Ora Carpenter Omerza history, EXTRA #2

Aug 6, 1974 was a great day in my life. Jay and Marlene had invited us to visit them in Lyons, Ill. Em had had a heart operation in January and I wasn’t sure he was up to the trip. He was very anxious to go and assured me that everything would be OK. To him this meant going back to Chicago where he lived the early years of his life. It had been about 26 years since he had been back. To me it meant, first of all, my first plane ride, to see my children and grandchildren and then to see the many places Em had always talked about. The El, Marshall Fields, where his Father worked. Lake Michigan, Lake Shore Drive, and so many other places. Jay lived a few blocked from where Em lived as a child.

The whole family was there to see us off. Nancy drove us to the airport. Bertha was staying at the house while we were away. So, at eight o’clock in the morning, Aug 6, 1974, Em, Ted and I took off on mine and Ted’s first plane trip. Ted doubted for a few minutes if we were going to clear the fence on the east end of the runway at Sky Harbor but we made it and then settled down to a very smooth and exciting trip. We were hardly in the air until they brought us our breakfast. Then the pilot was telling us we were over Roosevelt Dam and lake.

I was the object of quite a lot of kidding because I love to keep my feet on the ground. Everyone expected me to fall apart and probably back out I guess, but I fooled them all. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a very smooth ride, no turbulence at all. I was thankful for that. We were flying pretty high and there were a few clouds low on the ground so it looked like little patches of now from the air. It was that way most of the way, so we didn’t see much. It was 3 hours from Phoenix to Chicago. We landed a little early so we met Jay as we were getting our baggage. I was so happy to see all of them. The children had grown so. It was a happy time. They made us so comfortable. Jay and Marlene gave us their room. They did everything they could to make it a pleasant time. The next day was my birthday and Em took us all out to a nice place to eat.

We did a lot of sight seeing. Sometimes Marlene and the children went and sometimes they stayed home. Ted wanted to see Whitneys store. A place he had ordered parts from. He expected it to be a big fancy place but he was rather disappointed when it turned out to be rather small and as Ted said “crummy”. Em had talked a lot about Maxwell Street, so they boys wanted to go there. As Em remembered it, it was a short street where everyone brought their wares out on the street and everyone was contending for your business. He told of going there early in the morning and if you were a Jew’s first customer they wouldn’t let you get away without buying even if they had to come down in price to almost give it away. But sad to say Maxwell Street had changed. It was the slum of slums. We didn’t stay long. Ted said we were lucky we didn’t get our throat cut. We didn’t have Marlene or the children when we went there, thank goodness. We did have them with us when we went to the Sears building. It had just been completed and at the time was the tallest building in the U.S. 110 stories. We went up on the observation deck and we could see out over the whole city. It was quite a sight. We also had lunch while we were there. It was a marvelous building. What seemed so odd to me was it was built right on the Chicago River. There wasn’t even a block in between. We saw the EL. We drove down Lake Shore Drive, saw the Lake and Marshall Fields. Jay wanted to drive down to Gary, Indiana. Em had lived and worked there a good part of his life but Em said “no” it was too far. I could tell he was getting tired and he wouldn’t give up and rest a day. He had to be doing something all of the time. One of the things I had promised before we left home was that I would come home when he wanted to. We only stayed three days but they will be days I shall always remember. The traffic there was unbelievable. I marveled how Jay and Marlene co-operated in driving. That was one time when back seat driving paid off. It was like having four eyes.

One thing I found interesting there was the forest preserves. Places where they must let things grow naturally. They didn’t seem to have the weeds there that we have. I wanted to go in to one of these places, so the day we were to leave we took a picnic lunch and ate there then we left in the early afternoon.

While we were in Chicago (Lyons) there was a lot going on in the nations capital. The Watergate scandal had just broken and I will never forget the morning of the day we were to come home, Marlene came into the bedroom and said, Nixon is going to resign. We rushed to the TV and watched him leave the Capitol. It was quite an experience.

Marlene and the children went with Jay as he took us to the airport. We boarded the plane. It was a much bigger plane than the one we came on, a 747 jet, which was about the biggest. We waited and waited to start. Then we were told something needed fixing before we could take off and it would be a few minutes. Then they told us we had lost our place in the take off line and we would have to wait awhile longer. All in al it was an hour before we took off. Jay and Marlene were waiting to see us take off and I was wondering what they were thinking. It was interesting though when we got in the take off line. There were all kinds of planes in the line, little, big and in between. One took off every few seconds. When we finally got in the air the pilot told us there was a thunderstorm in the midwest so we would go directly south and then over Texas to miss the storm. On the way home I saw one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. We were served our dinner soon after take off; then since the plane was so large and all the seats weren’t taken we could move around and sit where ever we liked. I chose a window and we came into these beautiful clouds. We were above them yet they were so close. As a child I had watched the cummulus clouds form and wished I could be right in the midst of them. I sure came close on this trip. They were so white and beautiful. They seemed to form in long columns, all white and fluffy and then there would be a dark one. It looked like it held a lot of rain. This lasted nearly the whole trip. Then the clouds cleared and we could see cities. Hardly a showing from where we were. In New Mexico we went through some clouds. It was like being in fog. There was no turbulence however and the ride home was as smooth as the one going. We were an hour late getting in and everyone was a little disturbed at having to wait. Madge and family and Florence and Joe and Bertha. John wanted to take us out to Chinese dinner. We had already had our dinner on the plane but we went along. It was delicious and we enjoyed it. And then home. It was a very exciting three days.