Chicago's Midway Airport: The First seventy-five Years by Christopher Lynch Lake Claremont Press Phone: 773/583-7800 www.lakeclaremont.com

Anyone who hangs around an airport knows that pilots like free coffee. And at Monarch Air Service, my family's hangar on Central Avenue at Midway Airport, where the coffee was hot and available 24 hours a day. Because of this, pilots would park their jets on our tarmac, have a cup of Joe, and then hopefully take on some fuel.

When these pilots sipped their coffee, swapping stories about their profession, I was the kid in the corner, pushing a broom working summers during High School, listening. I would hear the story, recounted by the deposed Shah of Iran's personal pilot, how he had once flown Henry Kissinger over the Persian Gulf, and fallen asleep in the cockpit, snoozing peacefully, and awakening before anyone was the wiser.

An old-timer would reminisce how he used to throw the mail bags onto Charles Lindbergh's airplane at Maywood Field, back in the dangerous days of flying the mail in open cockpits. The pilots would swap stories and sip their coffee, a camaraderie of men that hurled metal through the air near the speed of sound. Needless to say, in my eyes, they were cool beyond words.

It was listening to these stories that I would hear snippets of Midway Airport's Golden years, when it was called "Muny", and presidents, princes, world leaders and movie stars would stop by, as the airport lived up to its slogan, "Crossroads of the World". It was a time when flying was for the privileged few, and large crowds would lean against the fence in front of the Old Terminal on Cicero Avenue, and stare in wonder at the airplanes. Flying heroes like Charles Lindbergh in the Spirit of St. Louis, or air racer and war hero Jimmy Doolittle would fly in, as well as air racers like Roscoe Turner, who even traveled with a real lion cub.

I often went to the library to research more about Midway's early years. Unfortunately, I would only find snippets of information. I realized then that the story of Midway resided still, in the memories of the old-time pilots, and who with every passing year, weren't getting any younger. I decided to do something about it.

And so, with a tape recorder in hand, I set out to record the stories and history of Midway. I interviewed old-timers, and the not so old, people with personal connections to the airport. After many hours of conversations, I have collected together the following narrative. Although each interview was done in a separate time and place, I have edited them together so each account unfolds as if the participants were swapping stories in the hangar, over coffee. Perhaps the reader could grab a cup of coffee as well, and listen in.

Enjoy the flight.

Christopher Lynch
Chicago, Illinois