On this day in 1986 the space shuttle Challenger went kaplooohee. As students we were watching it on the teevee during class and were perplexed as to what just happened when the ship turned to dust? My nitwitted teacher that I still suspect was twisted on Valium at the time couldn't find any words to say, preferring instead to cover her mouth with her palm as though she was holding back vomit.
To be fair she wasn't the only one. The other teachers were all acting freaked out and they eventually managed to freak out a lot of the kids. I suppose they had some type of weird attachment to the teacher that was on board the shuttle, but their behavior didn't represent any form of leadership.
I hope to God/Satan/Zeus that the teachers acted more composed on Sept. 11th than what I witnessed 23 years ago.
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Prob. shouldn't admit this, but I honestly don't remember where I was at the time of the explosion, I mean at that exact time.
I saw it on the news that night and for days after that. Kept thinking of those parents and families that were watching it. How did they understand that? Just in the sky and then ---- gone.
Kath
I remember walking across the campus at Mission High School in TX where I was a nitwit teacher. I don't think I was too upset at the time. It seemed unreal and a bit foreign. I do remember others being upset including my neighbor who was an elementary teacher and very intrumental in having an elementary school named after Christa McAuliffe, the teacher.
The events of 9/11 were totally different - not an accident, but an act of war.
The whole situation seemed so weird to me personally. I remember feeling shocked but it seemed like the adults and media wanted me to feel upset about it. I was having a hard enough time just going thru puberty, just let me feel the way I wanted to, I had enough to sort out.
Standing in my student union building with about 20 other students - we watched the take off. Before I heard any commentating about the tragedy that had just occured, I was watching this bizarre "y" in the sky and thinking, "something is wrong."
I'll never forget the picture of June Scobee crying and looking up at the sky.
We were in gym when they announced over the PA system what had happened. I somehow remember going back to our homeroom classes and someone wheeled in a TV to watch the coverage — and watch endless loops of the tragic explosion. I'm not sure that was good or not — good to watch the coverage, but a little desensitizing, perhaps. But we're a desensitized generation, no?
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