Cant Keep Quiet!

If you lived in Florida 20 years ago today, you can probably tell somebody where you were and what you were doing on January 28, 1986. I know I can.

20 years ago today I got up only because I had to go take an exam at the University of Central Florida. If I’d had my choice I would have stayed in bed where it was warm. In my bed, under the covers, it was warm. Outside my covers it was icy cold.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t miss the exam, so I forced myself out of bed, got dressed, and then headed off to UCF.

I took my test — aced it — and then headed home. I was listening to a radio station as I drove. I couldn’t tell you what songs I was listening to. It was just background noise.

Just as I was getting home a small moving van pulled up to the house. My parents had recently had to move my father’s mother from her apartment in a retirement complex into the nursing facility there. The moving van contained the furniture from her small apartment. After I put my things in the house, I started helping my father and the movers bring my grandmother’s belongings inside the house.

Not too long after we started the phone rang. I went to answer it. It was my maternal grandfather. He asked if we’d been listening to the tv or radio. When I told him no he told me that we should turn on the tv. The Challenger had exploded.

I remember numbly thanking him for telling me and then walking outside. Everyone was gathered at the van, getting ready to take more items out. As I walked over to them, I looked into the sky toward the north east. It was a clear day and I could easily see the smoke trail from the Challenger. It was distorted, not at all what I would expect to see from a normal launch.

I told everyone what my grandfather had said and we all looked to the sky. Then everyone came in the house. Someone turned on the tv and we all sat in front of it, stunned by what we were seeing.

There were 5 of us sitting in front of the television. My mother, father, and I along with two men we had only met a few minutes before. My brother was at school and my sister was in Gainesville at U of F.

Normally we would have watched the launch on tv and then gone outside to see the smoke trails as the shuttle rose over the tree line. I’d lived in Florida since I was 3 months old. Everyone else in my family was born and raised here. My father had worked at the Space Center until I was 4.

We weren’t watching that day not because the novelty had worn off. The movers arriving wouldn’t even explain why we weren’t watching.

We weren’t watching because we didn’t think they would go through with the launch.

The night before the temperature had dropped below freezing. There were concerns that the cold temperatures could cause damage to the shuttle. In the morning, before I left to take the test, the possiblity of the launch being scrubbed was still high.

Sadly, those concerns were shown to be extremely valid.

Do you remember where you were when these people died?