remembering

I can’t believe it was 20 years ago (tomorrow, 28 Jan). I was in first grade (stop groaning if you’re older). I was excited because there was a teacher (like my mommy) and another woman astronaut (Judy Resnik, Mission Specialist). I thought that was neat and wanted to be like them. I don’t recall if my class watched it “live” (because of teacher Christa McAuliffe), but I do remember watching it replayed later on the news with my parents. My grandfather died shortly thereafter and my dad had to fly on a plane for the first time. I remember telling him “Daddy, if it looks like a space ship please don’t get on.” (It didn’t, but he may have had to use the emergency chutes when they landed, or he may have just told me that so I’d think he had an adventure. I don’t know and can no longer ask.)

Challenger Center for Space Education founded by the families of Challenger Flight 51-L
Remember the Challenger @ NASA (requires Flash)

May their families find comfort and their memories be a blessing.

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2 Replies to “remembering”

  1. I was in first grade, so no groans here…

    (I should write my own Challenger post, shouldn’t I?)

  2. That means I was in 6th grade? (I knew it was either 5th or 6th.) But no groaning. I refuse to be old. I figure I’m still about 23. (Time stopped the very next year before I reached my birthday, when I made Pesach for the first time. Pesky Nissan birthday got lost in the pre-Pesach shuffle.)

    As I commented on Chayyei Sarah: In elementary school. I went to IMT (Independent Motor Training: extra gym practice for those of us who had problems with eye-hand coordination. My excuse was a wandering eye and seeing double.) as usual, and found the Gym teacher sitting in her office with the radio on, head down on her desk, crying. She explained why. There was no IMT that day. I didn’t tell anyone else. The teachers had a conference over lunch on whether to/how to tell and told the rest of the students in the afternoon.

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