Milford chronicle., 1961-12-22
Hobby Was Full
Of Happy Landings

WASHINGTON (AP) = 'Some-
times I'd tell myself, You're get
ting too old for this
I'D ask myself what in the heck
was doing"
The speaker was Wayne Par
rish, "a, publisher of "a vi a i n
periodicals, talking about his self
assigned task of visiting every con-
tinental United States airport serv-
ed by a scheduled airline-alf $50
of them.
He has now completed the mis-
sion, one that on one else is
known to have attempted and few
could afford. 1t took him Is years.
In the course of wrapping up the
~eoord, Parrish has flown into and
out of 54 airports Tin addition to
the 500 that did have scheduled
service, but have it no longer. And
in all the flying, landings and
takeoffs, Parrish says he has never
known an emergency of any kind.
Parrish, short, chunky man
with a generous attitude toward
spending, recalls that as a youth
in Decatur, ILL.,, studying the
schedules of the Wabash Railroad,
he was fascinated by timetables.
Now, in the three editions of his
Official Airline Guide-the North
American, Worldwide and Quick
Reference editions-h publishes
all the airline schedules in the
world, 'even c1uding the
Chinese"
Parrish also is publisher of six
magazines, a mimeographed air.
mailed news sheet and the AMeri-
can. Aviation Directory.
His first hobby, as a boy, was to
visit every state capital.
Achieving this, he started visit
ing every U. S. city Of $4,000 pop
ulatiOn or more.
In New York City he developed a
hobby of travelling over every inch
of the 221 miles of subway and
elevated rail system. 81 never quite
finished that one," he says.
He conceived the idea of visiting
u. S. airports in 1916 when the
Civil Aeronautics Board set up the
local service airline system to pro-
vide scheduled service to all areas
of the country.
Initially there were only 200 to
$50 such airports, and the task did
not seem so great
"But the CAB kept certifying
new points for service-u sually
five new places at time--and |
90 FOL Loh Dc iey,
calls.
Three years ago l seemed to be
catching up, and then-in a seven
states case-the board certified a
huge batch of new ones.
''That decision threw me for a
loss, and sometimes l got dis
cOuraged.
"I'd be up at 5 am. sometimes
and fly until IL at night. / missed
a lot of meals-on many local
flights there is no food service |
And sometimes I'd find myself sit
ting in terminal, waiting hours
for a connection"
1t was at such dreary moments, |
he said, that he questioned wheth- |
er there was any reason for going |
on.
But he had lot of fun, too. AS |
word of Parrish's undertaking |
spread throughout the airline
world, he began to receive official !
welcomes at new stops on his list. |
Chambers of commerce would |
give him luncheons; city officials
brought souvenirs. He collected
"a lot of loot"-much of it in the
form of pancake flour, corn sam
pies, maple syrup. At Fayetteville,
Ark, frozen foods company met
him with a plate of hot chicken.
Last summer Parrish suddenly |
realized his goal was almost with
in reach. He stepped up the pace |
of his program.
mile swing by way of Minneapolis, |
Denver and New Orleans, he hit
five out Of seven targeted airports
-Marshfield, Wis, on North Cen
trail Airlines; Hays and Goodland,
Kan, on Central: Morgan City,
La, on Trans-Texas; and Pasca-
goula, Miss, on Southern.
On 3,157-mile flight the last
week in August Parrish finally
added Kirksville, Mo-, to his list,
along with Fort Leonard Wood,
Mo-, and Columbus, Ind, a Lake
Central Airlines stop.
Morgantown, W. Va, was no.
$40 on the list. Parrish hit no. $50
Sterling, Colo.-Sept II on a
flight of less than an hour from
Denver.
The round-trip fare was $15.40.
Because this kind of a hobby is
getting much too expensive" he
took advantage of a weekend ex-