SPACE CHASE  -   CHANGED the WORLD  
Chapter 21: Mimi's Life Stories

August 2019, the United States celebrated the 50th anniversary of our pathway to the moon. The accomplishment brought about profound changes in many attitudes towards the earth and its inhabitants.  While I was occupied in launching Aury and Tawn in school and exploring the concept of spiritual dance, Win was engaged in the government's national involvement in exploring cosmic outer space.

We had moved to the city of Manhattan Beach because the location put us in the middle of some of the major national aerospace companies.   The nation was involved in the excitement of space travel.  Win was a Systems Analyst and worked over time for all of following companies:  TRW, North American, McDonald Douglas Aircraft, Hughes Aircraft, Northrop Aerospace, and Rams.  Most of Win's analytical work was with reliable, sustainable "sample gathering" systems, such as the Surveyor designed for that purpose.

As we celebrated the accomplishment of our heroic astronauts, the world was stunned.  William Bainbridge wrote in his book The Spaceflight Revolution that Apollo was "a grand attempt to reach beyond the world of mundane life and transcend the ordinary limits of human existence through accomplishment of the miraculous – a story of engineers who tried to reach the heavens".

In viewing photos of the earth taken from the moon, Carl Sagan, twenty years later summarized the perspective: 

"That's home. That's us.  On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives,  the aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, economic doctrine, every year, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar" every "supreme leader" every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."   Pale Blue Dot 1994

The accomplishment has moved many to address the need for preserving and defending the earth and, at the same time, harnessing the new technologies to benefit mankind.  Change was in the air.  Hughes Aircraft was sending engineers as consultants to different countries. The Middle East was in turmoil. We were scheduled to go to Iran when the Shah was overthrown. 

Soon after our disappointment about not being able to fill that adventure, TRW assigned Win to take over a position in Alice Springs, Australia. We were both excited.  Except for Tijuana, neither of us had been out of the country.  Win went first by himself,  we were to follow.  However, the wife of the engineer that he was to replace got pregnant.  She had had several miscarriages and they were concerned about traveling.  Instead, they did decided to stay in Australia  and Win was directed to return to the states.

It was a disappointment for all of us.  The kids were excited about living where the wild kangaroos roam.  I was excited about learning to hang glide, very popular in Alice Springs.  The change in plans resulted, however, in the first of our many international adventures. I say adventure because our travel plans were very loose and we stumbled and happened onto more delightful aspects of people and places than we could have expected.

Win was sure he was going to be laid off when he returned home without a new assignment, but since his flight was already paid, he suggested that I meet him in Hong Kong and we explore the Orient.  Mom was willing to stay with the kids, so I went.  From Hong Kong we went to Taiwan and then to Japan.  We traveled on our own, using local transportation.  For meals, we would eat wherever we saw lots of people gathered purchasing food. We would point to what we saw people eating, signal two and nod. Win was good with the money exchange, but sometimes Win would just hold an open palm out with coins and the merchant would pick out the correct amount. 

Our hotel in Hong Kong turned out to be right across from a vegetarian restaurant/bakery whose items included delicious filled buns of unknown ingredients and assorted tastes, from salty to sweet.   We ate there during our stay in Hong Kong.   At one point, I remember looking up and seeing three cooks from the kitchen standing in the doorway looking at us with big grins.  I was puzzled.  One of the three suddenly disappeared and moment later walked over to Win with a huge cooking fork and a big smile.  I was used to using chopsticks, but Win was not. 

The building next to the hotel was a convention hall/auditorium.  It so happened that we were there on their 10-10 weekend event, a big Communist Celebration.  We were not aware of it.  However several incidents demonstrated strong hostility.  A shop-keeper angrily threw our change for a purchase, purposely, on the floor, waiting for my husband to respond. Without any show of emotion, Win quietly bent over and gathered the coins and we left.

Another incident, the hatred from a stranger was so intense, I have never forgotten it.  We were in a street car with a bench on both sides of the trolley.  It was crowded.  We were seated and a man was standing above me. I could feel he was staring at me. I looked up and was met with such profound, all-consuming, irrational hatred, it stunned  me.  I felt that if he could have killed me on the spot, without having to pay for it, he would have. 

I see that hatred now in the brutality of the ANTIFA and growing Anti-Semitism, and Anti-Christianity. I don't understand it, but I see it. 

Hong Kong was very crowded. The hotel we were in was not in the tourist area. We were on the 2nd floor. The building behind us appeared to be occupied by various families staying in the same apartment.  I am assuming that because of the use of the kitchens.  The kitchens of many apartments seemed occupied most of the day, with a variety of cooks.  The streets also were over-used, traffic moving in every direction, even in the late evening, men in business suits, and workers.

However, one woman stood out, a mother, in the quilted pants and jacket common to the Chinese peasants.  She walked by our window and I have never forgotten her.  She looked out of place. She had one child on her back, one in a sling in front of her and was holding the hand of a third.  She looked pregnant.  She was walking slowly, and I could see that her ankles were swollen. Where was she going?  What was ahead for her and her children?  So sad.  Hopeless, helpless drudgery seemed to be her life.

Another image remains of a life which I will never understand.  Many individuals live on small boats. Some also conduct a business from their boat. They eat, sleep, and live their life on their boat.   Visitors  can stand on a bridge and overlook the boats as they pass by.  Observe a lifestyle totally foreign. Some boats  are occupied by families. The one that stood out most to me was a  slender woman in a small slender boat.  She was happily watching television on a very large TV which sat in the middle of her small boat, the sides of which almost touched the sides of the boat. Since all of their programming seemed to be American programs, I wondered how the lady sustained herself emotionally, contrasting her life with the Hollywood version of the lives of the  Americans.

Leaving Hong Kong appeared to be a problem.   The travel agents would disappear when we tried to book a flight to Taiwan.  Finally we found someone willing to sell us a ticket.  We made it to Taiwan, but I did have some doubts.  The plane was constructed of wood.  Once boarded and in the air,  you could actually see thru the slots of wood. 

Taipei, Taiwan was quite a contrast to Hong Kong, clean and friendly people, unrushed and peaceful.  Tourist sites easy to reach and beautiful landscapes.  Two memories stand out, unplanned.  We happened to visit a small village when they were holding an autumn festival.  Among the activities was a folk dance circle in which it appeared anyone could participate. . . so I did.  Following the flowing movement of the lady in front of me, I was able to keep pace with the circle and really enjoyed being part of the community.

We took a walk out of town and, just as we were ready to turn around and go back, we happened on a series posters on the side of the road, posters which I recognized.  They were posters from my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   We followed the posters and discovered that we were at the National University of Taiwan.   After chatting with the Elders, both from southwest states, we walked on campus. We stopped when  I heard what sounded to me like a dance studio.  As I was telling Win, I had a feeling a dance class was in session.  Two students on  an overhead balcony leaned over  and  yelled down  to us  "Americans Teachers?"

When we nodded yes, they invited us up.  It was a dance class and an emotional experience for me.   The students  were learning  very controlled basic Chinese dance movements.   It was such a contrast after the freedom of modern dance at UCLA, the class session fascinated me.  Control exerted over the body did not in anyway limit the freedom of the sprit. Only now in writing this do I fully understand what the dance choreographer/director meant when describing me in my role in Carousal as “controlled abandonment.”

Controlled abandonment seems paradoxical but, in fact, is not.  Complete freedom does not exist .  We are all interconnected and inter-related, with life, the elements, and history.  Best we accept our dependency with one another and define our framework -- the guidelines within which we give ourselves complete freedom.

From Taiwan we went to Japan.   We flew into Tokyo and quickly found a room.  It was in Tokyo that I had a terrible bout of homesickness.   I was sitting in the tub bawling, asking Win to please take me home. Please, please.  I missed the kids so much . .  I hurt.  

Win was able to quiet my spirit, explaining the myriad of difficulties and complexities of him changing our flights, with him traveling on his company's ticket.  That painful bout of homesickness, which I had never experienced,  helped me to  better understand what soldiers and separated families feel.  I can relate to them with more compassion.The hotel prepared some cards with questions we might need to ask while we were sightseeing. There was much to see in Tokyo. We took little short city tours.  Everyone was courteous and willing to give us directions.   We found no hostility.  Except once,  and it was my fault.  

In a grassy park, there was an open pavilion with fiber mats on the stone floor. No one was there. I walked to the center when suddenly a man dressed as a Holy man came running towards me  yelling  pointing at my shoes and motioning me to leave. He was barefoot. I quickly realized my mistake and  I backed out,  bobbing up and down from the waist, profusely  apologizing for the lack of respect.  Win was waiting outside.  I was glad to rush into his arms.  The Holy man was very angry.

We took a bullet train south and stopped in Kyoto.  Kyoto was once the capitol of Japan. It is famous for its many numerous classical temples, as well as gardens, imperial palaces, Shinto Shrines and traditional wooden houses. We visited a park filled with large monkeys who roam free, taking food from your hand. .  

In addition to the monkeys and classical historic beauty of Kyoto, we did have an usual cultural experience.  A local cab driver was trying to sell us to take a personal tour of the city with him.   It was hard communicating.  When I mentioned we were from California, surprisingly, he asked me in Spanish if I spoke Spanish.   It turned out that he had lived in Los Angeles and was very comfortable with Spanish. 

We had a train connection to make so we didn't take his tour, but before we finished our conversation, a large crowd had gathered around us, thoroughly curious and  perplexed at what language the Japanese man and American woman were conversing. 

Traveling by ourselves, we frequently learned cultural lessons that were a surprise and a mystery.  We took the bullet train to the very most southern town of Kyushu to a Peoples' Village, a recreational lodge and facility run by the Japanese government. 

On the way, Win and I shared a drink out of the same cup.  Suddenly, I became aware that everyone in our train section was looking at us, whispering, giggling and laughing among themselves.  It turned out that a man and woman drinking out of the same cup is foreplay for sex. We had innocently made a spectacle of ourselves.

We made a major faux pas at our stay in a Peoples' Village. We were the only non-Japanese.  No one spoke English, but the staff was very helpful.    We slept on mats on the floor and ate what was served for meals. The morning breakfast was a bowl of rice with a raw egg, which you dropped and whipped in with your chopsticks.  

Noteworthy of the dinner meal, quite obvious,  several families moved away from us.  It took us several days and some kindly suggestions to understand.  We should bathe first and and then eat.  We were the dirty Americans.  The habit in Japan is to bath before dinner.   I  wondered if we exuded an odor which was offensive.

The facility  had huge communal baths of different temperatures for the whole family to bath and relax together.   I could not bring myself to disrobe in the company of men  and join in a communal bath.  Fortunately, they also had some small private bathing  tubs with the temperatures set much higher.

Kyushu is mountainous and has Japan's most active volcanoes.  As we indicated at the first desk, we intended to walk to the volcano instead of taking their transportation. They quickly brought out a pair of galoshes for each of us. The direction that we got was follow the road  until you see the volcano, then walk towards it. We were enjoying the view, but  got thoroughly lost.  Just at the point we were ready to admit we had a problem,  we saw a group of farmers working in a distant field.  We were so grateful, we rushed towards them yelling a greeting; however, they started running away from us . . . .  yelling amerikan, amerikan.  They were afraid of us!  We did not want to lose them.  We figured they knew how to get out of the fields and forest, so we had to keep them in our sight. We ran after them.  We followed them to a lookout for viewing the  volcano.  We finally made it. We rode back in the Peoples' Village transportation.  I am sure the farmers were relieved to find out that the Americans were not invading the island of  Kyushu. 

We made it to northern Japan, which I had wanted to see since Junior High. While studying Japan in Social Studies, I came across a photo of men of the Hairy Aniu tribe, a tribe indigenous to Japan.   They reminded me so much of my Abuelito and my two Chapa uncles. I felt an affinity, love and respect for the men in the photo, which I could not explain. About 60 years later, I had the same emotional reaction in Washington, D.C. In one of the museums,  I turned a corner and came face-to-face with a wall-size photo of a group of men of the Hairy Aniu tribe. My reaction was the same.  I just stood there,  transfixed.  It was the same sense of familiarity, of recognition.

I think we carry memories in our DNA, memories from our ancestors.  In Japan, I felt like I was home.  More than any place in the world, I had wanted to go to Japan. Win fulfilled a promise made to me many years before,  that he would take me to Japan by 1970 and he did.  It just happened that he did. 

Following the successful Space Chase, employment opportunities for engineers was greatly reduced. Below is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive: 

           "Engineers' Unemployment Rate Almost Doubled in Year  OCT. 10, 1971"

The unemployment rate for engineers last June and July was reported at 3 per cent, almost double the rate of 1.6 per cent for the same individuals in the spring of 1970, according to survey commissioned by the National Science Foundation.

The survey carried out by the Engineers Joint Council was based on the replies from 59,200 responding engineers. The survey indicated that on the basis of previous studies the 1971 unemployment rate for all engineers might have reached as high as 3.4 per cent. The national unemployment rate for all workers for the second quarter of 1971 averaged 5.8 per cent.

The latest survey showed that engineers with master's degrees had a 3.2 per cent unemployment rate while those with bachelor's degrees reported a 2.8 per cent rate. Engineers with doctorates had a 1.9 per cent rate.

The highest unemployment rate of 6.3 per cent was found among engineers previously involved in space activities followed by those in defense work, with 4.8 per cent. Engineers who had been employed in public works showed the lowest unemployment rate, 1.3 per cent.

The survey reported that nearly two–fifths of the unemployed engineers had specialized in four fields: electronics, aerospace, manufacturing and systems engineering. Other fields with high unemployment rates were computer‐mathematics and product engineering. Analyzing the age groups among the unemployed engineers the survey found the lowest rate among those in their thirties, the highest among those under 24, followed by those 60 to 64 and then those 55 to 59.

The states with the highest engineer unemployment rates were Washington and California, followed by Connecticut, Massachusetts, Florida, New Jersey and New York.

This was a very sad time for engineers.  One afternoon, Win came home early.  His skin was ashen.  "My God, what happened?"   With a bewildered, grieved expression, he said,   "One of the men killed himself in the men's room. He was laid off, and he just went in there and slit his wrists." 

The sad stories continued to grow over the following months.  One engineer, after two months of being laid off had still not told his wife.   Another showed up every day, sat at an unoccupied desk which he found at the plant, and sat there with no assignment. . .  and no salary.

The companies attempted to give the engineers assistance in their job hunting, but the need had diminished.   Several Cal State Universities had special programs to help engineers get a California Teaching credential. 

Since we had so much fun traveling, we decided that it might be a good time for me to get a California Teaching Credential.   However, we could get teaching jobs in another country and the kids could enjoy the life experience of living in another culture. Being a classroom teacher had never appealed to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed  the enthusiasm, curiosity, and exploratory nature of children. My research for my thesis was on the development of creativity. Meanwhile, Win kept sending resumes looking for a any kind of a job.  When the layoff notice came Win  did some substitute teaching and filled vending machines for a friend.

I enrolled at Dominguez College to pursue getting a California  Teaching Certificate.  I was sure I was going to be accepted, and was shocked when the dean said that I had not passed the English grammar test.   I had assumed that a BS and MS from UCLA would be sufficient to get into the program. 

I started to leave his office and almost under my voice sadly said,  "I always wanted to work with children."  He stopped me.  "Wait, tomorrow  bring in a typewriter, paper and a dictionary.    I will give you an essay topic." 

I returned the next day, with my typewriter [which I had had since high school - earned as a soda jerk at Smittys.]  The Dean  gave me a topic, length and a quiet room.  I finished the essay within the prescribed time.  Only a quick glance by the Dean indicated I was   . .  "In!," he said.  He told his secretary, "Process her."  I was back in school.  I was greatly  relieved.  Obviously I had still not overcome the effects of learning English as a second language, but I learned to deal with it. 

In preparing Somos Primos I review for reading clarity by  reading my writings out loud.  Let my ear judge  what sounds right.    I  move phrases and parts of a sentence from one place to another.  I   move sentences around within a paragraph, or paragraphs within a column.   As  I do, it reminds me  how the Lord takes the "weak things" of the world and assigns them to fulfill a task, so we will learn to depend on Him for our strengthens and to turn and listen to Him for guidance.

I can remember three distinct occasions when I was writing something and I included a word  with which I was NOT familiar. The word just popped in my head.  With the help of the dictionary, I found that in each case, the word was actually perfect! 

Obtaining a credential required both classroom attendance and student teaching, but I was fortunate.  The program was a government effort to increase the number of teachers nationally, particularly in English. The US had experienced an influx of immigrants and refugees from all over the world.  Many countries were recruiting  American teachers.   Increasing the numbers, too, were the children from the 1950-1960s baby boom . School administrators were being creative to fulfill the national need.

For example, the Dominguez Hills California State University college classes I took were held in a local high school through Adult Education. The first semester concentrated on the history and philosophy of education.  l was able to arrange my student teaching to be done at the junior high which Aury and Tawn were attending.  The logistics of just getting to school and home each day was greatly eased by being on the same campus.   It was surely a blessing.  I was able to intercede with the teachers for Aury and his continuing problem of dealing with dyslexia.

I was assigned two English Master teachers.  It made it difficult. They each had a different teaching style of maintaining control and authority.  My training and experience had been in recreational leadership roles.  I remember crying one evening,  trying to solve the  problem of completing the credential. I needed to complete it to attain our goal of teaching and traveling. However, I was not handling the situation well, and it appeared that both of the Master teachers had decided on a sink or swim attitude about me.  After all, I already had a Masters in Public Recreation and Administration, so let me figure it out.  

What I did figure out was a positive solution.  The school had a special program underway.  It offered short 6-week  enrichment classes.  I asked if I might be allowed to  write a curriculum for and teach a  unit on puppetry. As a teaching tool, puppetry encompassed reading, writing, literature, dialogue, storylines, props, background, music, sound effects, concept  development,   performance, construction,  etc.   All administrative levels agreed.   They were willing to let me do it.  The rest of the school year remained challenging, but fun.  I also struggled take care of family needs, meals, laundry, to find enough time to prepare the daily lesson plans,  evaluations and  reports for my Dominguez Hills supervisor.  Win's frequent job changes and uncertainties was an ever present threat. It hung over us. Win had been able to get a job with the Navy in the city of Corona, about two hours away.  He  rented a room and came home on the weekend. 

I believe I was able to teach the puppetry class 4 or 5 times.   I could not understand, though,  why each session seemed to be getting progressively harder and harder to teach.  Then I found out that  teachers were  putting  their  problem students in my class.  They had observed that students who had gone through my class underwent positive changes in attitudes and behavior.  Interestingly, too,  about later 5 years later, I found out that the puppetry class was still being offered.

I completed my California teaching credential.  Win and I started e started sending out our resumes together.   We got very few nibbles.  In California, only two, Coalinga  and Calexico, no job offers.  Internationally, Win got an offer to teach electronics/electricity in the South Pacific on the Island of Ponape. I was offered a job in the Virgin Islands.