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A sentimental visit


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My Wife and I are on a road trip which took us through Amarillo, Texas yesterday. I decided to stop in at Tradewinds Airport to see if I could recognize the place. You see, the last time I was there was during the summer of 1970. My Dad and I were returning to Torrance (KTOA) from Philadelphia International where we attended a family reunion. We were flying in Dad’s 1964 C Model Mooney. (Mom elected to stay longer and return on a commercial Airliner. She had had enough of the Mooney.) We stopped at Tradewinds for fuel and an overnight stay at the local Howard Johnson Motel. For some reason I remember that the motel restaurant had a meat loaf dinner special that Dad and I both enjoyed.

Today the Airport has a beautiful, modern Terminal Building that wasn’t there forty nine years ago. The lady working the desk pointed out where the ground crew worked out of long ago. There was a very old FBO hangar adjacent to that building which probably dated back to that era. There was also a low post wooden type railing which separated the parking lot from the ramp area. That is the one thing there that bothered me and seemed vaguely familiar to me.

Inside the Terminal Building are three groups of vintage photographs dating back to the late 1940s and early 1950s. In these pictures are mostly Bonanzas and Navions, along with a Staggerwing, an Ercoupe and others, all with their owners standing in front of them. All of the pictures were taken at Tradewinds Airport. The airplanes must have mostly been new as they still had their vintage factory paint schemes on them.

I stood there looking at those pictures and realized that all of those folks and probably, many of those airplanes, are all gone now. While it saddened me, I was glad for this little tribute to that era of Pilots and their airplanes. As I left the building I glanced over to the ramp area and could almost see my Dad’s Mooney sitting there with it’s bright and shiny brown, yellow and white paint job. 

I don’t know If there is any good that comes out of these sentimental visits. I do know that they can be emotionally difficult to make. But I hope that somewhere, someone appreciates the thought and effort that goes into them.

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