September 20, 2005 – 1965 World’s Fair

September 20, 2005 – 1965 World’s Fair

After meeting my future wife IM at the Page Two a bar in Long Beach on Long Island in the latter part of January 1965, I was intent on wooing her throughout the remaining four months before I was to be shipped to Japan for a year and a half tour of duty before I would be discharged from the U.S. Navy. IM had a room in a home in Valley Stream on Long Island, about six miles from where I lived in my room in a home in New Hyde Park. IM shared the upper floor of the house she lived in with OG, a lovely Puerto Rican woman of IM’s age. The two had become fast friends. The three of us had decided to spend a day in early may at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadow in Queens.

New York was well out of winter and it was a warm day, but I had chosen to wear a blue sports jacket over black slacks and a white shirt. IM was decked out in a pink sheath dress with a long lightweight red overcoat. Olga chose a beige sheath dress with lightweight beige overcoat. The three of us arrive a little before noon and spent the day wandering about the 646 acres of the fair grounds trying to visit as many of the 140 pavilions we could in a day. Large corporations sponsored most of the pavilions but there were 21 state pavilions and 36 foreign pavilions, one of which, the Spanish Pavilion, we had lunch. The one dish we shared was something resembling a Filipino dish called Adobo. It was at this Pavilion that I also bought IM a bottle of perfume that she probably still has among her things and a white lace Mantilla.

The fair had a two year run; from April 22 to October 18, 1964 and from April 21 to October 17, 1965—a total of 360 days. Along with 51 million other visitors we three walked the wide and long concourse lined with the flags of all the nations of the world leading up to the Unisphere. The symbol of the fair, the Unisphere still remains today. Located near the center of the fair, the 12-story high steel globe of the world was located at the Fountain of the Continents. The globe was constructed of rings of stainless steel supplied by U.S. Steel. The rings resembled lines of latitude and longitude. Laid atop the rings were the continents of the world; the oceans being left uncovered.

We toured the Bell Telephone pavilion where it was possible to make a videophone call to San Francisco and other major cities where kiosks were set up to allow those remote locations to call guests at the fair. The line to make a phone call was too long to wait. The General Electric and Westinghouse pavilions showed us all the modern conveniences that would remove all the drudgery from housework. I can’t remember which one of the two had the ages of appliances—those of the late 1800, the more modern one of the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s, and those of the future: ranges, refrigerators, washers and dryers. We also visited the Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler pavilions to see what cars we would be driving in the future.

I had fixed OG up with a blind date, CK, some time earlier. CK was one of the students at the school I was attending. There were six sailors and four engineers from Sperry all attending the Sperry factory school in New Hyde Park. We were all destined for ships that carried this equipment on board. CK and I had become friends and he had entrusted his car to me while he went back to his home in Michigan for a week. IM and I had transportation to take us wherever we wanted to go. One of the places we went was the Steak Pub—I can’t remember where on Long Island it was. It was a steak restaurant where you selected the steak you wished to have served for your main course from a chilled display case. Once selected you chose side dishes and your choice of dressing for the wedge of lettuce that was your salad.

When CK returned I had asked OG if she wanted to double date with us. CK was a handsome blond haired college guy with an outgoing personality. Though, I didn’t realize until we were out for the evening that he had the typical super male attitude toward women. I had learned the approach didn’t work, but he seemed intent on pursuing it in his interpersonal relationships. We had dinner, then took a drive and shortly thereafter called it a night. Our outing at the World’s Fair sans CK was a far more pleasant experience.