I don’t know if this is egotistical or straight-out denial but I refuse to believe my Challenger memory is wrong. I was 16 and living in Pittsburgh,PA. Pgh had a snow day that day so – no school. I was on on the phone with a good friend who wanted to be an astronaut so she was totally jazzed about watching the launch (we watched a lot of TV “together” over the phone in those days…) I distinctly remember that we knew immediately that something had gone wrong but the commentator wasn’t saying what happened right away so we didn’t know what was going on. Needless to say, we were absolutely shocked and devastated – I just can’t believe that’s something mis-remembered.
literarydisco
wrote on January 26, 2017 at 10:42 //
I’m really not sure how many public schools were actually tapped into NasaTV. In the novel, Lerner indicates that it was only a few hundred (I don’t have my copy on hand, so I may be misremembering his misremembering). But yeah, the networks were covering the event, just not showing the footage of the actual explosion.
-Rider
Russell Gray
wrote on December 30, 2016 at 4:48 //
Hey all – I just wanted to shoot out there – if you like Stephen Crane you should read Edmund White’s Hotel de Dream. It is a fictional account of Crane’s death from consumption as he was trying to finish his last novel. Rider I think you would like it.
Chondell
wrote on January 4, 2017 at 4:47 //
I too remember having a snow day on January 28, 1986. My school had been so excited because we were going to watch it in Math class. I was at home with my grandparents and I remember them saying it was cool, but I was saying something was wrong. I was a HUGE NASA buff at the time and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I remember watching it on NBC, ABC or CBS because at that time my grandparents didn’t have cable.
Could I have really been mis-remembering it all this time?
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I don’t know if this is egotistical or straight-out denial but I refuse to believe my Challenger memory is wrong. I was 16 and living in Pittsburgh,PA. Pgh had a snow day that day so – no school. I was on on the phone with a good friend who wanted to be an astronaut so she was totally jazzed about watching the launch (we watched a lot of TV “together” over the phone in those days…) I distinctly remember that we knew immediately that something had gone wrong but the commentator wasn’t saying what happened right away so we didn’t know what was going on. Needless to say, we were absolutely shocked and devastated – I just can’t believe that’s something mis-remembered.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster#Media_coverage
This article is interesting: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/11031097/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/myths-about-challenger-shuttle-disaster/#.WIp4WbGZNR0
I’m really not sure how many public schools were actually tapped into NasaTV. In the novel, Lerner indicates that it was only a few hundred (I don’t have my copy on hand, so I may be misremembering his misremembering). But yeah, the networks were covering the event, just not showing the footage of the actual explosion.
-Rider
Hey all – I just wanted to shoot out there – if you like Stephen Crane you should read Edmund White’s Hotel de Dream. It is a fictional account of Crane’s death from consumption as he was trying to finish his last novel. Rider I think you would like it.
I too remember having a snow day on January 28, 1986. My school had been so excited because we were going to watch it in Math class. I was at home with my grandparents and I remember them saying it was cool, but I was saying something was wrong. I was a HUGE NASA buff at the time and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I remember watching it on NBC, ABC or CBS because at that time my grandparents didn’t have cable.
Could I have really been mis-remembering it all this time?