Monday, January 28, 2008

Where were you when.....


Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. I was in the 5th grade, it was the first time ever a non-astronaut was to be on the shuttle, a teacher. I have no idea what the credentials were or how teachers went about applying. However, I do know my teacher, Mr. Hardy was in the finals. Mr. Hardy was an awesome teacher, he had a passion for rockets and would have been an excellent candiate for the space program. Unfortunately he wasn't selected to be the teacher on the shuttle, at the time, we the 5th graders at Milton School were disappointed because he wasn't selected- how cool would it be to say your teacher went to space? As disappointing as it was to have him miss out on such an opportunity it would have been far more tramatic to have to attend his funeral.

Growing up I would hear stories of where people were when they heard the news of President Kennedy's assassination, I never understood how they could remember ever detail of a day that happened so many years ago. That is until the Challenger explosion.... here it is 22 years later and I still remember where I was and what I was doing. It had snowed and school was closed, I was at my friend Tina's house. We were watching the shuttle launch on TV, not because we really wanted to be watching it, most likely because they interrupted a TV show we wanted to watch to broadcast the take off. I really couldn't believe it was something they allowed us to see on TV, I kept thinking they were going to break away to commerical, why were they making us watching this I kept wondering. Then I started to think about all of the people watching in on the beach in Florida, what must be going through their minds? Could this really be happening? What about the children of that poor teacher- what the hell was a teacher doing on the space shuttle anyway? It was then I realized that this was a day/event that I would remember my entire life.

I started to think about other worldy events, when they took place and do I remember what I was doing when I heard about them.....
  1. The Berlin Wall coming down
  2. The attacks on the World Trade Center

While the Berlin Wall coming down was a positive event in US history, the other Challenger Disaster and Attack on the World Trade Center were not. As a child I was kind of jealous I never had a "Kennedy assassination" like moment to talk about. As an adult I hope I never experience another one.

2 comments:

Anna M said...

I was in 10th grade in Mrs. Lockett's Honors English class.

Great post girl!

Anonymous said...

It was a snow day for me as well, I was watching tv just as you were. WOW, 22 years that dates us, uh?

September 11 - yikes, as most Americans I will never forget where I was either. That whole day/week is etched in my memory. Like you said I hope we never have to experience anything like that and if we ever have children I definitely hope they don't have a Kennedy/Challenger/911 experience ever!