So much has happened in the past ten years. Remember 9/11? Ellen from In A Bun Dance tells us where she was ten years ago, and asks us all to share our thoughts about that day.
Ten years ago tomorrow. What were you doing when the World Trade Centre came under attack? Do you remember?
The sun was shining that day in 2001. I was about four months pregnant with Boy Two and working as night editor at the Daily Star of Scotland.
I was late for work, so driving around looking for parking space while half listening to the news telling me something about a plane and the World Trade Centre. My imagination conjured a single misguided fool flying a little aircraft – I think someone landed one in Red Square the previous week.
But the minute I arrived in the newsroom I knew this was different. My colleagues – we shared an office with the Scottish Daily Express – were standing silently watching the TV screens suspended from the ceiling. The sky was blue there too as we tried to digest what we were seeing.
There are few journalists that don’t love to be at work on the day of a big story – however hideous the facts. But for us that day, in truth, there was little to do but watch. There was nothing Scotland could offer that would come near the importance of what was happening in America.
Our colleagues in the London office set about clearing the newspaper of it’s usual content and deciding how to present this monumental story. In Glasgow we read the stories as they came in on the news wires and watched developments on the TV.
Pictures arrived on our computer screens and we gazed at them in shock. Then with a sickening jolt, I realised that wasn’t debris tumbling from the building, it was people – cartwheeling, freefalling living people. I put my hand to my belly where a new life was growing.
I will never forget the weight of that day, but, in the main, my life went on more or less as before. The new life I was carrying is nine and finds Doctor Who too scary to watch all the way through.
But spare a thought for those whose lives changed for ever on 11th September 2001. Remember the dust lady, Marcy Borders, snapped, stunned and with her office clothes and pearl necklace coated in yellow dust. She has fought addictions and lost custody of her children. It took her to this year to be able to board a plane again.
What were you doing on 9/11?
Photo credit: lrargerich
Tamsin
Sunday 11th of September 2011
10 years ago today I watched in horror as the attack on screens in our newsroom. It was my second week in a new radio job. By the evening, I was sleeping on the floor in Stansted airport along with dozens of journalists waiting for a special charter plane to take us to Canada which was the closest we could get. From Canada, we got in a taxi and arrived in a shellshocked NYC 48 hours after the attacks. It was surreal. But we got on with reporting what happened. Downtown there were noticeboards plastered with hundreds, thousands of missing posters. They were home made by families still clinging to hope. I'll never forget seeing one man return to the picture of his missing wife. Underneath it was a detailled physical description of her. He took a pen from his pocket and crossed out 5 ft 8 and wrote 5 ft 7.
Babes about Town
Sunday 11th of September 2011
Just wrote a post about it, I was in NYC that period, seems so weird 10 years have gone by. The world changed that day, but sadly a lot of the bigotry and injustice and fear-mongering remains the same. Wishing peace and love to all those who have lost their lives or loved ones or remain dedicated to change around the world.
Jo
Sunday 11th of September 2011
10 years ago today was my time before I had children. I was on a day off from my job. I'd had a lazy morning catching up with a few jobs and was sat in my dressing gown watching the news when it came on. I can remember the feeling of shock and a numbness as I watched events unfold. Even now, if I see footage replayed I get a shiver down my spine.
Sara
Sunday 11th of September 2011
I was feeding my 6 month old watching the tv when the news unfolded. I will never forget the feeling of wondering what kind of world my children were born into to
Susanna
Sunday 11th of September 2011
I was pregnant with my first, and on my way to a lunch meeting. I suffered a lot from morning sickness, and remember feeling particularity nauseous that day. I spent the rest of the day glued to the television watching it all unfold.