This is the story of two "depression children", Sondra and Larry, both born into poor families living in Brooklyn, NY. The conventional history, when they were growing up, was for children to graduate high school, get married, move into the parents or in-laws house, get a job, and have children. After three or four years either they saved up enough money to get an apartment in the neighborhood, or their parents could no longer put up with them and helped them financially in getting an apartment. This was not true for us. We met and got married at an early age (right after I graduated college) and moved to the Bronx (far away from Brooklyn). From there on our lives were a succession of geographic moves and new job opportunities. I served in the military, worked for major corporations, was employed in two major federal departments, and finally established a private consulting company. After our children were all in school, Sondra was able to find an interesting job at each of our new job locations. In parallel with all our moves, we raised four wonderful girls (who had six terrific children). Sondra and I both learned to fly and used an airplane to visit friends in distant locations. After a near disastrous boating trip, we decided that boating was something we wanted to do, and over the next forty years we owned a variety of different boats. Our other desire was to travel the world and visit foreign countries that were of interest to us, and in the period between 1980 and 2010 we traveled extensively. Now that we are in the eighth decade of our lives, we find that our lives revolve mostly around our children and grandchildren. Some people our age jokingly say, "Wouldn't it be great if we could skip raising our children and go directly to enjoying our grandchildren." We don't feel that way. We know that our children did a much better job raising their kids than we did in raising them. Our family now consists of four children, six grandchildren, two husbands, two boyfriends and us for a total of sixteen people. We do many things together and hope that the closeness of the family will continue long after we are gone.
About the Author: Mr. Langweil received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering in 1953. He served in the Army Corp. of Engineers as a First Lieutenant and was stationed at Fort Dix, NJ. After leaving the service, he took a job working for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft and after that for Air Products International. In 1958, he took a job working for the Army and was stationed at Picatinny Arsenal, where he worked on the development of explosives, demolitions and missile warhead systems. In 1968, he was transferred to the Office of Secretary of Defense in Washington, and worked on secret programs related to the war in Viet Nam. Near the end of the Viet Nam conflict, he was transferred to the Navy Material Command working as a program manager on electronic systems. In the early 1970's, he left the Department of Defense and obtained employment at the Federal Aviation's Office of Systems Engineering. His first assignment was as the program manager for the development and implementation of the Magnetometers and X-Ray sensors that were used at airports for security screening. Following this, he became program manager on two major FAA safety systems, Low Level Wind-shear, and Wake Vortices. In 1976, he became a charter member of the Federal Government's Senior Executive Service and was transferred to the FAA's Research Center in Atlantic City to manage the Aircraft and Airport Safety Division. In 1980, he returned to FAA Headquarters and put in charge of the Communications and Facilities Division. Mr. Langweil retired in 1986 and went to work as a Vice President of a small minority owned company. In 1989, he decided to start his own consulting company, Larry Langweil Associates, and he ran it successfully until his final retirement in 2005.