Trouble in Lakewood

NewYorker

This is a page out of my own life. I had moved to Southern California from the East Coast, in 1967 - at the insistence of my beautiful, but crazy wife. I was crazy myself to have married her, but not quite a crazy as she was. I was an Electronic Engineer, at the time, making plenty of money, working for the Military, that paid for our move to California.

In 1980, my career as an Engineer ended, when the Vacuum Tube was replaced by the Transistor. And our marriage ended, when my wife had a complete mental breakdown. Three years later, she killed herself.

I changed careers, and became a Technical Writer, and worked for a number of companies in Ventura County, Las Angeles, Orange Country (several times) and then San Diego.

These frequent job changes were seen a normal at the time. I was in Los Angeles (I can't remember exactly why) when the Aerospace boom ended, and the market was flooded with unemployed Aerospace Engineers. Southern California had became a disaster area.

This article details that disaster, that was also part of a national disaster - that marked the last of the 20th Century. It's a long read, and comes at at time when few can read anything so depressing.

I moved north to Silicon Valley.