52 Ancestors Week 12: Historic Event

    

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 12:

The theme for Week 12 is "Historic Event." Historic events aren’t always world or national events. Technically, any event that happened in the past is a historic event 😉 How was an ancestor affected by an event, either large or local? (One that pops into my mind is my grandmother, her parents, and siblings barely escaping their house during the Great Flood of 1913.)

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    Every generation has had to live through an historic event. Like the song goes: We didn't start the fire. It was always burning as the world was turning. People remember where they were during the attacks on September 11th, 2001. We witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. We watched as the Boston Red Sox finally broke the Curse of the Bambino in 2004. I remember all of those events as if it was yesterday since I obviously lived through those times. But, there's one event that's forever etched into the memory of my generation. I am of course talking about the Challenger Disaster.

    Ask anyone born prior to 1986 and they can tell you exactly where they were on January 28th, 1986 when seven astronauts lost their lives in an explosion that rocked a nation. Aboard the shuttle was a teacher named Christa McAuliffe, who just so happened to be from the Granite State.

   Due to New Hampshire being her home, everyone from my state was glued to television up to that day. We were so excited to see someone from our state making a name for themselves because how often do you hear of someone famous coming from New Hampshire?  News programs leading up to the launch focused on her and her life and it served to hype New Hampshirites more than all you can eat shrimp night in Portsmouth.

    I had just turned seven the month before the disaster and all these years later I remember everything so vividly. I was in the first grade and our teacher, Mrs. Lynch, had all of the first grade classes sit in her room. I sat next to several of my friends and listened to the teachers as they all talked about how important the launch was. McAuliffe wasn't a teacher at North Salem Elementary. However, you could tell that our teachers had a profound respect for their colleague even if I didn't quite understand it at the time.

    The teachers rolled in one of those big television sets and turned off the lights. We sat as patiently as any six to seven year-olds could as the reporters and everyone on television was talking about how important the launch was. We waited and then we saw the shuttle itself on the screen. It was so massive and we watched in awe it finally lifted off.

    Sadly, the shuttle exploded shortly after launch and I remember Mrs. Lynch quickly turning off the television as she wiped tears from her face. All the kids were too shocked to really say anything. Some kids were crying. The principal shortly announced that school was cancelled and that they were working to notify everyone's parents. I got up from my chair and I was like "I gotta find my brother." He was in third grade and he was watching the event on his class's television one floor above the first and second grade classrooms. I was told to wait for him in the principal's office.

Christmas 1986, 11 months later.

    Jim came running in when he saw me and gave me a hug. We waited for our parents in silence as we didn't know what was going on. I remember seeing teachers running around and staff frantically trying to contact parents. Someone even had news on in their office and hearing the talking heads explain everything somehow didn't comfort anyone. 

   Our parents picked us up and I broke the silence by asking about the shuttle. They didn't really want to talk about it right then and there. Looking back, it's understandable. They likely saw the launch themselves or heard about it on the radio and didn't really know what to tell us.

    I thought we were heading home and to the amazement of my brother and I we drove past our house and headed toward our Aunt Mimi and Uncle Pete's house since they were taking care of us at the time. They dropped us off and I can remember Aunt Mimi making stuffed grape leaves for lunch.  Since that day it sort of became a comfort food for me. It's not a bad one, too!

Aunt Mimi and Jim circa 1996

    Aunt Mimi and Uncle Pete did all they could to keep the two of us entertained. They wisely kept the television off until it was time for her "stories". Re: Daytime's finest soap operas.  We tried to talk to them about what we saw and she told us that everything would work out and that sometimes tragedies happen. She told us that all we can do is talk about what happened and be there for other people when tragedies occur.

    That was a great lesson to learn. It was probably the most important lesson I ever learned that school year. Forget the basics. Empathy is an important life lesson. Aunt Mimi likely was talking about her own family experiences as well. I didn't learn about what her family went through until decades after she passed away. Was she talking about her life or empathy in general? I like to think it was both, to be honest.

    Eventually, our parents picked us up and my mother was ready to talk about what happened. She pretty much echoed what Aunt Mimi told us. Sometimes tragedies happen and the only then we can do is stick with those we love and try to focus on good times with them. You never really know what will happen tomorrow. 

    That night I went into my room to play and took a long look at the toys in my room. I had a LOT of space-related toys from Legos to He-Man figures and Transformers. As a kid, I was heavily into space-related toys. You name it, I likely played with it. Though, things seemed different the day of the accident, I remember pausing a bit looking at them since it was space that killed a teacher. My mom took one of the Transformers and put it in my hand telling me that everything was going to be okay.  My brother came into my room with his Transformers and we started to play together. Yup. Nothing says unity and compassion like playing with two warring factions of transforming sentient alien robots. ;)

 

It's been a long road....

 I know that wasn't the point. The point is to move on despite tragedy and not to dwell on them because you'll drive yourself crazy. Space shuttles were relatively new at the time and sometimes tragedies happen as my mother told me. 

    I took that to heart and smiled as my mother gave me a big hug. The Challenger explosion was the first historic event everyone in my generation can remember. In the weeks that followed, we talked about what happened in class and once again the lessons Aunt Mimi and my mom taught me were passed down to us kids. In this case, it was good to hear the adults repeat what the other adults in our lives said over and over again. Still, while the adults in the room remained unchanged, the kids were forever changed.

    Today, friends on Facebook post on the anniversary of the explosion and ask where people were that day. They talk about the event with shockingly good clarity despite the lot of us being in our forties. Whenever someone asks me what the first event I remember hearing about on the news was, it's always that day because I was there. The day's events are forever etched into the brains of an entire generation. You never forget where you were or who you were with whenever tragedies or moments of great triumph occur.

    Tragedies happen. But, that doesn't mean we can't stop living. Did the event change my parents? No. Not really.  I still played with my space-related toys and watched science fiction movies and television shows with my dad despite what happened. I remember Star Trek IV: Save the Whales...er....The Voyage Home even was dedicated to the Challenger crew when it premiered that November. Monuments honoring McAuliffe were put up all around the state and every once in a while WMUR or other stations would talk about her and her legacy.

    Looking back, you could say it changed my generation in a way other events changed other generations before and after us. Do we wish it was a positive one? Yeah. But, sometimes events are negative and you have to deal with it as best you can. That's the only way we can stay sane. The Challenger explosion changed a lot of lives and forever changed how we handled traveling to the final frontier. You learn from the mistakes and try to make a better tomorrow while paying respect to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

See ya next time!

Pictures of the Enterprise and the Challenger crew is courtesy of Wikipedia.