KATRINA MEDOFF
NYC Parks’ World’s Fair Anniversary Festival, which will be held in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park on Sunday, May 18, will bring to Queens a day of food, rides, live entertainment and World’s Fair memorabilia.
In the meantime, many of our readers have been sharing their fond memories of the 1964-65 World’s Fair with The Queens Courier.
“I remember walking to the Fair from my house in Forest Hills,” said Marc Young, who was 12 at the time. “My friend, Richard Lerman, and I would spend the entire day at the Fair going on the rides and seeing shows and exhibits.”
They would take $10 or $12 with them to spend all day at the fair, Young said, but one day, they ran out of money.
“We were hungry and wanted dinner, but we didn’t want to go home,” Young said. “Luckily, we met up with some classmates at the Chun King restaurant. They had a dinner plate for 99 cents. My friend, Susan Katz, loaned us money so we could eat.”
So Young and Lerman stayed at the fair to go on the Ford Motor Company ride, which usually had a long line. “You got to sit in a car, and it went through the history of car making,” Young remembered. “Everyone wanted to go on it, since it was an actual ride and everyone liked those things.”
Young and his friend had to wait until 9 p.m. to get on the ride, and by the time the ride was over and they had walked back to the main gate, the kids’ dads were there with two police officers.
“It was going toward 10 o’clock and we had been there since 10 in the morning,” Young said. “They were waiting there getting ready to search for us.”
Young recalls that “The walk home was a little longer that night!”
Reader John Dallal of Howard Beach, N.Y., submitted a poem about his World’s Fair experience:
I loved the World’s Fair!
It was awesome! I was there…
And, truthfully, can attest
That, for me, it was the best
For a young mind to explore
What the future had in store.
Futurama, by GM,
Was a ride that turned a bend…
To display for searching eyes
A look beneath tomorrow’s skies.
And the Vatican display
Of the Pieta made my day
More enhanced. And, now, for me
There’s a lovely memory
Of a place: a joy! a treat-
One I wish I could repeat!
But I’m glad I got to know,
Without match, such a wondrous show!
At the time of the fair, Dallal lived in Bellerose, and was 18.
He, like many of our readers, remembers Disney’s Carousel of Progress in the GM pavilion, where he “sat in a seat seeing what was in the future,” he said. Dallal believes that the World’s Fair was the first time he saw a push-button telephone.
Dallal’s wife, Mary Ann, also has memories of the fair. Like many World’s Fair visitors, “my wife remembered the Belgian waffles,” Dallal said.
“I do have fond memories from that time,” Dallal said. “I was hoping they were going to repeat it. But I was just happy to be a part of it.”
WORLD’S FAIR SUBMISSIONS CALL
Did you or someone you know attend the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park?
If yes, The Queens Courier is asking you to share your memorabilia and/or memories with us to commemorate the event’s 50th anniversary this April. You could win a dinner for two.
Please email your entries to editorial@queenscourier.com with the subject line “World’s Fair Anniversary” or to Editorial, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361.
Note: All photos/items become property of The Queens Courier.
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