9/11 , 25 Years Ago Today
25 Years Ago Today
Twenty-five years ago today, I was standing at Ardingly Antique Fair, doing what I had done countless times before — buying and selling antiques.
It was an ordinary day in the antiques trade. Until suddenly, it wasn't.
News came through that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York.
At first, like everyone else, we didn't really understand what we were watching or what it meant. Then the enormity of it began to sink in.
Just before the news came through, I had been offered a rather nice Black Forest bear at what, looking back, was a very good price.
I turned it down.
After the news broke, I turned to Constance and said:
"Maybe I should have taken OFFER on the bear."
It sounds almost absurd now, but I remember it because, within a very short time, the whole atmosphere of the trade changed.
The following months were chaos.
American buyers, who were an important part of the British antiques trade, virtually disappeared overnight.
Prices fell. Some things recovered. Some took years. And some never really recovered at all.
But, of course, when you look back on September 11th, the antiques market is almost insignificant.
For thousands of families, that morning changed everything.
People went to work and never came home.
Children lost parents. Parents lost children. Husbands lost wives, wives lost husbands, and countless people were left carrying memories and consequences that would last for the rest of their lives.
And perhaps that is one of the things that events like 9/11 teach us.
We spend our lives worrying about prices, possessions, houses, businesses, deals and whether we bought something at the right price.
Then, in a matter of minutes, the things we thought were important can become completely unimportant.
Twenty-four years later, I still remember that fair.
I remember the bear.
I remember turning it down.
And I remember saying to Constance, "Maybe I should have taken it."
But I remember something else far more clearly.
The feeling that the world had suddenly changed.
It had.
And for many people, it changed forever.
Today is not really a day for talking about antiques or prices.
It is a day to remember the people who lost their lives, the families who lost someone they loved, and all those whose lives were changed on one September morning in 2001.
24 years on, they should not be forgotten.
— Top Banana
Leave a comment
Comments will be approved before showing up.
