Comments on: Forty Years Later

By: Sarah S.

Sarah S. — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:19:54 +0000

I will turn 40 in a few months, so I have heard many stories of my mother resting her very-pregnant belly on the couch while watching the amazing event.

A child of a teacher, and a student at a small school who befriended many of the teachers, the Challenger explosion was HUGE to me in January of 1986. I was a junior in high school. My mother had applied to be the teacher aboard. My math teacher (a favorite) had applied to be the teacher aboard. I grieved with the students of Christa McAuliffe who watched their beloved teacher be lost forever.

Yes, of course, 9/11. My children were small — my oldest was 3 weeks into kindergarten. I felt so completely out of control as a mother (as if I ever am!) and had to truly learn to surrender all to His power at that moment.

By: Amy Boone

Amy Boone — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:48:01 +0000

For me personally, I remember all the details surrounding 9/11. As for the moon walk…. you will need to ask my parents…. let’s put it this way…. I will turn 40 in exactly nine months….. hmmmmmm….

By: Kent F

Kent F — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:41:16 +0000

Ok – thanks Mike and Randy – 10 pm was pretty late for me as an 8 year old – I guess parents were in a giving mood that night.

By: Katie

Katie — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:13:49 +0000

I remember watching Kerri Strug stick that vault landing with a sprained ankle in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. We all stood in the living room staring at the TV, and my dad said, “You’re watching history here, girls.”

I was 15 when the Columbine shootings happened – that was a dark week at our school.

And 9/11 happened four days before my 18th birthday. We hardly did any work in school that week – just watched news coverage for hours. I did decide to go ahead and have my birthday party, and I’m glad I did. But we all knew our lives would never be the same.

By: Arlene Kasselman

Arlene Kasselman — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:47:29 +0000

Obviously not growing up in the US, my marker moments are different.
But let me share anyway. I remember in 1990 (I was 23)in South Africa, I looked up and saw breaking news on TV — Nelson Mandela had been released from prison. Wow – a moment of such huge magnitude it took my breath away. I remember voting for him in the first democratic election South Africa had ever seen. I remember the pride and emotion as he was elected. Truly, one of the last great statesmen of the world.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:12:28 +0000

Being born in 1964, I don’t remember the first moon landing. But I remember later ones, and was always fascinated by them. I remember watching some of the coverage of Apollo 13.

Nixon’s resignation.

When Reagan was shot. I heard it on the radio while driving home from high school. I broke the news to my Mom when I got home, and watched the coverage on TV.

Watched the coverage of the Challenger explosion in the Harding student center.

By: Freda

Freda — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:45:45 +0000

My dad watched the first Saturn rocket test fire so we were all around the TV for every launch. The moon landing was so incredible to this junior high kid and moved my dad enough that he bought a rather expensive Super8 copy of the footage as soon as it was available. I watched it several times and took it to school at least once. But even clearer in my memory banks is the Christmas reading of the Creation by the astronauts of Apollo 8 and the prayers for days for the crew of Apollo 13.
On September 11, 2001, my daughter broke her ankle in her high school p.e. class moments after the second plane hit. We and all of the hospital staff cried for the people who so desperately needed help and there we were in an empty ER.
A less historic milestone memory: Roy Acuff, the Opry star, was the person who told me Elvis Presley had died.

By: Motormouth

Motormouth — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:46:38 +0000

From the poor dirt roads of NE Arkansas to flying the Himalayans in an unarmed transport, my father used to brag that he had an eighth grade education. Yet he could do calculus in his head and worked on the space program at McDonald Aircraft in St. Louis. So of course, we were glued to the little black and white TV in the den. I’m sorry that I can’t remember his actual reaction to the touchdown and walk, but I can only imagine being a small part of history being made.
The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was primitive at best, using the earliest form of this technology. It’s curious to note how this feat was accomplished using such limited code, as the average digital watch, I-pod, 1998 Taurus or IBM 8086 PC had much more capabilities that all of this spacecraft. Yet on the other hand, it’s kind of sad that I now have so much power in my laptop, but choose to use it playing or just spell checking my letters.

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:45:34 +0000

I’m old enough, barely, to remember the first moon landing. I was at Camp Manatawny in Pennsylvania. Wasn’t old enough to be a camper, but when your mom and dad volunteer for the week you get to go too. That night, I didn’t understand why all those adults were crowded around such a little TV. Seems like one of the older kids tried to explain it to me. The fireflies were much more interesting.

Years later, I looked up and read some of the news coverage of the event. The worldwide euphoria just afterwards was way off the charts. President Nixon said it was the greatest event in the history of the world since the Creation. And Golda Meir suggested that the event might usher in the new era foretold by the prophets of ancient Israel.

Those kinds of reactions reflected our over-the-top confidence in science and technology. The world has since changed.

By: annie

annie — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:06:41 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, Randy. I knew that I had been swimming on a vacation in Idaho, & we hurried back on a beautiful day in the great NW to go inside & watch the TV. While it was so exciting to see men land on the moon, us kids were a little bummed about having to leave the fun of the Boise River! And, thanks for jogging our memory of the moonwalk being later that night—-Mike’s post made sense, after all.

By: Kenny Eicher

Kenny Eicher — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:46:36 +0000

Challenger – Was home from school sick (probably faking) and watched it live on TV. I was 9 (almost 10) years old.

Columbine – I had been out of college for a year and was just about to be married.

9/11 – Panic. My wife was teaching in Manhattan that morning. Some of the kids in her school lost their parents that day. I knew she was alright, but it was a logistical nightmare to get her out of Manhattan and back home.

By: Randy

Randy — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:41:16 +0000

It looks like they landed around 3:30 in the afternoon, but they didn’t do the actual moonwalk until around 10 pm, which was definitely past your bedtime. I remember watching them land in the afternoon, but what really sticks out in my memory is that I was at Grandma Mitts’ house and she would not watch it – she said, “if God had wanted us to go to the moon, he would have given us wings.”

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:32:54 +0000

Being born in 1970, my memories start with some previously mentioned: the Reagan assassination attempt, the Challenger explosion, the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11.

I’ll throw in a couple of others. I remember being in the Rialto in Searcy when I heard about the earthquake stopping the World Series in October 1989.

I remember holding my two-year-old son to watch Cal Ripken break Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak on September 6, 1995. Lou Gehrig had been one of my favorite ballplayers to read about when I was growing up and I used to not want his streak to be broken. But I thought there was no finer person to break it than Cal Ripken. If there is an unbreakable record, Ripken’s may be it.

By: annie

annie — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:47:57 +0000

My memories of watching the astronauts land on the moon is in the full daylight hours—–like late morning to early afternoon sometime. Is the ‘memory card’ in my head wrong?

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:16:51 +0000

Well, Kent, it was a reasonable hour — unless you were a kid who always liked to go to bed early. My mom always says that one thing they never had to do with me was tell me to go to bed. My whole life I’ve liked to go to bed before most people and get up before most people!