Getting Through

About the Book

Getting Through is an anecdotal autobiography that takes the reader from late childhood through an idyllic adolescence growing up in Washington D.C. during WWII and the Korean War, through a mediocre performance in a mediocre public school system, a thwarted flying career, experiences as a jet mechanic and crew chief in the Air Force with two tours of duty in Japan, college at a now defunct engineering school in California, then into the marriage stream with mortgages, children, tuition, and Divorce A Vinculo Matrimonii, and a career starting in the aerospace industry ending with the Navy as a deputy aircraft program manager. Included is a memoir written by the author’s father at age 90, two years before his death in 2004. His father describes first his time in an orphanage, placed there after his mother died at age 25 in the 1919 influenza epidemic; an experience that left him with physical scars, but surprisingly admirable traits of honesty and decency that lasted a lifetime. Getting Through represents a departure from the usual format for a memoir. Included are a series of discussions on philosophy, psychology, religion, nature and nurture, warfare, democracy, and finding a meaning to life – presenting the author’s views of the human condition based on personal experiences and a lifetime of random reading. The last chapter consists of accumulations of his journey through life – things done, places been, books read, favorite quotes, letters of interest, a family genealogy, and the distance traveled while on planet Earth. The author’s stated intent in writing his memoirs, even in the face of limited writing experience, was to document his life, however ordinary and undistinguished, primarily for the reading benefit of his two daughters and for the personal gratification in the writing. Knowing little of the life of his own father until just a few years before his father’s death, it became important to write his own story for the benefit – amusement and/or gratification – of his descendants. Getting Through, replete with wit, wisdom, and ignorance, tells us that no life is ever ordinary and that everyone’s story is worth telling.

About the Author

Robert Taylor is a retired aeronautical engineer. A graduate of Northrop Institute of Technology following four years in the Air Force as a jet mechanic and crew chief, he worked in the aerospace industry for five years for the Navy on aircraft maintenance engineering and support programs. He has two daughters and three grandchildren. One daughter is a physician assistant and the other is an attorney. Getting Through was written primarily for the benefit of his daughters and for the personal gratification derived from the writing. He spends his time in retirement reading, writing, hiking, traveling, and on grandchild care assignments.