On Jan 26, 1986, I was in camp. 5th grade camp to be exact. During 5th grade, you get to go to Wrightwood, CA for a week of nature learning and outside fun. That Sunday, 60 students boarded the yellow bus in the parking lot of Allen Ave Elementary School and headed to the woody goodness. I was excited.

Sunday we settled in, moved into our cabins and went to dinner. That night we had a campfire and were introduced to our counselors/teachers. On Monday, we hiked, learned about science and nature stuff. On Tuesday, we were back in the woods.

After we returned from lunch, it was obvious that something was wrong. Some of the teachers who traveled with us were crying. One of the counselors came over to our counselor and pulled him aside. The guy looked shocked and hung his head a little. I heard him ask, “Are we going to tell them?”

Then we had lunch. During lunch, our teacher came over to our table and said, “This morning, during lift off, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded during liftoff.”

The only thing I could think of was, “DAMN, on LIVE TV and I totally missed it. That sucks.” To this very day, I have never seen the full launch video of the Challenger (only the NASA Challenger video) or any of the news broadcast (CBS, NBC, ABC) that aired that day.

I got home from camp in time to watch the funeral.
It has been twenty years.