This Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11th of 2001.
While Gander has dominated the public discussion thanks to the success of Come From Away, all communities in the province that had runways big enough to accommodate trans-Atlantic jets also saw a sudden influx of passengers when American airspace was shut down.
John O’Leary was working in Memorial University’s Phys. Ed department at the time and he well remembers the plane people coming in from all over the world, many of whom were accommodated at the university.
(St. John’s International Airport)
He recalled one man from Dallas, who as a joke, had worn a pair of Dutch clogs on his flight home from Holland, never expecting that he wouldn’t get home for days and days.
“So his feet were a mess, and the way MUN Phys Ed operated, we all fitted out our teams with new equipment every year, because they changed every year. So, we had a supply room of used sneakers and boots and basketball shoes and stuff.”
“I took him downstairs,” O’Leary told VOCM Open Line with Brian Callahan, and asked him what size he took.
“And he said ‘well, I’m normally about a size 9 or 10,’ I said ‘well, the smallest I got here is a size 15.’ You know what he said? ‘I’ll take them!'”
