Once upon a time, a long time ago, over fifty years ago, my husband Bob and I lived in a small mobile home with an ice-box, no bathroom and no shower. It was like a one room with a galley kitchen. After a year we got a little bigger trailer, but still no bathroom. But it did have a refrigerator and a little bit more room. We used a community bath house and to make ends meet, I baby sat one little girl all day, besides our young son and occasionally three kids from another family. Later, I worked in a factory in town. and both Bob and baby son Bobby used to come and bring me lunch. We would all sit together in the car and eat and talk.

My job at the factory was to put some kind of clips on a plastic wafer as parts for a radio. They were real strict about going to the washroom and you had better not be gone too long or they would come and get you.

At the time Bob was learning to fly under the GI Bill and this trailer park also had barracks that had once been for the military but had been made into apartments. There was a community clothesline where you carried your clothes to hang out. No dryers back then.

Many of those who lived there were military families, who lived in either the trailers or apartments. We had many friends and there were many kids too, always playing and running around outside.

By that time Bob had his license for flying a plane and he said, "Do you want to go for a ride with me?"

Well, of course I did and I was thrilled and scared at the same time. I'd never been up in a plane at that point. Of course there weren't any parachutes, and you really heard the prop.

We left our son with a friend. Bob says we took him, but he is wrong. No way would I have taken him with us. No way.

Bob flew a "Luscombe." I sure wish I had pictures of all of this.

I felt every turn, and although it was a beautiful sight to look below, when the plane banked, "Oh Momma!" I was petrified.

We were going to see Bob's sister, who lived about twenty miles away, a short hop in a plane I thought. Well, we got out of the plane and indeed my legs were like I had been in a boat, pretty rocky and unsteady.

We weren't too far to walk but it seemed like we would never get there. Well, since it was a spur of the moment thing, we didn't call his sister, and so she wasnt home. I could have cried. We left her a note on the door and walked back to the small airport to get back on the plane. We landed safely and I sure did say prayers. "Thank you God".

Well we go home and then another day Bob's Uncle Vern came out with a lot of the family and Bob was flying a "Stearman"...an open-cockpit plane, a two seater. And Bob's Uncle Vern forgot to close his seat belt. It was a good thing Bob didn't do any acrobatics with the plane that day or Uncle Vern would have fallen out of the plane. When they landed Uncle Vern was thrilled, but scared to pieces. He said he'd never go up again.

One of Bob's instructors had a bad accident. He saved his two passengers but he himself was burned, and later died from his injuries. What a shame. He was a good pilot and a good man.

I don't know how many of you know it, but O'Hare Field was once called Douglas Airport, and also Old Orchard. Later it became O'Hare field after the WW2 hero Butch O'Hare.

My aunt was an Army nurse in WW2 and her Air force husband also lived in the trailer park. That's one reason we moved out there. He was stationed at Douglas Airport at the time. He'd been a pilot in World War 2 and a very handsome man. He and my aunt were a handsome couple.

There were many Army barracks near the airport at that time, and many times Bob would use the airport as a landmark when flying, and he'd also use the woods in the area. To me, flying was like looking at a big quilt...all the different colors and shapes. It is an awesome site. It was a thrill I'll never forget. It was so different from what it is now.

The small airport is now and a golf course and big hospital are across the road from where we once lived in the trailer. There used to be a corn field right next to our backyard, and once a plane used it in a forced landing. They were all safe, but it was very very scary. My brother took Bob and I out there last year and it was fabulous to renew old memorys. Memories from more than fifty-three years ago. "Once upon a Time. "