reflection
27 01 2006I am so old.
I just found out that tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle.
I could have sworn I was in the third or fourth grade when that happened, but I guess not. I don’t remember if I saw it happen on TV like most of America (seemingly) did or where I was when I saw it. I’m pretty sure we watched it live at school; it was a big deal to educators because of the fact that Christa McAuliffe was a teacher and was making the trip. I couldn’t have told you what time of year it was. I just remember that it happened, and that it was very sad. Still is.
Reagan was supposed to do a State of the Union address that night, but abandoned it in favor of talking about the shuttle disaster. You can watch that here.
Twenty years. It doesn’t seem possible.
We were living in Greenfield when that happened and yes, I believe you were in school that day. It was absolutely one of those surreal experiences where you’re watching TV and then suddenly become unsure that what you just saw is what you THINK you saw. More than anything I remember the incredible sadness that surrounded the country after the explosion. Nothing like that had ever happened and people didn’t know how to react.
I’ve always been intrigued by the space program and as a kid, used to be glued to the television, waiting for “splashdown” of the capsules that re-entered the earth’s atmosphere (and you feel old???). It was always an exciting moment and it always made me cry that yay, they made it back! And the splashdown and recovery took forever and when they got the astronauts back on dry land, everyone went nuts.
I too cannot believe it’s been 20 years! What’s really incredible to me is that you guys have never seen anything other than a space shuttle! Wow. Amazing.