Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Flying Fun

Blog about your most memorable flight or other form of transportation. Was it your dream trip or nightmare journey?

1963

I flew to the Panama Canal Zone. Actually, my destination was a USA Air-force Base outside of Panama City. I was traveling with my 9-month old son. He sat in my lap the whole way. It was a two day journey. We flew two commercial flights to South Carolina. Stayed over night in an Air Force Base Hotel. Then on day 2 caught an early morning flight from there to Panama on a MAT plane..

On the commercial flights my son Ricky entertained me by watching out the window. We had window seats on both planes. He watched the clouds and patted the window when he saw the ground below us at times. Sometimes, whatever he was looking at excited him he would jump up and down and crow baby words.

One of the problems with the trip was having to carry him, the diaper bag stuffed with everything a baby needs for couple weeks, and a small carry bag of my own with legal papers for traveling out of the country. Day 1 we arrived in Charleston South Carolina and were transported by taxi to the Air-force base hotel. We arrived to late to go to the base cafeteria for food so I dived into the baby's bag and ate animal crackers and water for dinner. Next morning early base taxi took us to our flight.

It was actually really nice. Military Air Transport hauled cargo and supplies to different bases {at that time}. On a flight with other military families we sat on benches along both walls of the aircraft.

There was actually a flight attendant. A young airman. He distributed sandwiches, which we had to eat before we disembarked, because of regulations, about bringing food into the country. No one mentioned baby food, which I carried in my diaper bag. So, when I disembarked it went with me. He also apologized for the seating arrangements explaining that it was necessary because the aircraft also hauled crates and other items between passenger flights. Planes moved on and off the bases quickly which made the changing of special passenger seats impractical for cargo changes.

Between the commercial flight and the Mat flight. I probably appreciated the Mat flight more. I was with other wives and children going to Panama to live with their husbands and fathers. I remember one woman was traveling with 3 small active children. We talked about common experiences of travel and our children. It was something I remember but, I have lost some of the particulars, like how long the flight was at the time. I doubt these kinds of flights are exactly the same after all these years. When we were evacuated because of the riots I was upset at the short time of stay. We had anticipated being in Panama for at least a year. I liked the climate and the city. It was one of my life adventures.