4 replies to this topic

[PrimoFairFan]

I'm one of those 'leading edge" boomers who grew up in Queens during the '50s. During the summers of '62 and '63; not yet licensed, I rode shotgun with my older brother as we commuted in his '57 Ford into the City to where we each worked. I always looked forward to passing the site of the future NYWF. I also remember the many roadway widening projects that were taking place in anticipation of the major uptick in traffic when the Fair would finally open. I was in high school in the early '60s - attended Aviation HS in Long Island City and graduated just a few weeks after the Fair's opening day.

Have a very good recollection of seeing one of the Chrysler turbine cars on Queens Blvd, heading eastbound around 36th or 37th St. one weekday afternoon about 3pm. This would've been a couple-three weeks before the Fair opened. Then in early or mid-May of '64, I became one of about 600 AHS seniors who got on the el at Rawson St. one weekday morning and spent "Senior Day" at the WF. It was the first of what would be at least a dozen visits during the Fair's life. I can close my eyes and still picture myself standing with a friend on line outside the Ford Pavillion, eyeing a '641/4 Mustang.

Like so many others I've met in the last 46 years, the Fair became a defining event in my life. My life interests were always technically focused and I spent a number of years in process engineering...but thanks to the Fair instilling a sense of marketing in me, it was not too many years before I turned my sights toward marketing and technical sales.

Over the years, I've had many reminders of the NYWF. Periodic visits to NY on business or to visit family would have me driving past or flying over Flushing Meadow. On a visit to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis in 2005, I was surprised to see one of the 55 turbine cars produced by Chrysler. No indication if this was one of the cars used at the NYWF (or the one I saw on Queens Blvd. 41 years earlier). The information book from the museum notes that 46 of the 55 $50K cars were destroyed. Six were donated to museums and Chrysler retained three. The one in St. Louis is the only operational one on public display.

With the passing of time, the World's Fair has become more and more meaningful to me. We grew up with a sense of unbridled optimism (and in spite of what so many of the Monday morning quarterback / World's Fair detractors have had to say), it instilled a sense of "can do" in us. To that end, we could use a good dose of that kind of optimism once more.

I've so greatly enjoyed the diligent work that so many of you have displayed in these pages and elsewhere. Your love of the Fair is so evident and manifested by your lifetime of collecting pieces of our history...our lives. Not only have you given me back a wonderful time of my life...you've allowed me in a sense, to go back and appreciate with new eyes, that which the immature eyes of an 18-19 year old could not properly assimilate. For that you have my deepest gratitude. May your lives continue to be richly blessed.

Les

[Bill Cotter]

Nicely said, Les. Welcome!!

[EPCOT Explorer]

Welcome, and excellent story!

[Doug Seed]

Yup, welcome, Les! You'd be surprised by how many of us wrote similar essays about our World's Fair memories and the profound effect the Fair had on our lives... and, later on, how the discovery of this forum and our "mothership" www.nywf64.com and www.worldsfairphotos.com have fed our souls over the last decade.

Before I even knew of Bill young's nywf64.com website, and before I had discovered this forum... and even before I had the reawakening of the fire in my heart about the 1964 fair, coincidentally, my sister had written and submitted HER World's Fair Memories to nywf64.com.

Memories of the 1964 World's Fair, by Katherine Khalife
My link

[Mike Kraus]

Super essay! Welcome, Les.