All the time I was growing up, my father worked for Aerojet. His hire (around 1950) caused my newlywed parents to move to Southern California. They moved to Sacramento around 1956 when he was transferred to their Nimbus plant (my father always called it 'the plant'). He was transferred to Fullerton in Orange County in 1970 during my freshman year in college. He was laid off in 1974 at the age of 48. So he worked for them for only 24 years. He did a job search (his job was always the most important part of our family) and went to Rockford Illinois to work for Sundstrand during my senior year in college. He retired (he was not too pleased with the timing) when he was 65 in 1991. So he worked for Sundstrand for 17 years. Or similar.
I found this picture from somewhere showing the managers at Aerojet during the 1950s. My father would not be in this picture as he was not yet in 'management'. He would have been a tall kind of string bean looking man with the same funny haircut he had his entire life. I should talk as I inherited his hair type (thin and fine). White men, a few maybe of color. In their business suits proudly standing in front of their building. My father likely knew or knew of the men in this picture. To my young parents, this would symbolize stability and a bright future.
My father never talked about work with his children. Ever. That was not an appropriate subject for children. Period. Besides it was top secret (maybe).
Top secret --- see these words just come out of your long term memory. Is that phrase still used?
Happened to me the other day. I was writing one of my dreaded 'discussion topics' for my archaeology class and the word 'coefficient' just rolled out. When was the last time I used that word?
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