My mother moved into a senior building that was vacant for 15 years. There are no windows in this building. You have to go outside to get fresh air. It gets very dusty here and a strange white film is always around. Can you really clean “Asbestos” out of a 16 story building that was vacant for 15 years. Or did they build this building expecting the life span of these tenants, seniors not to cause the owners a problem. My mother like most tenants are 72 years old?

When I was oh about 10 years old my friend Mark showed me a way to sneak out onto Lambert Airport. We snuck down along Coldwater Creek and ended up at the departure end of the active runway. It was the mid 60s and the Vietnam War was heating up so McDonnell Douglas was cranking out their Phantom F-4 fighter planes like crazy. I’d sat in the cockpits at Lambert when Dad took me over there for employees’ day and now we were on a sneak & peek mission to see them fly.

It was early evening so the blue lights on the runway looked kewl as we crept along the creek bank. We found a good spot in the high grass to lay and wait, keeping an eye out for any airport security trucks that would occasionally drive around the ramps and taxi ways looking for trespassers.

Several commercial jets went over us and it was kind of a rush, feeling the power of their engines so close, straining hard to lift the big planes. The noise was extreme and we both covered our ears. Then we heard the unmistakeable sound of a jet fighter taxiing to the runway. There was a local Air National Guard squadron and Mac that flew the Phantoms. We peeked over the high grass to watch the plane roll down the runway, 2 long yellow orange flames of fire pouring out the tail. It’s hard to describe an F-4 in full burner, it’s a sound all its own. It sounds like the air is tearing, you feel the rumble starting to build as the plane gets nearer and then, as the jet passes, you get this tremendous rumble in your guts. Mark called it the “burner shake” and shake we did. As soon as the first F-4 flew out of sight we started high fiving each other saying how kewl it was and hoping for some more to take off.

One night we had 2 Phantoms take off side by side, we both stood up and danced around like goofballs watching the glow of the burners fade in the sunset. Most of the Phantoms we saw on the runway were painted USAF green camo. Once in awhile we’d see a Navy or Marine version which were gray.

We never did get caught by airport security but we did get busted by a taxiing fighter pilot one day. We were late getting to our viewing spot and as we ran down the creek to get to our lookout the fighter was already at the end of the runway in position and holding. The tower was using the opposite departure due to the wind and the 2nd seater in the fighter saw us and pointed us out to the front seater. We waved and saluted and both pilots saluted back. It was 10 times better than a train horn blast from an engineer I thought.

The hard part was we couldn’t tell anyone, especially our Mom and Dad.

I lived on Cypress Rd in St. Ann (PHS class of ‘77) and many of my friends lived in Carrollton. Larry Hulsey, Mike Dew, Rick Wilson, Roger Pipes, Dawn Millfelt, Mark Young. After joining the USAF I would stop by the Carrolton Club for a beer with the buddies still living there.

My friend Bob Cline lived on Primghar up until the end, the tri level house where Cardinal Orlando Cepeda once lived.

I still can’t believe Carrollton is gone.

Here’s to Carrollton

I also had a fantastic childhood due in large measure to this planned community. Our family had a great deal of adversity due to my father’s illness at a young age. Yet despite extremely low income I was able to play tennis, swim, go to community day camp and blend with a host of professional and blue collar families. My 3 sisters and I have all obtained college and advanced degrees and live very good lives.

In my opinion, this community should be examined as one of the best examples of urban planning and partnering with builders. (Fisher and Fritchel I believe were the original developers of Carrollton)

With the advent of Facebook opening to us older populations, I was given this website by my friend Gayle. Thanks so much for doing this and I plan to be back to visit.