January 28, 1986

Every generation has their own January 28, 1986.

Hiya, Big People!  How are you this Thursday?

Well, this is something WAY before my time, and I'm not even sure that it isn't considered ancient history at this point, but it's important to my Mommy, so I wanna talk about it.

I guess thirty years ago today, something happened that really changed things for a lot of kids.  Thirty years ago today, there was a space shuttle named Challenger that lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.  Kids all across America got to put their plastic chairs in rows in front of televisions perched atop smart carts so they could watch the space shuttle lift off. 

Mommy says this wasn't the first space shuttle to lift off from the launch pad in Florida, but it was a special one, because there was a teacher on that space shuttle named Christa McAuliffe.  She got to be the Teacher In Space and she was gonna do some science experiments in space and have 'em beamed back down to kids on earth. 

So all these kids, Mommy included, were lined up in front of the television sets in their schools, and the space shuttle started up.  There was white smoke, because a space shuttle doesn't just decide to take off and not expect to make a fuss about it.  The Earth tends to like to keep its people home, you know?  But there was lotsa smoke, and some fire, and lotsa excitement as that space shuttle left the launch pad and rode into the sky on a bright white pillar of fire.

But something went wrong, and the space shuttle disappeared into a big ball of white smoke and fire.  That wasn't right.  Mommy says it was confusing.  Nobody really understood what happened at first.  And then when they did, they were sad. That space shuttle had an accident on its way to the sky, and everybody on it died.

Mommy says that for the rest of the day of school, whenever she and her classmates would see other kids in the hall, or in the cafeteria, or out on the playground, they'd ask each other if they saw the space shuttle blow up, and if they knew there was a teacher on it.  Mommy said she and her friends were second graders, so that was about as deep as their analysis could go.

But over the next few weeks, maybe even for the rest of the school year, all the teachers had newspaper clippings about the Challenger, and the space program, and Christa McAuliffe on their bulletin boards.  The kids could learn everything they ever wanted to know about space travel from reading those bulletin boards.

Mommy says that sometimes, January 28, 1986 seems like it was just yesterday, and that it definitely doesn't seem like it was thirty years ago.  She says that every generation has their January 28, 1986, that day that freezes time and changes everything forever, especially for the people who were Little Kids when it happened.  I feel like that's an awfully ominous thing for her to say to me. 

Maybe my generation's January 28, 1986 will be the day when people decide they can see past their differences and all get along.  Maybe my generation's January 28, 1986 will be the day our world really does become a better place, a place that really is as beautiful and peaceful as it looks from outer space, where the space shuttle Challenger was supposed to fly.

But I'm gonna remember the Challenger Seven with Mommy today, and with all of you who were Little Kids on January 28, 1986.  And even if you were Big People, then, too.  It couldn't have been an easy day for anybody, and you have my big hugs, Big People.  I love ya lots!  I'll see ya tomorrow.