What do I remember about the 1964-65 World’s Fair that opened in Flushing Meadow, Queens, 50 years ago today?
Belgian waffles.
The DuPont pavilion where a scientist, or maybe just a well trained actor, poured a clear liquid from one flask into another, turning the fluid into a different color, the hue of which I cannot recall.
A talking, walking Abraham Lincoln in the Illinois State pavilion, the handiwork of Disney audio-animatronics engineers.
More Belgian waffles.
Floating in the It’s a Small World ride, another Disney creation.
Even more Belgian waffles, which is to say, I don't remember too much else about the fair. I think I visited it twice, first on a class trip, which explains the Belgian waffles—coming from an Orthodox Hebrew high school, I couldn't eat an unkosher hot dog or some other treyf (that's Yiddish for unclean, unfit to be eaten) in front of my classmates. Eating Belgian waffles surely was no abomination. Who, after all, doesn't like waffles and ice cream?
