Day 52: Santa Monica Airport

I live in Southern Santa Monica, a few blocks away from Santa Monica Airport.  This private-plane airport is one of the defining landmarks in this neighborhood, giving Ocean Park it's character and charm.  Originally called Clover Field, after World War I aviator lieutenant Greayer "Grubby" Clover, the airport was the home of the Douglas Aircraft company.  The first circumnavigation of the world by air, accomplished by the U.S. Army with Douglas World Cruisers, took off from Clover Field on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1924, and returned there after some 28,000 miles.  The airport has two restaurants, and a nice little museum - the Museum of Flying.

My kids and I have always been fascinated by this place.  When they were little I sometimes drove to the end of Centinela, pulled up to the airport and Aidan and I just watched the planes take off and land while Beckett was asleep in his car seat.  As they got older they played in the playgrounds at Clover Park and Airport park.  Now they have baseball games and soccer tournaments here.  We take our dogs to the dog park.  We walk our dogs over to Clover Park and the kids can scooter or bike around.  Aidan, who is 11 and enjoying some new freedom, loves to take off with his friends to the park.  They scooter over, hang out, grab chips or a drink at the convenience store on Ocean Park and 28th street, and scoot back home.  Together, the boys and I like to bike over to the park, ride around the perimeter, stopping to admire the tiny planes that are parked along the north end of the airport.  There is something so romantic about these little single-engine planes.  I of course am thinking of Robert Redford, in all of his insane perfection, touching down to pop in on Meryl Streep at her plantation in Out of Africa, one of my favorite movies. How her heart lept when she heard that engine sputtering to a stop when he came to see her, and how her heart sank the day she waited and waited for that little plane to appear on the horizon.  He never made it back.

I have never taken off or landed here, nor do I intend to, as I have a deathly fear of these little planes.  My involvement at the actual airport itself has been limited to attending a Barney's New York sale, or an Adidas sale at the Barker Hanger.  Perhaps my favorite memory of the Barker Hanger is when Mark and I came here, must have been in the mid 90's, to se an INXS concert.  Great show, great band, great memory.