Thirty Years

It seems hard to believe it has been 30 years. How do two things that are so vastly different get so entangled in your memory? I cannot recall one without thinking about the other. I was working at the Mary Davis Home and had planned on watching the video I had recorded of the Chicago Bears Super Bowl win. Then this happened.

There are moments in history when you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when the news broke. This was one of those moments. We had lost astronauts in the past but never like this. Never this many at once. Never a teacher heading off on life's greatest adventure. Ready to teach children all across the nation. We saw it begin like so many others. 

Full of promise. Almost routine. Oh, the shuttle is going up today. *que collective yawn* Those of us who watched in collective horror and sorrow that day can never see a launch as routine again. 

Thirty years ago. Somehow it seems like yesterday. The pictures still make me sad. So the Bears win and the Challenger disaster will always be linked in my head. It always provides the big picture that no matter how important the Super Bowl is, at the end of the day it is just a game.