Challenger - 18 Years

Ronald Reagan ^ | 1-28-86

[Dog]

Your my age I was 7 when JFK was shot...I remember Challenger and where I was to this day and who I was with.

It was a very cold day .....we had plans to go to a flea market for the day but they were closed due to the cold. So we stopped at a local market to shop and were told of the Challenger while standing in the checkout line.

What is amazing is I can still see everything from that day as clear as a bell in my minds eye.

[cmsgop]

I was 16 coming out of Spanish Class, Listening to my Sony Walkman when I heard the news, My Classmates thought I was kidding when I told them......

[X-USAF]

I also was in the Air Force at the time. Worked a midnight shift when a guy in the next room knocked on my door and woke me up with the news.

A long day that was.

Rest in peace, Challenger crew.

[Houmatt]

I remember the day well. January 28, 1986.

I was living in New Paltz, NY, and I was at a local video store checking out their new releases. The woman behind the counter had WCBS-FM New York on the radio, which I was only kind of listening to. That is, until they came on with a special bulletin. It seemed there was an explosion aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger (this was the first report on this station), and it was feared all aboard had perished.

I slowly stood up, and turned to look at the woman. We just stared at each other until a guy ran into the store, asking if the TV in the store worked. The woman said yes, and he turned it on. It was NBC, and they showed the explosion, as they would so many times after. A few seconds went by and you heard a NASA tech say, "Obviously a major malfunction." Then it came back to Tom Brokaw, who added, "Obviously the understatement of the year."

[txhurl]

I was 17 years old, just accepted to the University of Texas - Austin, at my boyfriend's apartment who had just won big recognition on a thesis re: Gorbachev and the Soviet threat, we were watching CNN (that's all there was back then), I looked up from doing the NYT crossword and there was the explosion.

I am not the crying type, but I immediately broke into tears. Thank God we had Reagan back then.

A common bumper sticker on campus was 'Tits for Fritz', for Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Ronald Reagan personally waved to me (I was the only R in a sea of Ds) on Riverside drive. I worked at Saab-Fiat-Pugeot as parts girl and stood well away from everybody else to wave at him.

This all happened within a few months, it seemed. I was born a Republican. The only one in a whole sordid family of Democrats.

[HapaxLegamenon]

Speach was written by Pat Buchanan. The last line is a famous quotation, but I can't remember where it is from.

[Airborne Longhorn]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post.

I gave a memorial service for the fallen astronauts here in Houston at my parish, St. Cyril of Alexandria Catholic Church, with a concert performance by the West Point (my alma mater) Glee Club.

Several of my astronaut buddies attended.

You could not have evoked more tears!

Many thanks...

[DaughterofEve]

Thanks for that.

You're welcome, and no problemo. No, I didn't live in Chicago but I forgive you corporately for the United States of America. I'll even forgive the others that called me in NY for even worse purposes than drapes on your behalf.

I thought your plea deserved a response...I am the Queen of unresponded-to comments at FR!
(I'm sure many feel that way!) :-)

[ChefKeith]

I was working at a Jaguar/Rolls Royce dealership in Austin that morning and was out in the shop when I heard one of the Saleswomen screaming, I ran to the sales floor and saw the TV on her desk with the live shot of the explosion still on the screen.

I just stood there looking at the TV saying to Myself there is no way that they could have survived that, but I was praying that somehow they were O.K.

I was only about 2 when JFK was killed but I vividly remember Mom freaking out while the TV was on and I was in My playpen. It was years later when I saw the film of the shooting and put the puzzle pieces together and realized that I had seen it at that young age and remembered the TV screen, it was just like that day that it happened.

[Thane_Banquo]

Wasn't it written by Peggy Noonan?

Anyway, it's from a poem by John Magee.

[Preech1]

I too was working as a cook in a restaurant. I didn't have to work til 2 or so that day and I watched the launch on TV. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I was in shock. I went into work and all my coworkers were the same way. I thought I'd never feel such shock and sadness again, though I did when my wife and I lost our firstborn and then again on 9-11. Somehow the Columbia didn't faze me as much, maybe I am getting jaded. They say you can take only so much trauma in a life time and then it doesn't affect you as much. Have I lived a lifetime already in my 38 years? I wonder...

[El Gato]

I was running late, very late, for work because of some work on the shower I was doing. No one else was home, all where in school, teaching it or going to it. I finished my work, took a shower and never turned on the radio or TV. When I got into my car they were talking about the "teacher in space".... Then I realized they were talking in the past tense. I quickly switched stations, and then ran back into the house to watch the replays.

Of course, I'm also old enough to remember exactly where I was (Robin Mickle Jr. High) and what I was doing. (On lunch break from 8th grade English class) when JFK was shot. Mrs. Abel came back into the room after lunch with puffy and red eyes. She choked out the confirmation of the rumors we had heard in the halls. Then she cried some more. On a positive note, I also know exactly where I was when Neil Armstrong made that "Giant Leap for Mankind". I was at my (now) wife's grandparent's farm. Her parents and siblings were also there. It was a very small house, and I had to sleep in the back of my Dad's pickup (Which wasn't so bad, it had a cab high cover, with screened top vent and side windows you could open and a fairly comfortable bed.)

I also remember the Apollo 9 astronauts reading "Genesis" from Lunar orbit. Christmas 1968. And a bit earlier the Ranger probes crashing into the moon (on purpose!).

[Nebr FAL owner]

It's been 18 years ! It seems like just like last year maybe the year before but it's been 18 years man I feel old.

[Nebr FAL owner]

You are right about it being one of the first events to sear itself into our memories(I turned 40 last Sept.) I was lucky my folks got me out of bed as a small child to watch "moonwalks" & "splashdowns" of the Apollo space flights . I remember hearing the announcement that Pres. Reagan had been shot , I remember watching on CNN elements of the 10th panzer division out of Stutgart Germany rolling down the main drag in Paris France on Bastille Day at the invitation of the French ,the fall of the Berlin Wall ,the striking of the blood red communist banner from over the Kremlin to be replaced by a red,white & blue flag.God I feel positively ANCIENT.

[Nebr FAL owner]

I can remember exactly what I was doing on Sept 11 2001 . I had just gotten off work & had stopped at the store to pick up some lunch meat & a beer , had gotten to the apt. & was listening to the tv while making a sandwich when the anchor on CNN announced that a small plane had hit the world trade towers & started showing video . Then I saw the second plane turn towards the second tower & realized that this was not an accident but a kamikaze attack & that we were at war.

[DouglasKC]

I was lucky my folks got me out of bed as a small child to watch "moonwalks" & "splashdowns" of the Apollo space flights

I don't have much of a memory of these although I was 8 years old. I think they didn't stick because they weren't unexpected traumatic events. I do remember watching the news about Reagan getting shot though.

[Henrietta]

I was in tenth grade, too. We found out about it at lunch time, because there were televisions set up in the cafeteria, so that we could watch the news of the disaster. It was horrible to watch, and many students, myself included, cried when we saw what happened.