Picture of the Day 1/28/11 and Blog- Where were you? January 28, 1986

[MikeF9]

Friday January 28, 2011
Picture of the Day

The Orlando Sentinel, the day after.

WHERE WERE YOU?: JANUARY 28, 1986

I was working at Spartan Industries on Fletcher Road where Morse Hardwoods used to be.
Because of the number of the employees, there were two lunch shifts, 11:30-noon, and noon to 12:30. The people who inspected Scrabble tile and the lumber yard workers(me), ate the early shift.
So there I was, eating lunch when company President Tom Fetters walked into the break room.
"I just got a call from Jim Zeno"(my lumber yard foremen, who used to go home for lunch). "The space shuttle- the one that had the teacher from New Hampshire on it?- blew up."
Yowza.
Jim came back to work and told us what was going on. After work, I came home and they kept showing the replay on TV.
The one thing that kept going on in my head and made me tense up when watching subsequent shuttle launches, was everything was fine during takeoff. Then Mission Control says, "Go throttle up." And then it happened.

So here's the question for you......
Where were you when you heard that the space shuttle Challenger exploded?

[David Shea]

Mike,
I was in Mr. Eldredge's Geometry Class at BFA.  Later in the day a TV was on in Study Hall where we were able to watch it.  Just like you, I have the BFP articles that feature this day.

[Rev. Elizabeth]

It was lunch 20 minutes and my husband and I and a fellow teacher were watching the launch on tv when it went into that corkscrew spiral.  It took a few seconds to fully realize what was happening....

[7F24]

I had the day off and was watching the launch on tv....what an awful feeling it was watching the camera scan the families over and over.

[7F30]

I was home from school.  Remember it clearly.

[Mike Raburn]

I was in Tempe AZ on a dirty mattress and watching it launch on TV.
(dirty mattress is a LONG story. Her name was Blaze, I think,)

Everyone saying they were is "school" makes my old bones ache.

Can YOU even imagine what it was like for Christie McCauliffe's students to be watching that?
Unreal.

[ASDuling]

I had a snow day and was home watching the launch on TV.

[Vtsharon]

I was in the materials testing lab at UVM's Votey Engineering Bldg. We had a TV on in the lab to watch the shuttle launch. I remember everyone just standing there in shock.

[katrinaantonovich]

6th grade science class.

[Mike Raburn]

6th grade science class.

That makes my ill...
Were you held back Katrina?

[Stand Alone Defense]

Well Mike I was 4 years old!! I remember I was in the hospital with my Grandfather though he had a Heart attack that morning.  Crazy to think I can remember from being that young I guess it made an impression on me.

[msm]

Mike,

I was at work -- IBM at the time,  Henry will know this location ---  Hollywood and Vine intersection ( two -- very long Halls in the BTV Complex ..   Very sad news -- disbelief ---   

My wife's birthday is 1/28  too  --   we discuss the shuttle tragedy every year.
Mike