I remember looking up into the sky from my backyard and seeing it explode....well, it was too far away to see the actual explosion in any detail so more like the post explosion, but I was living in Florida at the time, in Palm Harbor, relatively(about 150 miles due west), not far from Cape Canaveral. My father was in the Coast Guard and was called out for a Search and Rescue (SAR) flight....obviously they didn't find anyone.

I was 4 at the time....now 26, I can still kind of remember it...one of very few memories from that far back in my childhood.....the other was a near death experience with an alligator under the car in front of the house across the street from where I lived....but thats another story and far less relevant...

Reagen was still president when the shuttle blew up. Remember his speech: "They slipped the surly bonds of earth, and touched the face of God."

(Whatever you think of him, he was called "The Great Communicator" for a reason!)

It was 1986. It had to have been between 1984 and 1987 because I was living in Warrensburg Missouri for those three years and I remember the day it happened very distinctly. I actually first heard the news when I was getting a hair cut. A woman walked in the salon and asked the others there if they'd heard about the shuttle blowing up. They had, and they then continued to chatter and gossip about other things as though it wasn't really a big deal. I remember being shocked at this reaction and wondered if they actually had the story right.

False memories are not an uncommon thing, especially as you get older. Probably the most common one for me is finding out someone moderately famous is still alive when I could have sworn I remembered news stories of them dying. This happens several times per year. I could have sworn Billy Graham dies a few years ago but just the other day found out he's still alive.

I was only 3 years old when this (supposedly) happened, so I can't remember.

It's interesting how so many here have had trouble with something like this recently. What's going on?

Noone is doubting that "HERE" it was 1986. But on my father's grave, it had to be more like 83 or 84. This to me, only because I have wrestled with this all of my life, if a GENUINE unknown. Forget bad photoshops of UFO's, forget 9/11 was a government plot. I now KNOW, that without a doubt in my mind, SOMETHING has happened. I can take you to the classroom I was in when it blew up circa 83-84, but nothing I'm going to say here is going to convince a one of you that in MY when, it was 83 or 84.

Throughout my life, I've had these moments in towns that I had lived in for YEARS or GREW UP in where I'd notice a building that hadn't been there the day before, but all of my friends and family SWORE that it had been there for 10 plus years. Some of us are apparently "slipping" for want of a better word. Can I PROVE this? Probably not, but after reading the OP's post, I now have conformation that at least ONE thing outside of the NORM is real. I have other experiences, but I'll leave them alone until another OP brings them forth. I am DAMNED EXCITED!


I remember quite clearly telling my fellow students that the Soviets had blown it up because it was carrying aloft the beginning's of the "Star Wars" program. They looked at me as though I was nuts of course, and in retrospect, maybe I was. Even as a child, I was conspiracy minded. Take it or leave it. I now have the sign I've been looking for.....

Troy

[edit on 16-7-2008 by Zenagain]

[edit on 16-7-2008 by Zenagain]

Look, This thread came as a great suprise. I Graduated form High School in 1987, But I remember watching the accident on television in a small classroom in rural South Carolina, in Elementary School! It could not have been in '86. At least not for me.

I remember it clearly, though it must have been 5th grade. I remember the Blue sky and those arcing smoke trails. It had to be 1983 for me. Something is wrong. Why were all of us Kids watching a shuttle launch as something special when shuttle launches had been going on for years? It was because of the teacher. This was a big deal. I was A little kid in grade school. Period.

In 1986 I was a Jr. In high school. No way on earth have I got these events ese "confused". I also remember High School and remember hearing nothing about shuttle accidents. I have always been a shuttle fan, and would not have "missed" this event in 1986. It was 1983-2 for me.

Curiouser and Couriouser.

[edit on 16-7-2008 by jaywoo]

Originally posted by jaywoo
Look, This thread came as a great suprise. I Graduated form High School in 1987, But I remember watching the accident on television in a small classroom in rural South Carolina, in Elementary School! It could not have been in '86. At least not for me.

I remember it clearly, though it must have been 5th grade. I remember the Blue sky and those arcing smoke trails. It had to be 1983 for me. Something is wrong. Why were all of us Kids watching a shuttle launch as something special when shuttle launches had been going on for years? It was because of the teacher. This was a big deal. I was A little kid in grade school. Period.

In 1986 I was a Jr. In high school. No way on earth have I got these events ese "confused". I also remember High School and remember hearing nothing about shuttle accidents. I have always been a shuttle fan, and would not have "missed" this event in 1986. It was 1983-2 for me.

Curiouser and Couriouser.

[edit on 16-7-2008 by jaywoo]

Thank you, we are apparently from a similar where and/or when. Anyone ever read the Heinlein book Job: A Comedy of Justice? I think I'm there man.....I think I'm there.......

Originally posted by Curious_Agnostic
1986 sounds about right to me. I was born in 1980 and I remember it happening sometime around when I was in kindergarten or first grade.

born in '81 here. i also remember being in kindergarten. my dad even has it on tape somewhere.

Originally posted by jaywoo
Look, This thread came as a great suprise. I Graduated form High School in 1987, But I remember watching the accident on television in a small classroom in rural South Carolina, in Elementary School! It could not have been in '86. At least not for me.

I remember it clearly, though it must have been 5th grade. I remember the Blue sky and those arcing smoke trails. It had to be 1983 for me.

In 1986 I was a Jr. In high school. No way on earth have I got these events ese "confused". I also remember High School and remember hearing nothing about shuttle accidents. I have always been a shuttle fan, and would not have "missed" this event in 1986. It was 1983-2 for me.

This is not to "nit-pick", but to try to understand the time line you remember. In 1983, if you were in 5th grade, then you would not be a Jr. in high school in 1986. If you graduated in 1987, then in 1983 you would be a Freshman. Is that possible, or could your memory of 5th grade mean that, in your time line, the event happened prior to 1983?

I remember 89 here, hmmm...I moved in 86 when I was 6 years old, Why would I remember 89, hmmm....

Thing is though , it isnt just Challenger, people are reporting all kinds of things, celebs being dead is big, starting jobs, meeting partners, people even remember using gizmo's which seem to have only just been invented, it seems that only remembering a major major event like Challenger, is waking up peoples awareness that something could be wrong, or at least very different.

Im terrible at remembering years, most of my life went past so fast its just a blur in some places, i remember hearing of challenger after coming back from a geological survey in the boonies of the boonies, maybe 5 days afterwards, the feeling was so bad we all took a week off work, ive done that so many times i cant narrow it down to any particular year, so i cant really help, apart from my problems with maps and directions, oh and the fact Frank Sinatra died 10 or so years after i seem to remember it happening.

Perhaps it is just false memory, but why so wide spread? just how different are the memories of Challenge and the year it happened? judging by this thread its a huge weird anomalie.

Hey guys, here's a post I put up a couple of days ago with a similar situation. Not on such a grand exposure as the Shuttle explosion, and I'm pretty sure I put it in the wrong forum with my OP.

Originally posted by HighwayDrifter
Hey guys, I'm relatively new to this forum, been reading for a couple of months, but recently made my user name. I have been wanting to post this account for quite awhile now, but only after figuring exactly where it goes, I'll give it a shot.

Since I was born, my family would always go to a local beachside resort town in NJ. Litterally I was not 6 months old and I made my first trip out there. My family would go three times a year. Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day. The groups of people that would go would always change, friends of friends, cousins, friends of cousins would make the trip with us, time after time. The constants were always my parents, my grandparents, my aunt and her boyfriend/husband. This happened with the same group till I was about 13 when my parents divorced. Family just wasn't the same and life was different and changing. Fast forward a couple of years when I turned 18. By this time, I was very independant, working for what I had. Helping my mother with my little brother (whom I was 11 years older then). This particular summer I flew out to Florida to see my family on my fathers side with my mother. She kept a great relationship with them, and never held myself or my brother back from socializing with his side of the family.

Now that you have a little bit of background information on myself, this is where things take a slight turn. We are all sitting around the table (myself, my mother, my grandparents, and my aunt). We are all remembering how great things used to be and all the funny memories we shared. This was something that had never really happened since it was a tri-yearly trip to the shorehouse and we had never been seperated from each other for a longer period of time then a couple of weeks. As we're all sitting there telling stories, I decide to tell the story which is very vivid in my mind about how my grandfather went down one of those 'super slides' on the boardwalk and how he turned over on the slide, lost the rag they give you to slide on, and burnt a hole in his pants, shirt, and broke his collarbone. Everyone laughs and giggles at first. Until my grandmother stops quite suddenly and looks at me with this look as if she's lost for words. She then gets up and walks away to her room without saying a word. We all took this as kind of strange, and I'm thinking if I had upset her. She then comes back, with the medical paperwork for bringing him to the doctor. She then asks me, do you remember what your grandfather was wearing that night? I said of course, it was a set of jeans and red hooded sweatshirt that he bought ON the boardwalk that same night that he ruined, which is one of the reasons it was so funny. It was just my grandfathers luck. My grandmother, then turns pail as a ghost and says thats impossible that you remember that, ONLY because it happened 2 years before you were born. This eerie silence overtook us all, and to this day I consider it to be the most surreal day of my life. My grandparents then went on to say that particular year, it was my mother and father before they were married, my aunt and her boyfriend, and my great grandmother who died a few months after I was born. I still have no idea, but looking back on the situation, it is still a picture perfect memory, I remember even the smallest details, where the slide is, the color of it, holding on to the handrail waiting for him to come down, THEN smelling my hand and it smelling like metal.

I'm curious if there are any other members who have had some type of experience like this that is pretty much unexplainable.

Thanks

I can say without a doubt that Challenger exploded during liftoff in 1986. It was freshman year of high school and our science teacher made the announcement to the class.

Wikipedia does say the maiden flight of Challenger was in 1983 which is probably what the OP is thinking of.

okay, i'd say whats going on with me right now is even more weird.
i was born in 1989, years after the challenger explosion, but for some reason i remember either another space shuttle explosion happening in my childhood, or it was the challenger. for some odd reason it's in my head as the first woman teacher in space though.
WTF?!

i wonder if this is going to happen with 9-11, because i definitely remember seeing that in jr. high.

I thought it was 1985, but it could have been 86'

Since I was born in 75' this seems correct, as it would put me in 4th or 5th grade, and i remember back in my elementary school they would wheel in these large (hehe large 26 inch TV's) So we could all watch the shuttle launches. LIVE. Just to clarify. These were not anniversary specials, this was Live, and a very traumatic event for the people in the room old enough to realize that (7 was it?) people had just died.

Anyhow I remember everything was going smoothly, (like the other few we had watched prior this same way), very exciting, plus it was nice to be watching this instead of doing schoolwork.

But When the challenger exploded, i remember turning to a teacher that was 4 or 5 kids away from me at the end of the road who's face was in horror, and asking her if that was "supposed" to happen, she remained blank, stone faced horror, as did all of the adults, while all of the children thought everything was still fine, until they announced on the set there had been a malfuction ect, ect....

This to me is one of those days I will never forget, Kind of like people who were 10 or 11 years old hearing about JFK being shot, they remember exactly where they were and what they were doing.

Same goes for 9/11.

Profound moments such as this, it is amazing how well ingrained in the recesses of human memory , the where you were, and who you were with and how you felt will never ever go away.

There are only a few cases in my life, that this has happened.

I'll share three, two which I already stated.

I'll never forget exactly where I was, who I was with and how I felt, when:

1)the challenger exploded

2)My daughter was born (this is the most vivid of all of the events, the smells and sounds are even there)

3) 9/11

There are a few others however I'd rather keep them private, not because they are really strange(well one was), just because they are very personal, and I'd like to keep them to myself and the other party, or parties involved.

But this is off the top of my head guess, without looking at any Nasa pages or articles, or goggle, the first date that came to mind was Dec. 1985. Possible spring on 1986.

[edit on 16-7-2008 by Nola213]