Where were you when the Challenger Tragedy occured?

[Rainband]

I was at Gulf High School. One of the teachers at my school was a runner up to Christa. We were all watching the shuttle go up. Then someone said it went into a cloud. I knew waht really happened and I couldn't believe my eyes. I still say they shouldn't have lauched that day and even Morton Thyacol, the company that produces the solid rocket boosters agreed. I guess the lives of those seven angels was worth the price of progress and winning the space race. I however do not think it was.

[arkess7]

I was 12 in 7th grade. We were eating lunch outside. I remember I was eating a chicken sandwhich watching it.........then pieces just started flying away from it and lots of smoke..........I couldnt believe it.........i knew something happened, then when I got back into class my teacher turned the tv on.......and we heard that it exploded. I will never forget that as long as I live.

[Dee Bee]

I was the Assistant Director of a preschool program in Elk Grove Village, IL. The church secretary rushed into our office with the news (I was not with any children at the time). The Director and I posted a note in the kitchen, then went around to each (of 3) age group rooms to stay with the kids so the teachers and mom helpers could go to the kitchen and see the note. All of the adults agreed that we should not discuss the disaster, even among ourselves, within earshot of the children. Our daughter was 4 -1/2. She had heard a friend's mom talking on the telephone about the Challenger. We told her that the astronauts had been in an accident but avoided exposing her to any graphic television video clips. That picture of the explosion is etched in the memories of so many Americans.

[alicia-w]

we were in the philippines and I remember seeing it on TV and being simply stunned.

[Miss Mary]

I was 30, going to college for the first time. Worked part time at the Registrar's office. I was just coming out of the ladies restroom and my boss told me the awful news. I was between classes so I had to go to my next one. Couldn't really follow the story completely until I got home. My campus (Mt. St. Joseph/Cincinnati) was deeply sad, people crying, upset. I also remember that my classes were held but we didn't stay on task and discussed the tragedy instead.

Such a sad, sad day in our nation's history. I still want to cry when I see the parent's reaction to learning that was an explosion in the sky they saw, not just smoke.

Mary

[beachbum_al]

I was in my 10th grade health class. I remember we had just gotten in class and one of the boys came running into class telling the teacher what had happen. At first the teacher thought he was making it up but the student kept saying why would he make something like that up. I guess the teacher just couldn't believe that it had happen.

[therock1811]

I was about 5 months old when it happened.

[cajungal]

I was only 9 years old and in the 4th grade. So, I know I had to be in school at the time. I remember crying and I painted a picture of a rocket and hung it my bedroom. And on the top of the picture, I wrote in memory of the spacecraft or something like that. It hung on my bedroom wall for at least a couple of years. I remember really crying for several days after it happened.