Challenger, 31 years and 12 Stepping

[vorlon13]

30 years ago today, I chaired my first 12 Steppers meeting.  I talked about the space shuttle Challenger accident 1 year earlier and how times passes, and bad things happen.  There was near universal surprise it had been a year already.

For me, having been sober for 6 months, and realizing my reaction at the time of the Challenger accident it was pretty clear to me I was ready for 12 Steppers but was going to try and make things work with chemicals for another 6 months.

The day of the accident I was home (at the time unemployed) and was watching Price is Right and the CBS Bulletin screen came on.  I figured they were covering the launch (still a big deal in those days, BTW) and popped a tape in the VCR and hit record.

Dan Rather came on screen (!) without his glasses, and announced there had been an explosion on the space shuttle.  Fairly rapidly, they had some video of the launch and it was immediately clear it was a major disaster.  After the video clip, Dan had his glasses on and it was obvious he was rattled by what had happened.

Then as now, there was some misinformation aired about a major story that was rapidly breaking.  Soon there was some video of a parachute descending into the Atlantic and it was ID'd as a rescuer parachuting in to look for survivors.  We later learned it was the parachute from one of the SRBs and had nothing to do with the coast guard.

The day was mostly spent with endless replays of the launch, and as time passed, more and more experts and notables made it to the CBS studio and joined Rather in the coverage.

I was still an active drunk (and worse) at the time, but wasn't hammered at 10:40 in the morning, instead I was on my daily regimen of pills to get thru the day.  It was a horrid experience for me, I was having an intense panic and anxiety reaction and was miserable.  I did manage to pull myself together for a while that afternoon and go fill out a job application at a hydraulics company.

A friend stopped by (doper type) and he was really upset with the endless replays of the accident, it was a snuff film of sorts, and he was quite put off by it.

[abaris]

We had a similar thread a year ago.

It only goes to show that history is something different across the pond. I don't remember the Challenger accident when it happened. What I do remember with everything I did and where I was, is Tschernobyl. Happened three months later, but that's vivid in my mind. Challenger, of course I've seen the footage again and again, but I can't say if it registered when it happened.

[Mermaid]

I was watching it live from my dorm room.