"Yes, I, too, miss the giant polar bear," wrote Joan Williams. "Another thing I miss is standing by the windows and getting to watch the planes depart and arrive.

"Way back, when I was a single mom of six little ones, my oldest son (who was 8-9) loved airplanes. Since I had little (read "none") money for entertaining the kids, I searched out free places we could go. One of those was the airport. We'd pretend we were on a big adventure.

"The kids were in awe of the conical-shaped building with its high pointy ceiling. Then we'd walk up the big ramps to all the windows. They'd get so excited when they spotted a plane coming in. And, of course, the littlest ones were afraid to approach the huge, white bear. It's a shame we've lost those opportunities."

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