I was in 8th grade and home from school on a snow day. I didn't see the live launch, but I came in from shoveling and they were showing the recording of the footage over and over. It must have been pretty soon after it happened, with the newscasters still trying to get info on what exactly had occurred and what it meant. I was generally emotionally numb during that part of my life, and I didn't want my parents to see me cry, so I just sat, kind of subdued, until my feet had warmed up enough that I could go outside again. I think I spent most of the rest of the day like that, going outside until I was too cold to stand it, then coming back in and seeing what the latest news was.
September 11 was strikingly similar for me: waking up and coming into the living room after the event had happened, the same footage over and over, newscasters trying to make sense of it. I couldn't place it at the time; it just gave me a sense of deja vu that made that event seem as if it had happened before.
To end on a less-depressing note: the one shuttle launch I -do- remember watching was the one -after- the Challenger tragedy. The teacher wheeled the TV cart into my World Civilization class and I don't think there was a sound in the room through countdown... liftoff... the eerily similar trajectory through the sky... the newscasters saying here was where it had gone wrong... and then saying there were the [booster rockets? whatever it had been that caused the explosion] falling away, and it would appear to be safe. There was a second or two as it sunk in, and then the room erupted into cheers and hoots and laughter. I remember hearing the same from neighboring classrooms. For the rest of the day, it seemed like there was more eye contact in the hall, people glancing at other people and seeing the same half-smile, recognizing themselves in that other person, and glancing away self-consciously.
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Date: 2011-01-28 06:03 pm (UTC)September 11 was strikingly similar for me: waking up and coming into the living room after the event had happened, the same footage over and over, newscasters trying to make sense of it. I couldn't place it at the time; it just gave me a sense of deja vu that made that event seem as if it had happened before.
To end on a less-depressing note: the one shuttle launch I -do- remember watching was the one -after- the Challenger tragedy. The teacher wheeled the TV cart into my World Civilization class and I don't think there was a sound in the room through countdown... liftoff... the eerily similar trajectory through the sky... the newscasters saying here was where it had gone wrong... and then saying there were the [booster rockets? whatever it had been that caused the explosion] falling away, and it would appear to be safe. There was a second or two as it sunk in, and then the room erupted into cheers and hoots and laughter. I remember hearing the same from neighboring classrooms. For the rest of the day, it seemed like there was more eye contact in the hall, people glancing at other people and seeing the same half-smile, recognizing themselves in that other person, and glancing away self-consciously.