mattered to me at that point. Seeing his struggle and the pain he was in, I just cared about his health. Ultimately, my demeanor changed into a bitter, angry individual personally.

Of course, this would affect my feelings towards everything and everyone. At the time, once I missed Beyond shows and other wrestling organization events, the love of wrestling just left me. Pro wrestling was the strongest link to my father and I was letting it go. Truth be told, I was looking for someone and something to blame.

Looking back at it now, it might not have been the greatest of decisions I have made, but I legitimately held a gripe against Drew Cordeiro, the owner of Beyond and WSU. For reasons truly unknown to myself, I blamed him for my professional and personal shortcomings in some weird way, even though it was all me. I doubt Drew even knows the amount of contempt I held for him. I bottled these feelings and stress inside of me for 18 months and not once even confronted the man on this situation. My friends, in particular, knew that I was TOO angry at Drew for failing with goals, even when it takes two to mess up. There’s a lot here nor there regarding that relationship, but I will personally say that I think that my relationship with Drew and Beyond would have fared a lot better, only if I wasn’t completely devastated about my father and his illness. I was too angry, too upset, and too selfish in my own emotions to man up and discuss small, minute issues.

Once my relationship with Beyond and my other wrestling organizations STOPPED, so did my love for wrestling. I cared so much about my father’s health and the stress that he was going through that I stopped really living life. It drove my family, my girlfriend, and especially my father nuts. Granted, he had another year on “borrowed time” as I saw it, but I knew it was the beginning of the end for Big Norm. When he died on November 10 of last year, I truly understood the meaning of life a few months later: never take life for granted and don’t be angry over stupid things. “No regrets”, as my father told me the last time I saw him in a hospital bed the day before his last surgery on November 3.

Over the last couple of months, I have started to follow things that, during my father’s ordeal, I had stopped doing. Following the New York Mets was one thing. Smiling and actually going out and having a good time was another (despite what my girlfriend says, I have been getting better at that). Lastly, my love for pro wrestling has started to filter back in. It will never be the same; without my father’s wisdom and love of it, it will never get that way again. However, it will be a different type of love. Understanding the arc of a good rivalry, the ins-and-outs of good commentary, and the multi-layers of a wrestling character are what I’m looking to enjoy now.

My father told me, “No regrets” on the last time I saw him alive. I hope the Pennies for Norm Tournament allows me to show no regrets. No matter what, my love for wrestling is there, as well as my father. And that will get me through the toughest of times.

Love you Dad.

Jon Harder
jon@thejonharder.com

#PenniesForNorm
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The Ground Floor (Pennies For Norm Tournament)

06/15/2014

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The footprints have broken dirt. The blueprint has been crafted. The beginning of a new idea has been formulated. The planning of the Pennies for Norm Tournament has begun.

This concept, truthfully, has been crafted for years. However, it only really started to take form once my father passed away.

My father, as you may have heard him discuss on Episode 110 of the Hardway Podcast, was a die-hard wrestling fan. For over 40 years, he truly was a passionate believer in what was good about the sport. A frequent visitor of Madison Square Garden in the 1970s and 80s, as well as the Shea Stadium supercards and spot shows at the Ridgewood Grove and Sunnyside Gardens, my Dad consistently told story after story of his incredible wrestling moments and passed down those memories to me. I might be a wrestling nerd of the ultimate levels, but Big Norm was even more so.

Dad, believe it or not, was also a giant fan of tournaments. Whether it was NCAA March Madness, MLB Playoffs, Greatest Ever polls, the old man ran the gamut. Every chance he was able to get involved with a pool to predict or make an educated guess on a winner, Big Norm would go for it and more likely than not, make the right choice. He always had a gift of picking a winner.

Pro wrestling tournaments always intrigued him. His personal favorite was always the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament, the 1987 one most of all. The WCW King of Cable in 1992, the WrestleMania 4 WWF championship tourney, and the first King of the Ring in 1993 were also among his faves, as well.

Lastly, my father was a man who truly believed in everyone deserving an opportunity to succeed. My brother Greg told a story at my Dad's wake when he would coach for the South River Recreation programs, he would make sure every single player on his team had the chance to get some real earnest playing time in every single game he led. The more and more I process that story, I realized on how true it was. He cared about developing the next generation of the world and showing them fairness, respect, and honor when it came to sports.

So when it came down for me to develop an idea to help bring remembrance to a one-of-a-kind individual, the Pennies for Norm Tournament was it. Young wrestlers that were hungry for an opportunity and passionate about the craft of wrestling would be placed into a single elimination, 8 man tournament.

Not only would it open up wrestling fans to check it out, but it would also place itself as a show to help awareness of a certain cause near and dear to my heart. A portion of the proceeds will go towards the Colon Cancer Alliance to help raise awareness of colon and colorectal cancers.

Venues have been looked at. Talent is being scouted. This is going to happen. Keep your eyes peeled for the Pennies for Norm Tournament. Time to do some good.

To help support online, http://support.ccalliance.org/goto/penniesfornorm

Jon Harder
jon@thejonharder.com
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    Jon Harder

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