This is a Valentine for every parent who works in air cargo that celebrates or celebrated the airport with their children.
     I feel like we all have something in common as part of a special group that in some ways can see that world from the inside out.
     I know this because our four children grew up at The Marine Air Terminal (MAT) at LaGuardia Airport during the 1980s while we were saving it for history.
     Guess we were lucky because now that those days have gone, the memories of preserving MAT a little round art-deco building that once upon a time, from 1939 until the opening of New York Idlewild Airport in 1948, handled all the international air traffic for the greatest city in the world have in the world of 2023 been universally celebrated.
     As long as there are airports, Historic Preservation is a powerful friend for a very special place.
     Memories, I am sure are there somewhere for kids that have grown up around people who work at airports.
     Our daughter Flossie wrote this almost a decade ago as an adult.
     Now that I think about it, the children in our neighborhood were always spending their school trips at LaGuardia.
     I created an 800-page adventure picture book,a very long love letter really about 132 airports, one great story after another, for Airports Council International in 1986 titled “Great Airports Worldwide.”
     Here is what Flossie wrote about the MAT.
     The children know the way.
Geoffrey

     The hallways were long, dark, slanted. When you ran it echoed loudly and your body felt askew. It was a donut, impossible to get lost in. Impossible to go anywhere new.
     We crawled out the office window and sat on the eaves of the building. From that vantage, you could watch the planes roar in overhead. Dad let us sit out there often.
     We ate Planter’s Cheezballs, played with model airplanes, sneaked down a cylindrical staircase that opened into the ticketing area. We were airline kids—a rare breed. The airport was our playground.
     Those kids don’t exist anymore. Airports have changed.
Flossie Arend

Flossie Arend had a great start to 2023, with her first published work in the Science Fiction Genre. Read the story in the January issue of Fantasy Magazine. The magazine is available on multiple formats and can be accessed here.