HAIRSHIRT
Helping You Get the Most Out of Your Misery
|
HAIRSHIRT Helping You Get the Most Out of Your Misery |
|
Saturday, January 28, 2006Challenger I remember exactly where I was twenty years ago today, when I found out about the space shuttle Challenger exploding. I was fifteen years old and sitting in an algebra class in which I had little/no interest at Western Reserve High School. The only thing that I even remotely liked about the class was that I got to sit near Angie Offenbecher, who was a few years older than me and on whom I had a huge fat-boy crush. So I was sitting there and Mr. Rappach was writing something on the board and someone next to me said, "Hey, did you hear about the space shuttle?" I can't remember who this person was, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't someone in whom I put a whole lot of stock, because when they said, "Yeah, it exploded" I absolutely didn't believe them. It wasn't until later in the day when I saw it for myself on a television in another classroom that I could even wrap my head around the fact that this was possible. Up until that point, there hadn't been any disasters with the space program during my lifetime. (Apollo 13 had happened while I was gestating.) I hadn't ever even considered the fact that this was dangerous. I guess I'd thought, "Yeah, they've got all this figured out. How could something go wrong?" My mom picked me up after school and I remember just being in shock. I watched the news coverage at home; watched the shuttle explode over and over and over. I had rehearsal for a show that night. I think it was All the Way Home, in which I played Bully #2. Everyone was a little shaken that night and so our director--a guy who would routinely give us hour-long notes sessions at the end of a long night, droning on and on--had us just talk about our feelings and the shuttle and personal growth. DC was revamping Superman around that time, giving him a slightly different origin and a fresh start. In one of the issues toward the beginning of that revamp, he was supposed to make his public debut saving a space shuttle. They had to make some changes. Instead, they had him saving a "space plane". Because that tweak would spare the readers' collective psyche, you see. It's a bit like how the media handled that other great national tragedy that was more recent. First the television news showed the disaster happening to us again and again and again. Then movies, comics and television hastily removed the twin towers from everything they'd been releasing, lest the sight of them sent us into an emotional tailspin. It would be so very nice if we, as a country, had fewer of these horrible tragedies as cultural touchstones. It would be so much nicer if we could look back and say, "Yeah, I remember exactly where I was when world peace was declared" or "I can still recall where I was when they announced the cure for AIDS" or "I was getting ready to go on a date when they came on the radio and said that Bush was resigning." Well, we can hope.
Comments:
Great post. What's weird is that I was also in an algebra class when Challenger blew up. The teacher, Mr. Brainerd (no kidding) had a TV there, so we got to see it live.
i was a fetus when the challenger blew up, but i was in geometry when the prinicipal announce that the towers had been hit. what's with math and tragedies?
I was 6. We were all huddled in front of a TV at the front of the class. My teacher started to cry.
Post a Comment
Cool entry.
|
|
|||
| . | |||||
