Friday, January 28, 2011

25 Years Ago Today

This post at Holy Coast looking back at the Challenger disaster could have been written by me in some respects. It really is difficult to believe that 25 years have passed.

25 years ago today I was a young receptionist at a law firm in Long Beach, California. One of the senior partners came in the front door looking rather ashen-faced, and he told me he'd heard on the radio that the Challenger had exploded.

As described at Holy Coast, no one even dreamed of the existence of the Internet back then, nor did we have TV or radio in the office. (I would bring in a transistor radio when the Dodgers had daytime playoff games, with the blessing of the attorney I worked for, but reception was spotty even then.) I spent my lunch hour driving around Downtown Long Beach in order to listen to the car radio and try to get a handle on exactly what had happened.

As is the case for many people, the other thing I really remember about that day was this historic meeting of man and moment:

2 Comments:

Blogger Irene said...

I also remember this like it was yesterday and find it hard to believe 25 yrs have passed. I was home with my almost 1 yr old daughter when the phone rang. It was my mother in tears telling me to turn on the TV because the Space Shuttle had exploded. It was all so hard to comprehend.

3:43 PM  
Blogger Carrie said...

I was in third or fourth grade. I remember walking into a room that just happened to have TV on and see what happened.

I started watching some of the newscasts on YouTube yesterday. Watching the crowd react . . . I can't imagine having been there witnessing that.

6:58 AM  

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