Great Times in Commotion

9/11 Flipbook, scott_bl8ke, 2011

When I was in Primary 7 we had to spend Wednesday afternoon doing drama. At one point this neatly crossed over with our study of the Second World War - in groups of three we had pretend it was 1939 and we had just heard Neville Chamberlain's declaration of war against Germany. I simply couldn't act as if I was shocked by the start of the war. It meant nothing to me and there was nothing in my own living memory at the age of 11 that came anywhere near that event that I could draw upon. To me, the war was documentaries looking back half a century and old Sunday afternoon films about heroic adventures (it hadn't yet been fully abused and commercialised by first person shooters) which was not the context the people of the real 1939 were living in. That drama class is over half my lifetime ago, so I can't remember what response I acted if any.

(Moment of Clarity)

'Twas a sunny Tuesday afternoon, I came home from school to listen to Chris Moyles' show on Radio 1, as always. I turned the radio on, only to be confronted with a contemplative Moyles explaining why there wouldn't be anything to laugh about today (compared to all the other days when starved Africans are no reason to stop having a good time). As I listened to the unscheduled Newsbeat, my eyes widened and I wondered "Shit, has it finally happened?". As I didn't have a TV at the time, I ran into my brother's room and caught my knee on the drawer in my excitement - is "he" on the New World's side? All channels broadcasting breaking news.