I'll never forget it. My son was in kindergarten, and the class was watching on TV when this happened. I raced there as fast as I could to get him. Of course, all the little ones were crying. So was I. :(
What an awful thing to have to watch at such a young age.
I was in grad school. It was a beautiful sunny day in Ithaca. I ran into some friends talking excitedly. "Challenger blew up". We headed towards our favorite lunch spot - they had a TV. The damn thing was just playing over and over. We were stunned.
Yet there was a part of me that was prepared - somewhere in the back of my mind I knew - we all knew - something basic if seldom spoken aloud. Rockets blow up. We figured we might see this day.
What was unimaginable till that moment was the stark and helpless quality of the sadness.
Wow. 25 years. That was even a longer time than between Apollo 1 and the Challenger (which was 19 years).
ReplyDeleteI remember when this happened.
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget it. My son was in kindergarten, and the class was watching on TV when this happened. I raced there as fast as I could to get him. Of course, all the little ones were crying. So was I. :(
ReplyDeleteWhat an awful thing to have to watch at such a young age.
ReplyDeleteI was in grad school. It was a beautiful sunny day in Ithaca. I ran into some friends talking excitedly. "Challenger blew up". We headed towards our favorite lunch spot - they had a TV. The damn thing was just playing over and over. We were stunned.
Yet there was a part of me that was prepared - somewhere in the back of my mind I knew - we all knew - something basic if seldom spoken aloud. Rockets blow up. We figured we might see this day.
What was unimaginable till that moment was the stark and helpless quality of the sadness.