Speaking of Pepperridge Farms Remembers, they've always been busy. Metropol is my favorite local. Has been since I was a kid; by my teens I would drive with my dad after school and we'd dine in at the location by the airport. They keep expanding all over the metro. I used to have my folks freeze me some congrí con pechuga de pollo y tostones, and USPS me that goodness overnight when I moved away for college to ATL (late 90s). It was also my first stop after getting out the plane during college breaks. Honorable mentions to AirTran and ATA, which would get me home from ATL when mother-D got too expensive for this broke college kid. I'll never forget flying ATL-SJU on an ATA TriStar one time, ridiculous overkill, oh but those leisurely load factors, what a comfy ride lol. Say what you will, life was great back then, everything just went to pot since 9/11. Thanks bin laden.

Regarding Executive Airlines, those ATRs in Eagle livery were also a staple of my childhood memories growing up. They always had them parked on the west end of the north ramp, so it was the first thing you saw through the fence driving in. I used to daydream I'd grab a couple IDTs (they call them paycards) at the guard and fly an F-16 sortie with the home unit, then do milk runs in an Eagle ATR the rest of the week. All in my backyard, next to the ones I love and miss the most. That was my 15 year old version of livin' the dream.

Alas, vipers were gone by '98 and airline domiciles have never lasted there either. So I had to "grow up" and join the legions of begrduged economic transplants up here to white-knuckle the Lost Decade. These days ATL/CLT is probably about as close I'll ever get to home, given MIA cost of living non-starter these days, and my anglo wife's lack of Spanish fluency and unwillingness to take a pay cut as a nurse down there. My username checks....