I don't know if any of you feel the same way about Airways as I do.In the time just before Airways, the city proposed a school to be built next to Charjean Park where an abandoned apple orchard stood. The neighborhoods around Charjean Bethel Grove and Cherokee were all a buzz with two camps, ones for the school and some against. My parents were for the school and some of their friends were against it. I couldn't understand what was so wrong with the city building us a school so we wouldn't have to go all the way to Fairview. I would have been proud to have been a Trojan, my brother went there and he was a star athlete and was great at everything. I was always being reminded of that fact. You see it was hard for me to live up to what he had accomplished. I wasn't him and I didn't have his skills, but I knew that someday I would find my way and this new school, Airways could help me find it. I don't know how it was at Bethel Grove or Cherokee, but at Charjean we had out buildings like you saw in POW camps in the movies for the over flow from the seventh and eighth grade students. I know they would have loved to have been in the new school as soon as possible. I was going to be honored with being one of the first students to go from seventh grade through the 9th grade at Airways. There wouldn't be any teachers that knew my brother and I

could make my own way. I went by it every day while it was being built from the first stake in the ground to the last brick and I couldn't wait. I knew it would be something special, something to be proud of. This school was state of the art compared to any school in Memphis Tn. at that time. It had air conditioning and an auditorium that most high schools would have died for. We also had a band room that was built for a band, an industrial arts shop that would have been good enough for commercial use. The intercom system was wired into the whole building and was two way. The sports complex was the best I had ever seen. Everything in this great big new school was so nice and it was ours. We were blessed beyond anything I could have imagined. I was so scared the first day of school. Would it be all I had hoped for and would the teachers like me, would I have friends there. What would I do if I didn't make any friends. We had already been practicing football for

about two weeks before school started and that helped me with my anxieties of the new adventures I was about to embark on. I was so proud of what we had, what we were privileged to have. Yes, I was proud of the building as well as everything we had in our new school. That wasn't all. There was so much more, the teachers, the people that worked the cafeteria and the custodians and my class mates. Maybe it was the magic of the times we were making together, or was it our community and our love for each other that made it so magical. The great friendships we had and, yes Ronnie Fields, the fights we had as well. I wish I knew what the thing was that made it so magical. I would bottle it and make it available to every child so they could have what we had. I know most of you are like me and will carry the memories of Airways and your time there to your last breath.