Working for NASA
My father would amuse himself by telling the boys what he was working on and ask them to come up with solutions to engineering problems with Apollo 11. One night he was working on a request from the astronauts to make it so they had to flip two switches for commands to lessen the chance of mistakes. The boys went to their rooms to work on it and so did I. They would draw up their plans and slip the paper under his door. That night I did, too. I remember that my drawing was very crude and very simple. I could probably draw it now and even remember a little about it but what I really remember is my father's reaction. He came into my room looking stunned and like he was actually Seeing Me for the first time. He sat by me on my bed and said, "I know you want to be a writer when you grow up. So did I. But you are going to be an engineer. People will tell you that you can't (this is in 1969? when women were still just housewives) but don't believe them. Ok? You are just l...