NASA Interview
I had several job interviews with NASA in one day – over the phone, in my pajamas. The NASA Centers called from East to West. First, Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Center, Marshall Space Center, and Ames Research Center. As soon as I hung up, the next one called.
My other interviews with other companies and government agencies were much more formal. I usually wore my manly pin-stripe suit, considered proper attire for a woman looking for a job in a “man’s” field.
NASA Front Gate
On my first day of work at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in 1984, I stopped at the main gate to get my official NASA ID card made. This was my first time in Houston and the first time at a NASA property.
After I received my ID, the guards directed me to the parking lot closest to Building 16. I learned quickly that the nearest parking lot was mostly reserved parking.
NASA Building 16
The lot where all the regular engineers parked was not near the building. After parking, I walked past several buildings until I arrived at Building 16. I was expecting cool-looking buildings; instead, they were all 1960’s style buildings with whitish rock-like panels on the outside. All facilities with rock-like panels had windows except for building 17. NASA ran out of money for windows and used leftover wall panels in place of windows.
I walked in through the glass doors labeled Building 16. The interior walls were all government-green. I passed the gray elevator and walked up the stairs to the second floor. The hallways in Building 16 are a series of mazes, so my boss gave me detailed directions to get to his office. After I met with my new boss, he sent me off with books to read in my office, which was only a few doors down. I looked from the hallway into the six-person office filled with desks, bookshelves, and file cabinets. The desks were gray metal with a gooey black desktop. The bookshelves and file cabinets were gray metal. Hewlett Packard calculators were chained to the desks with a lock.
NASA’s Diversity Experiment
There were two people in the six-person office. The two people froze in place when I looked through the open door. I asked what was wrong. They both took a deep breath and said they thought I was a ghost. Really? Two engineers thought I was a ghost walking into the office??
To save their blushes, I will call the man JJ and the woman Rose.
JJ was a tall, imposing black man with an infectious smile in his thirties. Rose had just graduated from college and was in my hiring class. She was from Vietnam but had gone to high school in Galveston. Rose was still learning English, and it was her third language.
Ghosts
I asked them if they believed in ghosts. One answered with something like, “well, no but.” They then explained that neither of them had ever seen anyone with skin as pale as mine. It was only the first day of March, and I had just arrived from Seattle. Neither of them thought that was a good enough explanation for my skin color. I had never really thought about why my skin was so light, but as a child, I had complained that the old “flesh-colored” Crayola crayon was too dark and too pink. I showed them photos of my siblings, and they agreed we all had the same skin color.
NASA Protectors
JJ and our boss took on the role of protecting Rose and me from as many adverse work conditions as they could.
Our boss would stay late and walk the hallways on both floors looking for offensive material on the doors or offices. Sexually suggestive and sexually explicit posters and calendars were popular in this male-dominated environment. Our boss would collect them all and throw them in the trash. The next morning there would be lots of complaints of theft. Some would find their treasures in the trash and hang them back up. That evening they would disappear again and end up in the building’s big trash dumpster. There were more complaints the next day.
Other bosses would complain about his nightly project, but our boss was determined to make the entire building free from anything that might cause him to lose his new female engineers. Our boss made his nightly rounds for about 6 months until the building was clear of offensive material.
During the day, engineers would stroll by our office and stand just outside. The primary topic of discussion was whether or not NASA had hired female engineers. The general consensus was no, so they would look in our office as if Rose and I were in a zoo. JJ was as offended by that behavior as Rose and I were. So JJ decided to re-arrange the office. He moved bookshelves and file cabinets to block the view from the hallway. Now, if someone wanted to say stupid things about us, they had to walk all the way into the office where they were on display instead of us.
First NASA Friends
JJ, Rose, and I became very close over the years, looking out for each other, working together, and sharing crazy stories about the prejudice we had experienced.
