Where were you on January 28, 1986? I was a sixth grader attending A.A. Songy Middle School in Luling, La. Shortly after lunch, I was sitting in a portable classroom getting ready for a French lesson when our teacher told us about the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding. As was the case for millions of Americans that day, time froze for a minute or two. Once the harrowing fact she shared sunk in a few of us wondered out loud, "Wasn't the teacher on board?" Eventually, a TV was rolled into the library and we saw the tragedy unfold for the first time before boarding the yellow bus home.
Later that evening, my mom, dad, sister and I gathered in our living room on Bernice Drive and sought reassurance from President Reagan. We watched the countless replays of the disaster over and over and over again. Twenty-five years later, those images - the fireball, the solid rocket boosters flailing away, the horrified crowd in the bleachers below - still resonate, along with the fateful quote "obviously, we have a major malfunction." At some point, way past our regular 9:00 p.m. bedtime, Dad turned the TV off and my sister and I headed upstairs and got ready for bed, knowing that we'd never forget this day.
The next morning, my classmates and I huddled around our science teacher, Mrs. Walker. The floor was open and our inquisitive eleven-year-old minds were fully in motion. "Would the Space Shuttle ever launch again?" "Did the astronauts die right away?" "Will they let another teacher go into space?" were a sampling of the questions that crossed our lips. Mrs. Walker didn't have many concrete answers, but it was reassuring to have her guide us through such a seminal moment.
Those are my Challenger memories. What are yours?
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