Florida has been hit by unusually cold weather lately, it is true. But many here who complain were not around in mid-1980's, which produced the bitter cold winters which, along with developers greedy for new land, destroyed the Central Florida citrus industry.
That was not all that icy weather and poor human judgement destroyed in those years.
Twenty-five years ago today, we were eager to share with visiting friends one of the blessings of living here: the view, from our front yard, of a space shuttle launch.
Discovery, March 8, 2001
Due to the cold morning temperatures, however, when Challenger lifted off we elected to keep our small children (and ourselves) indoors, for the view was nearly as good from our large front window. But this time, the sight was different. We took no pictures, but thanks to YouTube you can share the experience, albeit from a different angle,
Did I say you could share the experience? You can see it, but you can't share it. That those who weren't here could not understand was made obvious in the ensuing days as jokes and unfeeling comments came forth from other parts of the country. The loss of Challenger and her crew left a mark on Central Floridians similar to that left on the rest of the country twenty years earlier by the assassination of President Kennedy, and twenty years later by the destruction of the Twin Towers.
We still remember.
In his response to the disaster, President Ronald Reagan quoted from this poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. It, too, has stayed with me these 25 years.
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
