Pilawt Wrote:
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> I grew up in La Mirada in the late 1950s/early
> 1960s. I remember wondering, as I walked home
> from school, why my chest hurt when I took a deep
> breath. In 1968 as I was driving to college at UC
> Irvine, I once had to pull over to the side of the
> Santa Ana Freeway because my eyes were hurting and
> watering too much to continue.
>
> I learned to fly at the Fullerton Airport in 1967.
> Many times lessons were delayed as we waited for
> the controllers in the tower to turn off the
> airport beacon, indicating that visibility had
> "improved" to three miles, the minimum for visual
> flight rules. The controllers were probably
> optimistic in their observations, as flight
> visibility, especially toward the setting sun,
> sure looked less than three miles. They were
> probably bored, too.
>
> Yeah, the smog was much worse then.

Seriously. That photo makes my eyes water and my chest hurt just looking at it. But things were SO GOOD back then when we didn't have all those annoying smog rules and controls. So good.