I can somewhat remember the Challenger explosion when I was in elementary school.....we were all watching it live as we had studied very closely Christa McAuliffe being the first teacher in space. I mention this because I do not have a lot of memories of much under 10 or 12 years old, which I was 9 years old when we lost the Challenger crew the end of January of 1986.
I have vivid memories though of what started out as a beautifully clear, blue skies day on Sept. 11, 2001. I will never forget the clear blue skies that day. We had the local radio station on in our office all day, every day. I remember the first announcement of a plane hitting the WTC. Of course it was concerning, but at that point there was no confirmed word on the size of the plane, we assumed it was a small plane that probably didn't do much damage. When the second plane hit the South Tower shortly after 9 am, it started to dominate the news. When the 3rd plane hit the Pentagon, I got on the internet to see what was going on. At this point, we had dial-up internet and had to pay for every minute, so I asked my boss if it was OK to log on. There, in a live but grainy feed, we could see what was taking shape in NYC and I could feel great heaviness in the pit of my stomach, and the wonder of WHAT OR WHERE was the next target. I felt unsafe in the great U.S.A. for the first time in my life.
That day no work was done at the office......most all of the country had stopped working. I will never forget going outside that night and not hearing or seeing ONE plane in the sky. I thought (and hoped) it would be the only time in my life that would ever happen, not one plane in the sky. There was a deafening silence that we hadn't heard in modern times, we are so used to that air traffic above us that we don't even notice it. Hopefully as the years go by, the young AND old don't forget what happened that day.
Darin
