Freshwater Pearl Mussel on a Bleached Ocean Beach

creative nonfiction first glance (to be submitted next week)

I was eleven years-old the first week of June 1986. Challenger—and the death of the first teacher set to go to space, Christa McAuliffe—had started the year off and was watched live by millions of school children, including me. We were still within the Cold War and nuclear armament. Red Dawn (about Russians invading Colorado) had come out a year or so e…