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World's Fair then and now, Passover
Apr. 11th, 2009 09:34 amSooooooo, the World's Fair!
Almost a week ago now, I went to the former World's Fair Grounds in Queens. Now it's. . . Flushing Meadows Corona Park? Huh? Flushing and Corona are involved in the name, I know that much. But yeah, there's a park/botanical gardens, apparently a zoo (a co-worker was like, "I heard there's a zoo there. There's a zoo in Queens?"), an art museum, and the HALL OF SCIENCE! The only remnants of the World's Fair are the Unisphere - a big steel model of the globe with topography! We walked under it and checked out Australia but it's on an angle (probably so you could see the US) so we really couldn't see Asia - except for the Himalayas popping up, which was awesome! And then the other remnant of the fair is those observation decks that were alien spaceships in Men in Black. But I don't think you can go up.
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ayamachi had mentioned that she was interested in going - possibly thinking that it would have more of an abandoned fairground feel than it does? And I was all "woo, park, adventure, science!" so we drafted twin!Katie and her boyfriend David, who live in Queens, and made a day of it. :D Well, afternoon.
And it was such a nice day! We got deli sandwiches and had a picnic, then wandered through the botanical gardens and the park - a bit weedy, but it's early in the season. But so warm out! I didn't even wear a jacket, it was great. And we dug up onion grass! This was a major occupation of recess during my elementary school years. Any time we wanted to play a game that involved eating or cooking, we had to dig up some onion grass. Not as easy as it sounds, because you need to get all the way down to the bulb.
Our final destination was obvious - the Hall of Science! I had fond memories of it as a kid.
( look, a courtesy cut! )
When I met my dad for lunch on Wednesday. . . Tuesday? Tuesday, Wednesday was Passover and dad wasn't in. Anyway, I told him what we'd been up to and he was telling me about his memories of the World's Fair! He said it was in the summers of '64 and '65, so he was 14 and 15.
The saddest story was about a time when he decided to call home to tell his mom that he was going to be coming home a bit late - that he was staying for the fireworks, which started at nine (he lived in Brooklyn and it's not easy to get there from Queens). So he calls home and it's like "Oh, thanks so much for calling!" And my dad realizes, "That's not my mom!" His mom had a Yiddish accent and stuff, so he could really tell. So he says, "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't think you're my mother, I dialed the wrong number." And the woman said, "Yeah. . . I figured. My son wouldn't call to let me know where he was." Awwwwww!! So sad! And then she was like "Say hi to your mother for me."
( all the other stories are funny )
The best thing, though, was the IBM booth. Apparently it was a giant egg, and my dad never actually got inside because he was more interested in being on line. They would give people on line printouts of the NY Times headline on any date they chose. But the first person in line had it projected on a screen of some sort. So he goes and he's first and he gives them July 1, 1860. And apparently because of some production problem, there was no New York Times that day! And it CRASHED THE WHOLE SYSTEM. XD Just freaked the thing out. So dad tells me "I went back another time and made sure I was at the front of the line, but by then they'd fixed it so it just said something like 'date unavailable'." And I was like "Ooh, cool. . . wait a minute! You gave them the same bum date?" XD To which my dad was just like "Of course!"
Anyway, I love stories from my parents' childhoods and don't get to hear enough of them, so it was really great.
Passover was also great! Lots of food and good times.( Read more... )
And this weekend it's Easter! I wrote "easy" just now. I'm tired. XD Anyway, I love Easter, although part of the reason is that during my childhood my family did this large-scale complex awesome Easter egg hunt. But now we're all grown up and scattered. Still, I get to see some family that I haven't seen in a while and I get to show Susan the old homestead. :D
And now it's time for breakfast. Why did I write this first? Dumb.
Oh, first - ::points at icon:: I was looking through Mojo magazine's 1969 special issue, and "The Band," which was the Band's second album, was one of their top albums. They described it as "uncharacteristic [of the year and time period] but arguably the most flawless." I was like HELL YEAH. It's so incredibly good. As an album, it's just. Spectacular. And they had all this other good stuff to say about the Band and I was happy. :D
Almost a week ago now, I went to the former World's Fair Grounds in Queens. Now it's. . . Flushing Meadows Corona Park? Huh? Flushing and Corona are involved in the name, I know that much. But yeah, there's a park/botanical gardens, apparently a zoo (a co-worker was like, "I heard there's a zoo there. There's a zoo in Queens?"), an art museum, and the HALL OF SCIENCE! The only remnants of the World's Fair are the Unisphere - a big steel model of the globe with topography! We walked under it and checked out Australia but it's on an angle (probably so you could see the US) so we really couldn't see Asia - except for the Himalayas popping up, which was awesome! And then the other remnant of the fair is those observation decks that were alien spaceships in Men in Black. But I don't think you can go up.
Anyway,
ayamachi had mentioned that she was interested in going - possibly thinking that it would have more of an abandoned fairground feel than it does? And I was all "woo, park, adventure, science!" so we drafted twin!Katie and her boyfriend David, who live in Queens, and made a day of it. :D Well, afternoon.And it was such a nice day! We got deli sandwiches and had a picnic, then wandered through the botanical gardens and the park - a bit weedy, but it's early in the season. But so warm out! I didn't even wear a jacket, it was great. And we dug up onion grass! This was a major occupation of recess during my elementary school years. Any time we wanted to play a game that involved eating or cooking, we had to dig up some onion grass. Not as easy as it sounds, because you need to get all the way down to the bulb.
Our final destination was obvious - the Hall of Science! I had fond memories of it as a kid.
( look, a courtesy cut! )
When I met my dad for lunch on Wednesday. . . Tuesday? Tuesday, Wednesday was Passover and dad wasn't in. Anyway, I told him what we'd been up to and he was telling me about his memories of the World's Fair! He said it was in the summers of '64 and '65, so he was 14 and 15.
The saddest story was about a time when he decided to call home to tell his mom that he was going to be coming home a bit late - that he was staying for the fireworks, which started at nine (he lived in Brooklyn and it's not easy to get there from Queens). So he calls home and it's like "Oh, thanks so much for calling!" And my dad realizes, "That's not my mom!" His mom had a Yiddish accent and stuff, so he could really tell. So he says, "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't think you're my mother, I dialed the wrong number." And the woman said, "Yeah. . . I figured. My son wouldn't call to let me know where he was." Awwwwww!! So sad! And then she was like "Say hi to your mother for me."
( all the other stories are funny )
The best thing, though, was the IBM booth. Apparently it was a giant egg, and my dad never actually got inside because he was more interested in being on line. They would give people on line printouts of the NY Times headline on any date they chose. But the first person in line had it projected on a screen of some sort. So he goes and he's first and he gives them July 1, 1860. And apparently because of some production problem, there was no New York Times that day! And it CRASHED THE WHOLE SYSTEM. XD Just freaked the thing out. So dad tells me "I went back another time and made sure I was at the front of the line, but by then they'd fixed it so it just said something like 'date unavailable'." And I was like "Ooh, cool. . . wait a minute! You gave them the same bum date?" XD To which my dad was just like "Of course!"
Anyway, I love stories from my parents' childhoods and don't get to hear enough of them, so it was really great.
Passover was also great! Lots of food and good times.( Read more... )
And this weekend it's Easter! I wrote "easy" just now. I'm tired. XD Anyway, I love Easter, although part of the reason is that during my childhood my family did this large-scale complex awesome Easter egg hunt. But now we're all grown up and scattered. Still, I get to see some family that I haven't seen in a while and I get to show Susan the old homestead. :D
And now it's time for breakfast. Why did I write this first? Dumb.
Oh, first - ::points at icon:: I was looking through Mojo magazine's 1969 special issue, and "The Band," which was the Band's second album, was one of their top albums. They described it as "uncharacteristic [of the year and time period] but arguably the most flawless." I was like HELL YEAH. It's so incredibly good. As an album, it's just. Spectacular. And they had all this other good stuff to say about the Band and I was happy. :D
