They say life is a series of "Where Were You?" moments. Those moments that pinpoint a place in time for the whole world. In my lifetime I can say, with certainty, what I was doing during events such as the attempted assassination on Alabama Governor George Wallace, the fall of the Berlin wall, Princess Diana's death, the 911 attack on America, the fall of the statue of Saddam Hussein.
I also can tell you what I was doing at the time of both catastrophic space shuttle accidents. Today is the anniversary of the Challenger accident.
30 Years ago I was home sick with the flu. I was mad that the news had preempted my soap opera with a space shuttle launch. Big... Fat... Hairy.. Deal. We were always launching something, right? My mother had called to check on me. She worked at a bank in the middle of my hometown. I could hear the hustle and bustle of the people in the bank in the back ground of her call. I was griping about how unimportant I thought this was in the world today, when the space shuttle exploded on the screen in front of my eyes. I said "Uh Mom, I think the space shuttle just blew up" She responded " The Space Shuttle Blew Up?!" In that moment, you could have heard a pin drop on the other end of the line.
I will never forget that.
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