I have, amongst my archives, a large supply of correspondence between my mother and her parents, across many years of their lives. They were great correspondents, writing at least weekly, and daily when one or the other correspondent was traveling abroad. Which, to my pleasure, I have learned my mother did quite a bit between the ages of 16 and 23 (when she was in college and then graduate school). These trips took her across Europe and into the Middle East.

From 1958, I found this enticing gem where she is writing from Tel Aviv

Just a quick letter (I’m not sure it’ll arrive before I do) to tell you that under no circumstances are you to meet me at the airport. I want to take the helicopter to finish off my trip, so I’ll telephone to tell you when I leave O’Hare, and you can come to Meigs. So please don’t come to O’Hare.

Helicopter, I think to myself? Is she an investment banker flitting from Manhattan to Jersey? No, apparently there was a regular shuttle service between the three Chicago Airports – the Chicago Helicopter Airways, which apparently used the Sikorsky S-58 to shuttle passengers around.

Fascinating.