OK, I just checked the news so I feel pretty confident the Shuttle made it into orbit. Given the track record of Shuttle flights that means no worries for something over a week.
It seems sometimes as if our generation has been treated or cursed with more than our share of “Where you were and what you were doing” moments. For our grandparents’ generation their big moment was probably Pearl Harbor. They may remember the Crash of ’29 and later the Moon landing and Kennedy’s assassination but I suspect Pearl Harbor was the big one, the one that defined their existence and never went far from the old frontal lobe.
Our parents would probably class Kennedy’s assassination as their generation’s defining moment. It was certainly from that moment that things started to fall apart.
I suppose my generation will have to look back at September 11 as our moment – the day everything changed. That is, of course, provided things keep on changing. But I can clearly remember 1986 when Challenger went up and I can clearly remember 2003 when Columbia came down. Those moments hit me hard. I can see the day of the Columbia disaster even more clearly than September 11.
In tribute to those who went before and those who are out there carrying on the grand tradition I guess I’ll go this afternoon and do what I did on February 1, 2003 and drink a toast. It’s the least I can do.
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