Where were you when Challenger Exploded?

[B_Think_Kink]

I wasn't born yet either.

 

[ManlyBanisters]

I was in study hall and watching it on one of a few TV's that were scattered throughout the school. I was strangely numb when I saw it... although I have had fucked up dreams about the re-entry into our atmosphere many times since. The one that went down several years ago just seemed like a replay of the Challenger incident... plus, I was already emotionally drained from September 11th which happened only a year and a half earlier.

The worst part was all of those black dick jokes that everyone told after that.

I never heard those...

T darlin', I'm confused - we're talking about Challenger - not Columbia. Which are you talking about? Challenger (1986) exploded on launch, not re-entry - Columbia (2003) was the re-entry burn up.

 

[Pecker]

I was 40-year-old Mr. Mom in 1986, doing the laundry and watching CNN. I saw it but couldn't fathom it. Even hours later, after having seen the replay over and over I had a hard time grasping what I'd seen.

Later on, when the hearings and investigations uncovered the engineering flaws and the bureacratic errors I was angered to the point of hating the shuttle program.

22 years later and I'm still waiting to see a new way to get into orbit.

 

[NightFish]

I was in the Navy and my ship was in the yard for overhaul. My buddies and I cut work to go our stateroom and watch the launch. Our lives changed a little that day.

 

[D_Jared Padalicki]

Not yet on earth ...

 

[B_starinvestor]

Just turned 14 - my Algebra teacher had been one of the teachers that had gone through the application process to be in Christie Mc.'s spot. We watched it in her classroom.

It was especially surreal because I think all of the students, like myself, understood the reality of the tragedy because we visualized our teacher being on board.

A real tragedy..

 

[Florida Boy]

I can't remember exactly where I was when I first heard the news. I was working in downtown Dallas on Harwood Street when someone announced it to everyone in hearing distance. I lived in a gay area, Oaklawn. A co-worker who recorded soap opera each day was lucky enough to have gotten in on video cassette. He got a tape of it. He was the most popular guy for a while. In those days things didn't get repeated as often by so many people as they do today.

That evening visiting my then boy friend, a fifth grade teacher, I heard my first throughly tasteless joke about the disaster. I was appalled at the jokes such young kids tell.

 

[faceking]

I was in study hall and watching it on one of a few TV's that were scattered throughout the school. I was strangely numb when I saw it... although I have had fucked up dreams about the re-entry into our atmosphere many times since. The one that went down several years ago just seemed like a replay of the Challenger incident... plus, I was already emotionally drained from September 11th which happened only a year and a half earlier.

The worst part was all of those black dick jokes that everyone told after that.

growing up in the flight path of 747s only a few hundred feet above my house... i still to this day have so many visions [edit: dreams] of watching first hand of jetliners crashing... usually noticing something is slightly awry... alerting others, than watching it go down (but rarely ever seeing the actual impact).

 

[tripod]

I never heard those...

T darlin', I'm confused - we're talking about Challenger - not Columbia. Which are you talking about? Challenger (1986) exploded on launch, not re-entry - Columbia (2003) was the re-entry burn up.

Yep... I was mixing them up. I wasn't really all that into the accident, I just was walking by and saw it on the T.V. I don't think that I was even aware that it exploded on the launch... I just saw the explosion. The dreams have been occurring in the last several years when I really think about it.

The jokes went something like this.

A piece of the black astronaut was found yesterday... but upon examination, it was just a section of tubing.

 

[mindseye]

Ron McNair was on that shuttle; he was the invited speaker at my high school's graduation, and had been involved in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program there. I was watching the shuttle launch live on television that day in a room on campus with a dozen or so fellow students. I remember how stunned we all were, and I remember that the commentators on television were stunned for just a moment: they broke the silence before we did, crassly filling the dead air with jabber while we were still absorbing the impact of what happened.

On a lighter note, I wrote this on Usenet twelve years ago in one of my 'blond moments'. (I had hair twelve years ago.)

 

[Flashy]

Ron McNair was on that shuttle; he was the invited speaker at my high school's graduation, and had been involved in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program there. I was watching the shuttle launch live on television that day in a room on campus with a dozen or so fellow students. I remember how stunned we all were, and I remember that the commentators on television were stunned for just a moment: they broke the silence before we did, crassly filling the dead air with jabber while we were still absorbing the impact of what happened.

On a lighter note, I wrote this on Usenet twelve years ago in one of my 'blond moments'. (I had hair twelve years ago.)

interesting...i saw that Baby Jessica thing in the response and memories of it came flooding back to me...

I don't remember where i was when she was rescued though, but i remember the images quite clearly, since it was such a huge story.

I remember where i was exactly for truly momentous stuff before i turned 20 (1991)...

The Reagan assassination Attempt
The Iran Hostage Crisis starting (and the aborted rescue attempt, Desert One, and them finally being freed
Skylab falling out of orbit
Mariel Boat Lift
The US beating Russia in the 1980 Olympics in hockey
Pope John Paul 2 getting shot
Sadat Assassination
Lennon Assassination
Columbia Mission (launch and landing)
Soviets shooting down the Korean airliner
Soviets invading Afghanistan
Beirut Marine BArracks bombing
SAS storming the Iranian embassy in London
TWA Hijacking
massive chemical plant leak that killed hundreds in India
Indira Gandhi Assassinated
Three Mile Island
Chernobyl
Live Aid
France bombs Greenpeace
That German guy who landed in Red Square
The fall of the Berlin Wall
The Fall of the Soviet Union (Coup attempt, Gorbachev under Arrest, Yeltsin on the tank)
Pan AM Flt 103 Bombing
Exxon Valdez
Tianenmen Square
First Night of the First Gulf War


----

anyone here have any recollections (our older posters) about the Kennedy Assassination? King Assassination? RFK Assassination? Cuban Missile Crisis? Armstrong walking on the moon? Sputnik? Appolo missions? Woodstock? Bay of Pigs? I have a Dream, speech?


let's make this an all encompassing thread of momentous moments pre-1991

sort of a where were you when massive events happened...

feel free to mention any that you recall so vividly (Beatles on Ed Sullivan, Beatles arriving in America) anything you want


I was only about 5 when Elvis died but i recall a ton of hubub and tv attention.

 

[Industrialsize]

I was working as a Paramedic on an ambulance call and saw it on the tv in a patient's home

 

[invisibleman]

I was just rewatching the old footage from that fateful day in January 86...

where wereyou?
what were you ding?
How old were you?
What do you remember/how were you feeling/were there people around...etc...

do you remember it clearly or just hazily?

I was fifteen and fourteen sixteenths going on twenty.:biggrin1: It was cold. I was in junior high. I probably watched other things after watching the Challenger. The principal announced Challenger over the intercom. I probably didn't watch the rehash.

 

[nudeyorker]

I have been truly too embarassed to say where I was, But it was not illegal or anything! But I was doing the same thing when I heard about Natalie Wood and Princess Grace!

 

[sdbg]

where wereyou?

I was at work at a resort hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona durning the breakfast shift.

what were you doing?

Greeting breakfast guest as they entered the dining room

How old were you?

34

What do you remember/how were you feeling/were there people around...etc...

Several of the hotel guests informed us that the Challenger just exploded. The dining room had over 150 guests present as we were at the peak of breakfast service. Some of the staff left the dining room to view the TV in the bar. They returned and said that there was no way anyone on the shuttle survived. I felt really sorry for the unfortunate crew. We were really busy at work and it made it difficult to stay on top of the business.

do you remember it clearly or just hazily?

I remember the event clearly. The morning was off to a great start; there was a noticeable positive energy from the staff. Then when the first guest told us and the word got around, the atmosphere turned sullen immediately.

 

[rob_just_rob]

I had just finished a mid-term math exam and had trekked through the cold with a buddy to get some pizza.

 

[B_Morning_Glory]

i was in school 6 th grade watching it on tv i was 13 at the time

 

[D_Ivana Dickenside]

i was only 2 months old at the time... so i was probably spitting up formula and crapping my diapers.

 

[D_Amyntas Lillydong]

I was 14 and a teacher announced what happened during class. Later when I saw the footage and the faulty "O" rings were to blame I thought no shit. A straight tube bottle rocket was all it was really. I'm surprise it didn't happen sooner.