Do you remember where you were?
Nineteen years ago, what was once called my generation’s Kennedy assassination, stunned the country. Like my parents remember where they were when they heard about the president’s shooting, I remember sitting in my fourth grade classroom and the Principal walked into the room and talked with the teacher, who was sitting at her desk. We got pretty loud when the Principal was talking with her. She left the room, and our teacher just stared blankly into the class. We kept talking for a few seconds while she sat silently. I know now she was trying to figure out what exactly to say to us, since every fourth-grader had to have dreamed of being an astronaut at one time or another. We, however, thought she was being quiet because she was angry that we were so loud when the Principal came in (this is the same teacher who brought in Mr. Wilhelm after the booing incident). She told us in a very calm voice that something had happened during the Challenger’s launch, and that a teacher had been on board. I think we spent the rest of the afternoon watching the news – the shuttle’s rocket boosters flying off uncontrollably will always be burned into my mind’s eye.
My friends and I were convinced the Libyans had launched a satellite that shot down the space shuttle. In the mid-80s, everything was the Libyans’ fault.
I remember watching President Reagan’s speech shortly after I got home from school. I know I didn’t understand much of what he said, but I do remember that it was comforting to have heard him.
Nineteen years ago…
Has it really been that long? The world is such a different place.
We mourn seven heroes…We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.” – President Ronald Reagan
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Yeah, I remember.
Our teacher had us watching the launch on tv… I think that she wanted us to experience a “historic moment” … and then it blew up. She planned for us all to write a piece about the space shuttle launch- still got to use that part of her lesson plan, because we all wrote about the astronauts. We were all a little shell-shocked, I guess.