20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11 RECOLLECTIONS

It is 20 years since the terrible event of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York. We all have our stories of where we were on that day when we heard the news.

Tribute in Light in Manhattan on 11 September 2013, marking the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.Photograph: Gary Hershorn/Reuters

I certainly remember where I was on Sept 11, 2001 and what I was doing: I had just come from a large 11 am funeral at Glasgow Cathedral. It was of a young man who froze to death on the Matterhorn. (His father had been one of Iain’s students and as well as a fellow mountaineer.)   

On the way home I needed to do some photocopying of music required for our fiddle orchestra rehearsal that same evening.  I was standing in the Copy Agency Byres Road  putting sheets into the photocopier when the lad in charge of the place referred me to the news coverage coming out of his radio up on a shelf above my head. "Have you not heard?"     What a shock!  

And further to this… at the end of the day I went to collect a Canadian friend, Glenna Urbshadt, who had been staying with us, from a local golf club (Clober Golf Club) after she had finished her game, about 5 pm.  We met in the clubhouse foyer.  Off to one side of the wide foyer was a fairly large room with a TV in the corner.  A scattering of people were gathered in front of the TV watching the news coverage.  We stood at the opening (which was made by the big sliding doors being pushed to each side) and asked if we could come in to watch the TV.  “No madame …it's men only!”