NHK TV out of Japan followed me around the world in 2007. They produced a two part series. Here is the part one
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Kanwal and Ann during Christmas of 1971 in California. Second Photo Ann’s brother Mark and Ann outside our Sunnyvale Apartment.
1971 started not so well. Economy was beginning to go sour as both Vietnam war and NASA’a Apollo space program were starting to wind down. War spending without an increase in taxes had caused big inflation. For the very first and also the very last time, a peace time wage and price freeze was imposed in America. Strange because it was done by President Nixon, a Republican. South Florida was especially devastated when NASA awarded Space Shuttle contract to Rockwell in Southern California, rather than to Pratt Whitney in South Florida. The South Florida economy was built around NASA spending. Real estate prices in Florida plummeted by almost 50%!
Ann and I got married in March of 1971. As I was preparing for the day, I got my draft notice in January 1971. It came as a bolt from the blue. I sweated being drafted and sent to Vietnam so I decided to to enlist in Navy or Air Force; neither of them would take me. I decided to fight it by declaring myself to be a Conscientious Objector. A very strange claim by a Sikh but I was determined to not let the Army send me to Vietnam. 50,000 draftees a month were being sent to Vietnam then. Eventually and luckily, I got a medical deferment. Ann also got the hardship discharge from the Air Force because closest Air Force Base at Homestead, south of Miami, was more than 50 miles away from West Palm Beach.
Having been laid off second time in my life by SEL, by a smallish company, I decided to hunker down by joining a large company. I went to work for RCA Computer Systems in West Palm Beach. RCA was a big conglomerate. It owned RCA television manufacturing, NBC TV and Radio, Hertz Rent-a-Car, Banquet Foods and many other companies. I thought it would be a more stable situation for me and Ann.
My job at RCA Computer Systems was great. We rented at a beautiful cottage on the beach at Palm Beach Shores and started our life together. Life could not be better for us.
On September 17, 1971 while watching the NBC Evening News I heard that RCA had decided to pull out of computer business. RCA’s was competing with IBM, selling compatible mainframes machines. Its strategy of “10% better for 10% less” was undone when IBM announced its 370 series to replace its 360 series. 370 machines were 40% better for the same price. This resulted in another bolt from the blue, my third lay-off in less than two years. It could not have come at a worst time as my savings had been totally depleted. RCA was generous in its separation benefits though. It provided us 3 months of salary and set up an office to help us get jobs. I scrambled to find a job but they were hard to come by. I eventually got two job offers: one in Southern California with Scientific Data Systems ( Later Xerox Data Systems) and the other with Singer Link in Sunnyvale in Northern California. I accepted the one in Sunnyvale. Santa Clara Valley was home to the newly emerging Semiconductor industry, where companies like Intel, National and AMD were new start-ups. Singer Link was an established player, providing flight simulators to Air Force, Navy and to the commercial airlines. It was a division of Singer Sewing Machines.
I and Ann got our old Chevy ready for a cross country drive. All our possessions fitted nicely in the trunk of that Chevy. On our way, we stopped for a day at newly opened Disney World in Orlando but were in hurry to get to California and start my new job. We arrived in Sunnyvale on November 28, 1971. I started my new job the very next day.
A few days later, Ann’s brother got posted at Alameda Naval Air Station near Oakland, which was only about 40 miles from Sunnyvale. It was great to have Mark join our life. While I settled in to my fourth job, I tried to figure out why did I get laid off so frequently? Was it me or just a bad luck? None of my friends was laid off.
After a euphoric start 1970 settled in to a more of a routine.
A long distance relationship with Ann had its rewards and burdens. She came to visit me every chance she could get. I went to visit her once to get proper engagement and wedding rings. Ann, like me, was not particularly religious but still wanted a church wedding. We had to find a church as most churches are not open to outsiders. After visiting several churches and getting unreasonable demands, we got lucky. We found an Episcopalian Church, Ann’s denomination, with a priest I happened to have had made friends with. I used to play tennis with my friends in a public park. An elderly couple used to play on the next court and they would request a doubles game from time to time. That elderly man was Father Whitehead of the Church of the Intercession, in Wilton Manors, a suburb of Ft Lauderdale. He readily agreed to marry us! I still had to do rest of the arrangements. Flowers, reception, staying arrangements and sundry other things.
During all this I got laid of second time from my job. SEL was a big supplier to NASA. By 1970 economy was going south. Having put a man on the moon, NASA was was winding down the space program. Nixon’s Vietnamization of the war resulted in hundred’s of thousands people coming back home from the war. This time I found a new job very quickly and not too far from Ft Lauderdale. I went to work for RCA Computer Systems in West Palm Beach, about 40 miles north of Ft Lauderdale. I did not want to move as the wedding was going to be in Ft Lauderdale so I commuted for several months.
During this time I also got my draft notice. Even though war was winding down, they were still drafting 50,000 people a month. I tried to enlist in the Air Force and Navy (Ann’s brother was in the Navy) but neither Air Force nor Navy would take me, they had enough US volunteers so did not have to take foreigners, but Army was hot after me. I fought very hard to stay out of the army but I got my summons for the physical before being inducted. I was very desperate when I got the good news. I was rejected because my left deltoid muscle had atrophied and my shoulder would dislocate from time to time. For once in my life I was glad to have this physical affliction.
Needless to say my father was not too happy with any of this. He had not gotten over my cutting my hair and now I was marrying a foreigner (for him!). We had a small and intimate wedding. My IIT friends Umesh Malhotra and Bhopi Dhall attended it. Ann’s father was not too happy either so he did not attend it but her mother and sister were present. Her brother Mark was on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam so he missed it. We had a small reception at my friend Jeff Katz’s house, where we had platters of kosher cold cuts and punch. A very inexpensive and elegant affair.
We had a simple honeymoon in Key West. After the wedding Ann got her discharge from the Air Force as we were more than 50 miles from the closest base. We moved to Palm Beach Shores and rented a nice cottage on the beach and decided to live happily ever after, until I heard on NBC News (NBC was a RCA subsidiary at the time) that RCA was pulling out of the computer business. Soon after that, I got laid off third time from a job.
Things could not have been better for me after I moved to Ft. Lauderdale in March of 1970. My new job with SEL was very good, Ft Lauderdale was in the sun shine state of Florida, I bought a used Chevrolet Impala (every Indians dream back then) and then Ann came to visit me in late March. Ann had been my pan pal for previous three years. She was from Connecticut and had joined the US Air Force in 1968 and was based at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas. She was going home for Easter vacation and stopped en route to visit me. Though Ann and I were writing to each other for three years and had exchanged photos and talked on the phone several times, this was the first time we were going to meet in person.
I picked up Ann at the Miami airport in my Impala. She was dressed in the Air Force blue uniform. I was immediately smitten and could not take my eyes off her! I got the sense that she had taken a liking to me too. Four days later when she was getting ready to leave, I could not resist proposing marriage to her. She was taken aback and told me that she needed time to think it over. Few weeks later she called to say that answer is yes. I and Ann were married on March 26th, 1971.
It will be 45 years in a couple of months and I have never had second thoughts.
