January 28, 2006 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Challenger disaster. For many people of our generation this marks the first national tragedy that we were exposed to and the details of that day are deeply ingrained in our memories.
We all knew that Challenger was launching that day; no self-respecting 11 year old boy didn’t know when the Space Shuttles were launched. This launch was different though, it was the first time that someone other than an astronaut was on the crew, a teacher. It could have been any teacher, it could have been our teacher but wasn’t. That didn’t stop us from focusing on the launch though.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) my grade school did not have cable television and they were not part of NASA’s program to provide satellite feeds to schools so we were not able to watch the launch. Around 11:00 one of the other 6th grade teachers came into our room and whispered something into our teacher’s ear. I was standing near the teacher’s desk turning in some papers and I immediately turned to the kid next to me and said “What if the shuttle blew up?” Little did I know that I was right.
This is definitely one of the first memories that stick in my mind to the point I can tell you exactly where I was standing and what I was thinking.
So, where were you on January 28, 1986?
TimBob