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

When the program Midway Airport: Crossroads to the World first aired on WTTW in October, 2001, James O'Hara tuned in to watch the program. The show started with a home movie of Sheila O'Carroll as a baby, at Midway Airport, being rocked by her pilot father.

James O'Hara almost fell out of his chair at this scene. The last time he saw Sheila O'Carroll was during World War II. So after the program, O'Hara immediately grabbed the phone, and being resourceful, managed to track down Sheila. It turns out that James's parents and Sheila's parents had been friends, and as children, they had played together. After an hour phone call reminiscing, they decided to meet, and so on a hot day in June, 2002 this author (and son) accompanied his mother to Fox Lake, quite a distance from Midway airport, to discuss Midway Airport.

Over iced tea in his immaculate living room, James told us about his father, Tom O'Hara the police officer assigned to Midway Airport for over 20 years, from the 1930's to the 1950's. O'Hara and my grandfather, Pierce "Scotty" O'Carroll were friends who often played cards (45's) together with their wives, drinking tea and nibbling on soda bread.

Jimmy O'Hara's first time in an airplane was with Scotty O'Carroll, who dropped past the O'Hara house one day on his way to collect a plane in Milwaukee. O'Carroll asked Mrs. O'Hara if the eleven year old Jimmy wanted to tag along with him and his daughter Sheila. Mrs. O'Hara thought it was a fine idea, and so Jimmy rode on the train with the O'Carroll's to Milwaukee.

The plane they were to fly back to Chicago was a yellow Stagger Wing Beech, one of two that O'Carroll owned at the time, the other one being red. The Stagger Wing was a beautiful plane, with retractable landing gear, and although it was smooth in flight, it could be unruly on the ground. Fred Farbin, a Monarch employee for many years, in an interview described the Staggerwing Beech's idiosyncrasies:

"On windy days, two of us would have to ride on the wingtips to keep it from tipping over. We had a signal arrangement made out so that when Scotty had control of the airplane we would fall off the wings then, onto the runways, and then we walk back to the hangar. One day I think he forgot about us because the airplane was going pretty good and there was no signal and I hopped off, signal or no signal. I really got my knees and elbows scabbed up" (laughter)

"It was the same when he landed there in real windy weather. We had to drive out to the middle of the runway and wait for him to land and hop on the wing, and hold the airplane down until we got back to the hangar again."

The Stagger Wings' fuel system was also complicated to operate. Farbin would often accompany pilots new to its controls. It had a fuel selector switch that was like a combination lock. With five tanks, (four in the wing and one in the belly), one had to know what they were doing, or wind up with a sputtering engine.

The movie star Ingrid Bergman once chartered a Stagger Wing Beech at Midway, but when the pilot taxied the plane in high wind conditions, lost control, cracking up the lower wing, forcing the plane to to return to the hangar.

On his first flight from Milwaukee, Jimmy sat in the backseat of the Stagger Wing Beech, sitting on the rich plush leather seats of the plane's interior. "I'm not even looking out the window, or anything, just enjoying the hell out of this." Little Sheila sat on her father's lap, holding the three quarter steering wheel. Near Glenview Illinois, they ran into air traffic, where naval aviators were flying in formation, while Scotty mumbled, "Why can't those guys get out of my way?"

But that flight, and many others Jimmy had with O'Carroll, would have a profound influence on him. "I wanted so desperately to fly. At 16 I thought Scotty would teach me." Yet when O'Hara went for a physical exam, and discovered that his vision was weak in one eye, it became apparent that he would never be able to qualify for a pilot's license. "I was crushed", he told us. "I didn't go to the airport for two or three years."

As we were getting ready to leave, James and Sheila posed for a picture, both who flew together long ago in a more simple time. And as they talked, it was if that flight was yesterday, and they were both two kids again.