Write Back Weekend: "As The World Turns"
It was interesting reading the responses to last week's TITMT if only because we were all at such different places in our lives. I did notice, however, that no matter where we were, we all had some semblance of a memory related to the crash.
When I was a kid, everything related to space amazed me, as it does many kids. I loved learning about the planets and even wanted to take Astronomy in college until I found out how much math there was involved. This is when Astronomy and I finally decided to go our seperate ways.
I was also fortunate enough to have grown up in a great era of space-related cinema. I mean hello, ET phone home? ET was the first movie I ever saw in the movie theater, an experience I'll never forget, mostly because I cried the entire way home. This was the downside of taking a five year old to a movie about a lovable, visiting alien.
Another great 80's movie about aliens was the movie Starman. Jeff Bridges was believable, almost too believable, as the alien of every girl's dreams.
There were so many more outer space films in the eighties, (Star Wars and Alien are like played out, k?) but just like the theme to The Facts of Life said, you take the good and you take the bad. So, that being said, I also sat through movies like: Mac and Me and Earth Girls Are Easy.
Then there was the movie SpaceCamp that came out a few years later in 1986. According to the IMDB:
"What was supposed to be a somewhat light hearted action/adventure movie turned into a marketing nightmare. SpaceCamp was scheduled to be released in early 1986 but on 28 January the real-life shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds after liftoff, claiming the lives of seven American astronauts. After the Challenger disaster, the release was pushed back months. When it was finally sent to theaters, it grossed less than $10 million in the U.S. Eerily, the malfunction simulated in the film involved the solid rocket booster and was similar to the actual cause of the Challenger accident."
At 9, I was too young to understand the full magnitude, so I did see and enjoy SpaceCamp. All I knew is I was intrigued by the concept and loved it when we went on a class trip and I bought freeze dried astronaut ice cream.
Although I didn't get the full effect of everything related to the crash, I do remember it happening. Like many of you, I was in school in third grade. We were all huddled around the television set ready to watch the launch. Eventhough the trip was a big deal, I think what made it an even bigger deal to educators was that a real life teacher, Christa McAuliffe, was part of the mission. When she died, she was only 38 years old.
I remember the shuttle going off and then exploding. We only partly understood what was going on, but we knew it wasn't good. I then remember my third grade teacher quickly shutting off the television because she didn't know what to say. I don't remember what she finally ended up saying. I guess it didn't much matter as we were old enough to know that it had gone horribly wrong.
I started this post off by saying that when I was a kid, everthing about space fascinated me, as it does most kids. That is only partly true. I think space is one of those subjects that remains fascinating no matter what your age. It's the unknown that brings out the eternal kid in all of us and thus the reason why so much "is there life out there?" propanda remains so interesting.
That and the delicious discovery of things like dry freezed astronaut ice cream.
When I was a kid, everything related to space amazed me, as it does many kids. I loved learning about the planets and even wanted to take Astronomy in college until I found out how much math there was involved. This is when Astronomy and I finally decided to go our seperate ways.
I was also fortunate enough to have grown up in a great era of space-related cinema. I mean hello, ET phone home? ET was the first movie I ever saw in the movie theater, an experience I'll never forget, mostly because I cried the entire way home. This was the downside of taking a five year old to a movie about a lovable, visiting alien.
Another great 80's movie about aliens was the movie Starman. Jeff Bridges was believable, almost too believable, as the alien of every girl's dreams.
There were so many more outer space films in the eighties, (Star Wars and Alien are like played out, k?) but just like the theme to The Facts of Life said, you take the good and you take the bad. So, that being said, I also sat through movies like: Mac and Me and Earth Girls Are Easy.
Then there was the movie SpaceCamp that came out a few years later in 1986. According to the IMDB:
"What was supposed to be a somewhat light hearted action/adventure movie turned into a marketing nightmare. SpaceCamp was scheduled to be released in early 1986 but on 28 January the real-life shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds after liftoff, claiming the lives of seven American astronauts. After the Challenger disaster, the release was pushed back months. When it was finally sent to theaters, it grossed less than $10 million in the U.S. Eerily, the malfunction simulated in the film involved the solid rocket booster and was similar to the actual cause of the Challenger accident."
At 9, I was too young to understand the full magnitude, so I did see and enjoy SpaceCamp. All I knew is I was intrigued by the concept and loved it when we went on a class trip and I bought freeze dried astronaut ice cream.
Although I didn't get the full effect of everything related to the crash, I do remember it happening. Like many of you, I was in school in third grade. We were all huddled around the television set ready to watch the launch. Eventhough the trip was a big deal, I think what made it an even bigger deal to educators was that a real life teacher, Christa McAuliffe, was part of the mission. When she died, she was only 38 years old.
I remember the shuttle going off and then exploding. We only partly understood what was going on, but we knew it wasn't good. I then remember my third grade teacher quickly shutting off the television because she didn't know what to say. I don't remember what she finally ended up saying. I guess it didn't much matter as we were old enough to know that it had gone horribly wrong.
I started this post off by saying that when I was a kid, everthing about space fascinated me, as it does most kids. That is only partly true. I think space is one of those subjects that remains fascinating no matter what your age. It's the unknown that brings out the eternal kid in all of us and thus the reason why so much "is there life out there?" propanda remains so interesting.
That and the delicious discovery of things like dry freezed astronaut ice cream.
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