A recent drive along Quebec St. in Denver past the old Stapleton
Airport, triggered a flood of fond childhood memories. A McDonald's
restaurant and a shopping center now sit in the place where United
used to park their old retired DC-8’s with their tails sticking out
over the fence. A Home Depot store now stands in place of the large
United Airlines hangar.
On a gray, cloudy day in the summer of 1978, at the age of 12, I got
my courage up and boarded the #38 RTD bus with “AIRPORT” on the
destination sign. I was so scared being by myself as the bus
traveled through some of the worst parts of the city for the hour
long trip. It was so exciting for me to see the first glimpse of the
tails of the old DC-8’s through the front of the bus as it neared
the airport. Getting off the bus, I recall hearing the airplanes, the
smell of jet fuel and hurrying into the terminal to see the airplanes
on the other side. I walked for hours through the terminal and the
concourses, watching the airplanes and all the activity. To me
this was more fun than an amusement park.
Friends would come with me on later trips, and together we explored
almost every publicly accessible place in the airport. It became
routine after awhile, and we started searching for other things to
do, like picking up the white paging telephone and asking them to
page someone with a fictitious name. “Mr. Dover, Mr. Ben Dover,
please come to a white paging telephone”. We were always checking
for coins in a bank of pay phones. We would dare each other to walk
past the Hare Krishna's. They were so aggressive at begging for
money.
At the bottom of the control tower there was a black telephone call
box and we dared each other to open the box and pickup the phone.
Each of us took a couple of turns going over to the box and opening
it to see what was inside, then turning back scared.
Eventually, we both picked up the phone and it started ringing.
We asked the man who answered if they ever allowed tours of the
tower. He never really answered the question, but the lock on
the door started buzzing and he said “take the elevator to the
third-floor”. My heart was racing as we got on the elevator and
pressed three. The elevator doors opened to a man standing in the
hallway. He said “we really don't have tours here, but I can
show you around if you like”. He took us down the short
hallway and into a darkened room which was the approach control radar
room. We stayed awhile as he explained everything that was going on
in there. It was so cool to see all of the airplanes on the radar
screen. This was exciting enough, but then the man brought over
a couple of headsets and said put these on. We plugged in, and got to
sit with one of the controllers. I can’t explain how exciting
this was for me to sit and listen in with the controller in front of
the radar screen. I lost track of time in there and soon it was
time to go. The man took us back to the elevator and I thought he was
escorting us to the door, but instead, he took us to the top floor.
We took a few steps and climbed a spiral staircase up into the tower
cab. There was an amazing view from there. The man again explained
everything that was going on. I remember the controllers were
very busy, and down below, you could see airplanes, vehicles and
people going in all directions. As we left, rode down the
elevator, and out the door, I recall a feeling, kind of like shock
and disbelief about we had just seen and done. As it turned out, this
was the first of many more exciting adventures to come over the next
few years.
Another airport trip with a friend marked the beginning of some of
the most enjoyable and memorable visits to the airport. We were
walking along the concourse and stopped to watch the arrival of the
Continental 727. We watched as the gate agent opened the door
for the arriving passengers. A crowd of passengers came through
the door and into the terminal. As the last few passengers were
coming out, the door was still open and my friend and I dared each
other to walk down the "Jetway" ramp. Well, we did,
and when we got to the bottom, there was a pilot in the doorway and
we asked him if we could come on and look at the cockpit. He said
“sure, come on and have look”. He showed us all around the
cockpit, answered all our questions and even allowed us to sit in the
pilots seat. This was just awesome. And so began another set of
adventures. Through trial and error we perfected the art of
getting aboard airplanes. We learned to avoid the gate agents, and
always go straight through to the flight crew. Once we stayed too
long and they started closing the door! We almost went along for the
ride to Houston. After awhile, it became such routine that I
would even go by myself. It was quite an educational experience going
aboard just about every type of airplane from each of the airlines.
Almost all of them would allow me to sit in the pilots’ seat and
ask all kinds of questions. Continental and Frontier crews were the
nicest and most friendly and United crews were the least friendly
and, it was more difficult to go aboard United airplanes. At
12-13 years old, it was a privilege to get to do that and meet so
many interesting people.
Carrying a discarded boarding pass was often useful is gaining access and avoiding questions.
In all of these visits there was only one time when there was
trouble. I was by myself sitting in a waiting area where there
were also some baggage handlers sitting there on break. One of
them was staring at me and when I looked over a second time he winked
and started raising his eyebrows at me. I never had anything
like that happen to me before and it made me uncomfortable so I got
up and started walking away. The guy got up and started
following me and when I looked back he started winking again. I
didn't know what child molesters were back then, but I knew this guy
was up to no good. I started walking faster and got into the
largest crowd I could find. I told my mom and dad, all about it,
but I was afraid they wouldn't let me go back to the airport by
myself again. I'm glad they did
It's really unfortunate that the terrorism acts have resulted in a
loss of so much freedom in our lives and opportunities like these
will never return. It's also sad that the old airport was torn down
and shopping centers, neighborhoods and warehouses now take its
place. I will continue to cherish the fond memories of that long lost
era. SA (keenbug)