Where were you 25 years ago today?

[cynatnite]

Twenty-five years ago today the space shuttle Challenger broke apart and the crew were killed.

I was at home and had been sweeping the kitchen floor. I had the news on and decided to watch the launch. I kept the broom in my hand and went to the living room. I watched the Challenger break up right before my eyes. It took a few minutes for me to realize what had happened.

This was a profound moment that I have never forgotten. Every time I watched a launch since then, that moment played over again in my head.

[WinkyDink]

1. Teaching.

[catabryna]

11. Was working at the Multnomah County Courthouse

in Portland Oregon for the first one. For the second one, I was living in Texas and actually watched it disintigrate upon re-entry. Didn't realize what all those sparks were until about an hour later. I had seen a night re-entry prior to that and it was quite spectacular so I assumed what I was seeing was what it looked like during the day.

[patricia92243]

2. Was using our very first PC at my work - a radio station. I was concentrating so hard on the new PC

that I thought I wasn't listening to the monitor. It must have been my sub-conscience - but I suddenly realized what I was hearing. Horrible event.

[sarge43]

3. Driving to college

Turned on the college station. They were announcing it and then played Barber's Adagio. Had to pull over because I lost it.

[Bobbie Jo]

16. Was in-between classes, in college.

Remember it well.

[LeftinOH]

4. In college. Since it happened in the morning, the remaining classes of the day

we're mainly spent discussing the disaster instead of the normal lessons. It was genuinely upsetting; Reagan's speech on TV that evening was very moving. Of course, I didn't know until much later that Peggy Noonan wrote it -and that she cribbed someone else's work (the poem 'High Flight').

[Fuzz]

5. Walking to a macro economics class. A friend saw me, got out of his car and told me.

He was listening to the radio.

[sakabatou]

6. Wasn't born yet.

[Systematic Chaos]

7. In my US History class, senior year of high school.

Once news of that got out, not a whole lot else was discussed the rest of the school day.

[Zoeisright]

8. Celebrating my birthday, talking to my mom on the phone, with the tv on, sound off.

So I saw it happen live. With no explanation.

[SheilaT]

9. In my car, taking my

three-year-old to a park, a rendezvous with another mom and her kid. I heard the news on the radio.

[Carnage251]

10. Wasn't born

[bigwillq]

12. Off from school

It was a snow day.
Was at my buddy's house. We watched it live. I cried. :(

[elias49]

13. At work at the DMV

Ran to the next office to tell a friend who worked in for the Probation department.
He said "What are you talking about? Challenger just lifted off!"

I felt the same kind of sadness that day as I did a year before when Samantha Smith died in a plane crash in Bar Harbor, Maine.
Remember her? The 12 year old girl from Maine who wrote to Yuri Andropov in the Soviet Union in a plea for peace. She was invited to the Soviet Union and felt 'What a remarkable thing. The girl went viral before the term became popular.
And she died in a plain crash on a foggy runway as she returned from abroad with her parents.
That broke my heart. And a little of my spirit.

[LiberalEsto]

14. Pushing a grocery cart with my 2-year-old in it

into the supermarket. We stopped to watch a tv that the store had set up for the space launch, and it happened. It was horrifying.

I could not bring myself to do the shopping so I took my daughter home and turned on the news.

[TexasProgresive]

15. I remember watching in like it was on a loop

I was kind of in a trance because I worked the mid shift then and something woke me up. I went into the living room where the TV was and it just keep happening over and over.

[TwilightGardener]

17. High school.

[devilgrrl]

18. At college, found out about the Challenger when I phoned home.

I lived in a apartment on campus, was home for lunch and called my mom. The first thing out of her mouth...

Mom: "Did you hear the news?"

Me: "No. What happened?"

Mom: "The Space Shuttle blew up!"

Me: "With that teacher on board?"

Mom: "Yep."

Me: "Whoa!!!!!!"

[Vickers]

19. Working at the Consolidated Space Operations Center, east of Colorado Springs.

:(

[alphafemale]

20. In a state of numbed disbelief. nt

[delightfulstar]

21. In a school assembly, watching the launch.

I was in the fourth grade. There was so much anticipation, then we saw the moment when the shuttle broke apart...everyone was in tears when it happened, from the students to the teachers to our principal. Our school sent a huge signed card to Christa McAuliffe's class in NH after it happened. There are no words to describe the grief that was present afterwards, and all the confusion that followed, trying to figure out just what went wrong. That's one of those moments where you never forget where you were at. RIP McAuliffe, Resnik, Smith, Scobee, McNair, Onizuka, and Jarvis. :cry:

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Listening to the AM feed, the LA nooz station

while reading some class material at San Diego State's Cafeteria. I was seating outside, in a patio that still exists, with a cup of coffee and a highlighter in hand. When the news came through...

I remember it as if it was... today... twnety five years ago a few hours ago.

[Adsos Letter]

23. Setting forms for a concrete pour at soon-to-be Clos Pegase winery.

Very large tank pads.

[Auggie]

24. On my way to work in San Francisco

My wife and I were discussing what size new bed we should buy when news came over the car radio

[Occulus]

25. Elementary school. I believe I was either at lunch or just ending it.

The whole room was buzzing and more than half of us had portable radios, Walkmans, whatever.

Then the whole room got very, very quiet (a miracle in a roomful of kids) and suddenly everyone looked like they'd just been hit with a frying pan.