"Twenty Years Ago..."

You start to feel really old when you find yourself saying, "I remember, twenty years ago..."
Or, more frequently, "Jesus! that was twenty years ago." Or, "Gosh, I haven't seen you in, what? Twenty years?"

I see that this is the anniversery of the Challenger shuttle disaster. Twenty freakin' years ago. And that, in particular, seems like yesterday. Or maybe a couple of years ago. Certainly not twenty.

Everybody who was alive then remembers exactly where they were when they found out about the Challenger. I can still see exactly the brightness of the sun outside, the dimness inside the living room, the smell of the air, the look on my grandmothers face.

How can a single day seem so long, and yet twenty years seem the blink of an eye?