But to begin at the beginning... In August 1959 we drove from Oregon to California, renting our first apartment in Oakland. In September, we began our classes at Berkeley, my husband his first year of graduate school and I, my senior year. The campus was enormous and the system different than it had been in Washington - quarters rather than semesters. I registered for 7 classes, and by the end of the first month I was so overwhelmed that I withdrew from school. I felt panic and guilt to be disappointing everyone's high expectations, but I went immediately to the state employment office and took the first job for which I interviewed. Of all the odd places, it was in the  research department of a small plant that manufactured a lightweight panel used in aircraft construction. However, it wasn't the scientific side of this job that impacted me - it was the social aspect. One of only two women in a department of a dozen male researchers, I did secretarial work that was no particular challenge, but I was also expected to participate in lunch-hour bridge games in a tiny library with neon lights in the ceiling. Never having been a cardplayer and certainly not anything as complicated as bridge, I discovered that the learning curve was intense and the game was being played with surprising hostility. To make a long story short, I lasted an amazing 10 months at this job. One day, the pressure of the bridge-playing, hard-driving atmosphere and an impending job review caused me to simply walk out the door and not return. I had just turned 21.
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