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TO A FUTURE WORLD  Water-skiers ride the man-made waves at the Memorial Stadium in Seattle during the 1962 World's Fair. |
By KENT HOLSATHER
of TheColumnists.com
During the months leading
up to the 1962 Century 21 World’s Fair in Seattle, WA, we
spent a considerable amount of time visiting relatives living
in Montlake Terrace. During several of our stays, our cousins
would drive us down Aurora and into Seattle proper to check on
the construction of the Space Needle.
Coming around Queen Anne Hill, we were always filled with the anticipation of seeing how much taller the structure would be compared to our previous excursions and we were never disappointed. It seemed to grow as fast as a weed on steroids out of the dusty construction site that surrounded it and, at one point, sported a small and precariously perched work shack at the very top.
There was a large construction crane that
sat in the middle of the structure and it was extended higher
as the Needle got taller. To this day I remember tiny dots of
workers clinging to the girders hundreds of feet in the air and
realizing the shear guts it took for so many workers to make
an architect’s dream a reality.
The fair opened that April but we didn’t visit until August.
Our dad had two weeks of vacation and he always took them in
August to coincide with fishing trips. He shoe-horned in our
trip to the fair that summer to kill two birds with one stone,
so-to-speak.
We showed up bright and early on the first Saturday of August
to get tickets but we weren’t alone. The fair brought in
over 10 million visitors and I believe at least half of them
showed up during the first week of August. We weathered the lines
until we were finally able to cross over into the 21st Century,
carried along by a throng of people that reminded me of cattle
being herded up a draw in an old Saturday afternoon western matinee.
My dad, being the pragmatist that he was, led the charge straight
to the Washington State Coliseum and the World of Tomorrow exhibit
that occupied its innards. His thought was to hit the popular
exhibits first and pick up the second-tier shows later in the
day. I had personally thought that the Gayway and its rides should
have been first on the docket but I wisely kept my mouth shut.
Inside the Coliseum we joined yet another line that took us to
a large elevator disguised as a giant Plexiglas ball that held
a couple of dozen fairgoers. It was controlled by an operator
who stood on a raised platform while wearing a futuristic uniform.
When the “Bubbleator” was full, the door was sealed
and we were lifted up a couple of stories into the realm of cubes
and pathways that would lead us through the advances of science
from the earliest of times.
We departed the Bubbleater and made our
way down a long and winding trail that took us past projections
and sounds that enhanced our appreciation of things past, present,
and future. At the end of the walk, we found ourselves down at
the bottom of the cubed complex, inspired and ready to try a
new type of treat introduced to the United States during the
fair. It was called a Belgian waffle.
After gorging on waffles with whipped cream and strawberrie.
we decided to take in the World of Science Pavilion. The Pavilion
buildings were gleaming white and were designed by Minoru Yamasaki,
who later became the architect of the World Trade Center.
The Pavilion was divided into several buildings
that housed different disciplines of science. One section focused
on behavior and learning. One example used pigeons picking at
certain colored lights to get a bit of food. The pigeons were
quick learners and I remember thinking to myself that there were
a couple of friends in school who would have probably starved
if put in the same situation.
After taking in the science exhibits and Spacearium, we headed
over to take in the Tommy Bartlett water skiers at the Memorial
Stadium. A water trough had been erected around the football
field in much the same way as an eight lane track would have
been laid out. It was as wide as a track but it had walls that
held around four or five feet of water. We sat in the stands
as pyramids of skiers flashed by. They were being pulled by a
runabout at high speed and it occurred to me that a tumble over
the side of the trough at 30 miles per hour could have had detrimental
effects.
While the skiers were doing their thing, tightrope walkers were
traversing the stadium from roof top to roof top on a high wire,
and a foul-up on their part would have been significantly worse
than the skiers.
The afternoon was spent checking out some of the smaller pavilions
such as the Bell telephone exhibit with their newfangled touch
tone phones and remote paging devices.
Later in the day I finally got my wish when we ventured into
the Gayway, the amusement sector of the fair that most resembled
a state fair in the types of rides it offered. At my insistence,
we took a spin on the Wild Mouse, a ride that featured small
vehicles raced along on an elevated track loaded with sharp 90
degree turns and unexpected drops. It would be a forerunner to
rides like Space Mountain in Disneyland and other extremely jarring
rides that would spring up around the country.
By the end of the day, we had seen just about everything except
the adult shows. It was time to pack it in and head home. I wouldn’t
attend another World’s Fair until Expo 86 in Vancouver,
Canada. Expo was a great fair but I was 36 years old and a lot
more cynical.
Century 21 was the beginning of a 12-year-old's venture beyond the city limits of a small town and the limited mores that he was exposed to there. The Seattle World’s Fair helped push me out the front door and into the world.
©2012 by Kent Holsather. This column first posted Jan. 16, 2012.
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