The 1970s, the decade of my teenage years, was a transitional period in American youth culture.

Travel provided many interesting experiences, but perhaps the most useful lesson I learned was that I really had no proficiency for learning the thousands of characters of the written Chinese language.

I certainly remember building model rockets. It was fun to watch the rocket blast into the air, suspenseful to wonder if the parachute would open to bring the rocket safely back.

My father was a professor of civil engineering at MIT, and my mother taught high school English.