I can’t write about Midway without thinking of O’Hare.

Relatively late to the Midway party, I first used it just after I turned 20. But O’Hare was a different story altogether. My first flight out of ORD took place when I was just two months old.

O’Hare was located closer to my home and offered more choices than Midway before deregulation.

I still love driving under this bridge at O’Hare while planes taxi above. This United 747 resembles the planes I boarded at O’Hare during my teens when I traveled to Seoul or to the west coast with the eventual destination of Auckland.

My mom worked in United ‘s corporate headquarters for a couple years in the mid-80s, conveniently just as United acquired Pan Am’s Pacific routes. When I was 15, I was traveling in and out of O’Hare on my own, visiting friends and relatives in other US cities. I learned the back roads of the vast network of remote parking lots like most teens learn the ins and outs of shopping malls. I spoke a special language for flying standby with an employee pass. Best of all, I flew first class.

This postcard reminds me of those two special years in my mid-teens.