There was a time, twenty years ago, where I had experienced such an emotional high that even made me impervious to 20 degrees below zero…
followed within 48 hours by a national descent into the depths of grief. My elders would probably have likened this to the Kennedy assassination of November 22, 1963.
On January 26, 1986, the Chicago Bears won Super Bowl XX by defeating the New England Patriots, 46-10. The following day, I spent two and one-half hours outside, welcoming the Bears back to Chicago, along with a quarter-million Bears Fans who braved the bone-chilling weather that day.
And then the next day was Tuesday, January 28, 1986. I was working my morning courier rounds when, along the return route to the office, I found out the space shuttle Challenger blew up, taking seven brave astronauts from us. I was shocked...and so was the rest of the world. The office basically stopped what they were doing, and just sat there...stunned, trying to ask What Happened? Why? It was such a day that we all hoped would never experience again...until 9/11.
Remember them as they were. Heroes who slipped the surly bonds of Earth, and touched the Face of God:

Front Row (L-R): Pilot Michael J. Smith, Mission Commander Francis “Dick” Scobee, and Mission Specialist Ronald McNair.
Back row (L-R): Mission Specialist Ellison Onizuka, Payload Specialist Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist Gregory Jarvis, and Mission Specialist Judith Resnik.

I also was in mourning. The 2 hour TV special is half soap opera and half factual.  Nothing new. Thank God Prof. Feinstein was on the panel that investigated the disaster & cut thru the crap.  Lives will be lost pushing new technology into the unknown.  That was not the case with Challenger. NASA willfully ignored and denied The Known.

Not sure what I was doing when the Challenger blew up.....

As an old fart, I certainly remember the JFK assassination.

I was home from work sick...................and I got sicker.......tried to reach out
to friends but the lines were all jammed.

Not a pleasant memory.