Midway Airport: The First Seventy-Five Years by Christopher Lynch Lake Claremont Press Phone: 773/583-7800 www.lakeclaremont.com

I have a 50 year old color film shot by my grandfather, when he traveled to California to purchase a small blue Navion from the factory, and which he then flew back to Chicago.

As he soared eastward, Scotty captured the journey on 8 mm film, as the topography of America changed from the red deserts of California and Arizona, to the massive snow-peaked Rocky mountains, which he was forced to dodge, since due to the lack of oxygen over 10 thousand feet, the plane had to fly low.

On the film, as the vast wheat fields of the heartland of the Midwest appeared, I knew it was only a matter of time until I would see Midway on the horizon. And sure enough, in the next scene, as my grandfather shoots an approach to runway 13 Right, there to the left are these same massive hangers, a dark blue in the sunshine. When I saw that film for the first time, it was exciting to feel the illusion of flying in the co-pilot seat as it seemed that we approached an airport important to both of us. And although I never knew him, for a brief moment, I felt as if we were landing that plane together.

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