by Jim Defede
July 25, 2024
This book was published in 2002 and is about the town of Gander, Newfoundland. Gander (population just under 12,000 in 2021) hosted more than 6,000 stranded passengers after their planes were diverted to the town when airspace in the United States closed after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Some thoughts after reading this book:
* It's an easy-to-read piece of cultural history. Defede reports the events that happened that terrible day but most of the book concerns what happened in the days after in the small Canadian city.
*I've read disaster novels and end-of-the-world fiction that paint a depressing and scary picture of how people would act after a catastrophic event. I'm specifically thinking of books like Ashfall by Mike Mullin. Society quickly divided itself into groups or gangs. Surviving the devastation of the volcano was nothing compared to surviving the danger posed by other people. I was happy to have a true story of a town that happily and generously embraced the stranded passengers. It's probably apples and oranges to compare a post-volcano apocalypse to a travel crisis. But it still gives me such hope to know that people actually did open their hearts that week in 2001.
*People use the term "9/12" or "September 12" as a way to refer to the unity and love that was on display in New York and around the world after the devastating day of September 11. Fred Rogers' "Look for the helpers" is another phrase that comes to mind. I have a fascination of looking at photos of people helping people in the aftermath of the attacks. "Where was God?" is another phrase or question I have heard people ask about evil and 9/11. I answer if you want to know where God was on that day look at the strangers helping each other . One of the passengers quoted by author Defede says, "Can we have some of that unity without the pain that caused the unity? I don't think that's too much to ask."
*Would we still be able to have a "September 12" today? The above quote continues: "...But evidently it is. We've lost the ability to come together in America and I'm worried about the future. I don't know how we move forward in any kind of harmony."
Another passenger is quoted: "I'm back to feeling like it is a miracle what those people did, the way they trusted people and the way they took us in...I just can't imagine it would be as easy to do that today. Newfoundlanders probably haven't changed a bit, but I've been beaten back a little bit in the last few years, you know, with politics and the meanness of things."
*I had a similar hopeful feeling in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and shut-down. Small stories of people creating a mini-parade of cars past the house of a quarantined birthday boy; lunches served in communities for out-of-school children; free online concerts to help distract us.... just a few minor examples of ways that people reached out to each other. There was a sense of community in 2020 that helped bring us closer. But, in 2020 there was also lots of division: people fighting mask-mandates; anti-vax and anti-science sentiments; election year chaos and racial hate. Is it apples and oranges again to compare treatment over a few days of stranded passengers during a scary time to a whole year of uncertainty? Maybe it's instant communication that makes the difference? Social media allows everyone to share their opinions, no matter how stupid or hateful. I was interested to learn that there were anti-maskers and pandemic deniers during the 1917 flu epidemic. Was it worse in 2020? Maybe it was more easily reported because of instant communication.
*"Try That In A Small Town" is the name of a 2023 song by Jason Aldean.
"Well, try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road / Around here, we take care of our own....full of good ol' boys raised up right / If you're looking for a fight / Try that in a small town."
What Aldean promises of his small town is the opposite of what happened in the small town of Gander. I don't think any of the stranded passengers were looking for a fight. They weren't there to "sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk" or "carjack an old lady at a red light". The "Plane People", as they were called, were needy and hurting. The small town of Gander responded with love.
Is that the difference? A community response to those in need versus a community response to someone bringing violence? Aldean believes that in a small town, "we take care of our own" but in Gander, they took care of their neighbors no matter who they were or where they were from.
Apple and oranges because of the players involved or because of the atmosphere of the time? The events in Gander took place in 2001. Jason Aldean is writing in 2023. Are people still capable of kindness to strangers?
*One more note... among other animals on board the planes were a few bonobos that were being transported to Ohio. Author Jim Defede refers to these apes as monkeys at least 12 times! He usually calls them "bonobo monkeys". That alone made me deduct a star from my rating of the book! 😤
Additonally (although not the fault of Defede), the audiobook narrator kept pronouncing the word as BONE-uh-bo instead of bo-NO-bo. 😬
I highly recommend this book. It's not a literary masterpiece, but the events of the book are worth reading about.
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