Yep, I was watching it in the physics classroom at lunchtime - on the east coast. There were about 30 students and about as many teachers in there. There weren't many TVs in the school. That was the classroom that had the sample of a shuttle heat tile that NASA sent to schools and my physics teacher set up a little viewing event. My 4th period teacher (right after lunch) was in the room and she said I could stay there and watch.

There were no mobile phones, no social media, no internet. AV had a few TVs on carts (the red asphalt type safety movies were all on VHS by then, though still a lot of film strips/loops still in use). They set up TVs in the auditorium and let students go watch. Hard to get students to focus after that, and the historic nature of the event wasn't lost on anyone.

This sounds right. My mom lived in EST. She said she had just got home for lunch when she saw it happen. My grandma (her mom) apparently silently walked over to the TV and turned it off. My mom asked if they were going to me okay, and my grandma just said, "no." And that was that.

The news bulletin interrupted The Price Is Right. I was home from school. Sounds about right.

I was about 12 and devastated.

Yes, you have the correct time. I was in my 2nd year at American University. I had already had my 9 am Tuesday/Thursday class, and after grabbing a bite, went back to my apartment and heard the launch live on WTOP, the all- news station in DC. And I turned it off probably seconds before the explosion.

Wiki has it wrong. I believe by an hour. I saw it out my window. I believe about 1030 ish

The course of events leading up to this was so bizarre.

Morton Thiakol pretty much knew it was too cold.