What to say about the World's Fair? Can I tell you what my favorite thing about it was? Impossible. There's just too much to take in and almost all of it is amazing. Everywhere you look you see the future.
The space park has rocket ships and capsules and this LEM thing that will land on the moon.
There's a monorail that will transform public transportation. Soon we'll be riding on trains suspended in the air!
General Motors shows everyone what the world will be like on their Futurama ride. People will be living under the sea, high up in the mountains and deep in the jungles in space-age houses and in colonies on the moon. We'll be riding on automatic highways that control the speed and safety of the cars. In a few decades the world will be an amazing place to live.
The Unisphere is a marvel to look at. It's a giant steel globe that seems suspended in mid-air; how did they get it to stand up?
There are movies everywhere on screens large and small, and in the Port Authority building the screen wraps around the whole theater, making you feel like you're in a helicopter flying all over and around New York City. There are models of new buildings that will go up and change the skyline in the next two years; most notably the World Trade Center and its twin towers. They will start to be built in 1966, after the fair is over.
We ride in convertibles in the Ford exhibit, traveling back in time to the dinosaur era. Giant brontosaurus, eating plants look down upon us, and some triceratops are watching their eggs hatch. Cavemen hunt woolly mammoths and risk being attacked by bears in their cave. These are all acted out by those audio animatronic robots built by Walt Disney, and they sure look real.
There are pavilions from all over the world and the United States, and from the major corporations and religions too.
Dad and Cherie in front of the Thailand Pavilion
You can ride in an auto assembly line at the Chrysler exhibit, and sit in a gondola on the Ferris wheel that looks like a giant US Royal tire.
There are more life-size replicas of dinosaurs in the Sinclair Oil Dinoland park, and Carl and I make plastic dinosaurs at a machine there.
We travel through time in the General Electric Carousel of Progress where a family of Disney robots tell us all about how electric appliances have made life easier from the 1800s on into the future.
Belgium has built an entire village, making it look like an entire town has been picked up and dropped into the park. Like a lot of others we eat Belgian Waffles for the very first time. They're not like the ones Dad makes us. They're huge and square and the impressions in them are deep and filled with strawberries. The whole thing is covered in whipped cream and dusted with powdered sugar. These things really fill you up!
Pepsi Cola has a ride through villages of children from all over the world singing a song called "It's A Small World After All". It's an assault on your senses, and it's one of those songs that drives you crazy 'cause you keep hearing it over and over again in your mind.
The IBM building looks like a giant egg made out of the letters I, B and M. You sit in a grandstand that shoots up into the building. The host comes down on a small platform, and you watch movies about computers and how they're going to change the world.
Cars are everywhere too. The new Ford Mustang and GM concept cars that look like space ships. Avis has replicas of antique cars and we drive some of those for fun. There's a German company that has a car that can go from the land and into the water and run like a boat, and the James Bond Aston Martin is on display for everyone to see.
Kodak has a giant screen on top of their building which looks like huge photographs, and the Port Authority building is shaped like a big T that's flat on top so helicopters can land there.
Traveller's Insurance Company has their building shaped like their big red umbrella, and inside is an exhibit called The Triumph of Man, showing how people have overcome adversity all through history.
There are fountains all through the park, and at night they light up, creating a fantastic display of light and movement.
We go to the Vatican Pavilion to see the Pieta, and for the first time I understand what a true work of art is. You stand on a moving sidewalk that takes you past the statue very slowly. The Pieta is surrounded by dark blue drapes. I'm astounded by how real it looks. It seems as if the stone has been brought to life. The hands of Michelangelo have transformed solid rock into human beings.
In the Illinois exhibit we get to see another Disney robot. This time it's Abraham Lincoln. At first he's sitting in a chair, but he actually stands up and talks to us, and then sits back down! Soon the world must be filled with robots doing all kinds of things.
There's so much to see. DuPont and the Wonderful World of Chemistry. The House of the Future. The Tower of Light. Bell Telephone and the picture phone that lets you see the person who's calling you.
All of the states and countries from around the world. My mind reels and we travel back and forth from the past and into the future.
Amusement rides and a wax museum. Food from all over the world and the country. My favorite part? I loved it all!
On the drive back home there's so much to think about and remember.
Dinosaurs and spaceships. Belgian Waffles and Danish ham sandwiches. Monorails, robots and computers, and telephones with movie screens. Movies of every shape and size.
The future is coming and I have seen it.
Just imagine, when I'm an adult, I could be living on the moon!
Dad says we're gonna go back.
Can't wait for the summer.
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