Memory

 My current home is about 25 miles from JFK and La Guardia,  but apparently we live under a flight path.  We often hear, and sometimes see, planes very close to the house. 

But this isn’t the closest I’ve lived to an airport,  Back in the 1990’s I had an apartment in Queens …

What you have to understand is that NYC’s two airports, JFK and La Guardia, are both located in Queens, JFK on the south shore and La Guardia on the north shore, about 11 miles apart.  If you’re at JFK and you want to go to La Guardia, you drive north on the Van Wyck Expressway ( Interstate 678) then west on the Grand Central Parkway, past Flushing Meadow Park and Citi Field, to arrive at La Guardia about 25 minutes after you left JFK — assuming there’s no traffic, of course.

Well, our apartment building overlooked the Van Wyck. (Is it Van Wick as in stick or Van Wike as in like? I’ve heard both.)  I’d say we were a bit less than halfway between the two airports, about 4 1/2 miles north of JFK.

If we looked out our living room windows we could see traffic on the highway.  If we were watching a Mets game and it started to rain at Shea Stadium,  we’d close our windows; the ballpark was about five miles north.

Citi Field was built in Shea’s parking lot. Here’s a photo taken during construction.

And if we sat on our 5th floor balcony and looked south we could see the control tower at JFK. We could see planes taking off and landing.

One time, then-President Clinton landed at JFK, and his motorcade came up the Van Wyck.  We waved from our balcony. 

And then there was the night when a plane crashed at La Guardia on takeoff, and all the first responders from JFK drove past our apartment, sirens blaring, to help.

I loved watching the planes in the distance.  But the planes never flew over us when we lived there.