TIL My mom watched challenger explode in person.
Posted by Slightly_insane_enby@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 25 comments
This might be more relatable for you gen Xers, as I know a lot of you watched the disaster in your schools, but, even though my mom grew up in Florida, I never realized she was there in person. I simply assumed she watched on TV like many other Americans that day. However, she told me that they almost always watched shuttle launches in person as they were close to cape Canaveral. A quote “We watched a trail, then it suddenly grew larger, and vanished”. I don’t know why this shocked me so much but. Either way, if you have a story from that cold January morning in 86’, tell me.
Slightly_insane_enby@reddit (OP)
So this has been removed for some reason. Fantastic
Monkeynutz_Johnson@reddit
Can't understand why, this is an event and experience common to our generation. Not like you asked who liked Burns and Allen, something not of GenX.
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Slightly_insane_enby@reddit (OP)
Disappointing, will be reposting this
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Tinyberzerker@reddit
We watched it live on a TV on a cart rolled out in to the classroom. We sat in a circle around it. When it exploded we didn't really understand what was going on, but our teacher leaped over to the TV to turn it off and he got quiet and weird. Confusion and sadness. I felt these emotions again with the recent moon launch, silently hoping they would be ok.
Monkeynutz_Johnson@reddit
Had the same feeling about Artemis. I even tried to post here about it during the re-entry blackout but it got pulled by the mods in seconds. Whoever did that sucks and I don't care what they think.
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Odditeee@reddit
Probably like most kids then: sitting in a public school classroom, the teacher rolled in the AV cart, and tuned in to the local PBS station. E hadn’t watched other launches but I think this was noteworthy in school due to the public school teacher astronaut. We all just sat there in stunned silence. I was 14.
Ethernetman1980@reddit
Same I would have been in 1st grade and it was a big deal we probably all watched in the gym. Years later I read Richard Feynmans book and it was eye-opening to say the least. The 2013 movie does a good job as well of showing his genius at work.
Slightly_insane_enby@reddit (OP)
She was standing in a wet soccer field. Still has the shoes. Her friend’s dad was an engineer at NASA, apparently he didn’t come home for a few days afterwards.
Naive-Internet-7451@reddit
I saw it live. I was 19 and going to college in Daytona Beach. I was in the Burger King by the raceway when it happened and went outside to watch. Crazy and shocking!
ErNz77@reddit
I grew up in Florida & our class was on the playground & all I remember is thinking, "Is that how it's supposed to look?"
I don't remember us going back to class saying anything. I only remember going home & turning on the TV.
It was surreal thinking about how we all saw it on the playground & it actually exploded.
Monkeynutz_Johnson@reddit
A lot of us saw it happening in real time. The last few seconds of what we saw showed one of those booster rockets circling aimlessly like it was lost. That is burned into my brain. The TV was turned off and we went on like it was a regular social studies class. The teacher's name was Ms Littlejohn and she didn't miss a beat, just "ok, open your books to page 121."
paperdevil77@reddit
I lived in FL at the time. We watched it from outside the classroom in 3rd grade. Memory is fuzzy but I remember the teachers panicking to get us back inside after it happened.
WhatTheHellPod@reddit
I was in high school, so all I really remember are the jokes which started so soon after it happened.
(Why didn't they shower before launch? Because they would be washing on the beach later.)
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rjgore3@reddit
If you grew up in Florida at that time, you watched it live. My teachers had no idea what to do that day as they scrambled us back inside. It wasn't until another teacher came in crying that we confirmed what we all knew happen.
OptimusWang@reddit
Yup, the whole school marched outside to watch them go up when there was a launch. Was too young to really understand why the adults were crying until I got home and my parents explained it to me.
tanhauser_gates_@reddit
I watched it live.
theoctagon06@reddit
I was in 4th grade. It was a school day. I didn't see it live but after it happened our whole school went in to an assembly and watched the replay about 100x.
Sorry_Survey_9600@reddit
Remember it all to well. I live about 15 miles from the launch site. I always watched the shuttle launches. Horrible horrible day. We all knew instantly that there was not going to be any survivors.
Sorry_Survey_9600@reddit
I was 19 at the time
CittaMindful@reddit
We all did sadly.