Ditto me a TMBG.
Vancouver 1986
Another '64 NYC attendee here. Stupid little shit that I was, while riding the Monorail, I got a glimpse of a regular carnival that was set up just out side, and wished I was there. Strong memories include the Pieta, and a troupe of acrobats(?) who would climb these evenly spaced flagpole-like poles and get them to swaying enough that they would swap poles. And when they were done, they slid down the poles headfirst. Probably a false memory- honking the horn on the Monorail.
I have home movies (shot by my dad) of me attending Expo 67 in Montreal.
1984 Louisiana. Our house was only 10 miles away.
New York, the summer of 1964. I went with my dad and older brother. We left Parkersburg, W Va, around 6:00 am and drove there in a station wagon. I think we spent most of that week in NYC.
Things I remember best: The Monsanto and Sinclair pavilions, Belgian waffles, contact lenses, spin-art paintings, videophones, the Unisphere. I had a special edition comic book in which the Flintstones visited the fair too.
I didn’t even know they did those things anymore. I was in Kazakhstan last year, and still had no idea that one is planned for there next year.
But I’m glad to know. If I’m going to be traveling, I can check and make sure there isn’t going to be one near where I’m going.
I’m not much of a fair-goer.I don’t thnk I’ve ever been to a state fair, although I think I might hve been at the Oregon state fair, way back when. I’ve been to the American Royal in Kansas City, and the Rand Show in Johannesburg, which is said to be the largest consumer exhibition in the world, outside of the United States.
My first job at 17 was at the Louisiana World’s Fair in 1984. I got the job so I could go whenever I wanted. Even though it suffered from bad publicity, it was amazing and I wished it would’ve stayed longer. I went every chance I got and went three hours before my shift started at the Italian Village each day so i could visit the fair before working.
I got to only New York’s in '64. Had a weekend off from my Class A Navy school at Bainbridge, MD, NTC so hit Flushing Meadows. Liked Bucky Fuller’s Geodesic dome. The next w/e I got to see Peter, Paul, & Mary at Baltimore Coliseum. Three weeks later I flew to France to spend almost 2 years sailing the Med. But I digress.
One thing about Montreal is that we stayed in a trailer; instead of building hotels to fill the demand for rooms, some places just bought dozens of travel trailers and rented them out.
Also, the NY World’s Fair was not an officially sanctioned one; they broke several of the rules of the governing body – ran for two years instead of six months, charged rent for pavilions, and was ineligible because of the Seattle 62 fair (a country had to wait 10 years before holding another).
New York, 1964.
People went nuts for the Belgian waffles. *Everybody *ate 'em.
NEW YORK (AP) – The notion of introducing a new food to the American public is almost inconceivable in an era of TV chefs, global cuisine and foodie websites.
But that’s what happened 50 years ago at the 1964 New York World’s Fair in Queens, N.Y., when a family from Belgium introduced Belgian waffles, topped with fresh whipped cream, powdered sugar and sliced strawberries.
Once Maurice and Rose Vermersch and their daughter MariePaule began serving the delicacy, there was no turning back the crowds.
“From the moment we opened there was a line. We couldn’t see the end,” recalled MariePaule Vermersch, 66, who helped her parents serve an average of 2,500 waffles a day during the fair, which opened 50 years ago on April 22, 1964. “It was wild.”
HemisFair '68 in San Antonio, Knoxville 1984, Vancouver Expo '86, Sevilla 1992.
I do a slide lecture about Chicago’s Two Worlds Fairs (1893 & 1933-34) and know to expect a question at the end about why we no longer have Worlds Fairs. I advance one more slide to a list showing that one still occurs almost every year.
That would be Expo '67 (link is to Google photos). I was there too!
Just think, we might have passed each other or stood in line together.
I was 10, and it was all very overwhelming. We traveled up from Kansas with a camper on the back of a pickup truck. We felt like hicks, but had a lot of fun. I most vividly remember the US pavilion, a huge awesome globe, with a tram running through it. My mom bought a bunch of post cards, including this one of the US pavilion at dusk.
I also vividly remember the Habitat, a bunch of little weird-shaped cracker boxes stuck together. I guess they were supposed to be the future of apartment complexes, but I did not like them. They looked interesting, but I wouldn’t have wanted to live in one.
I was enthralled with the Kaleidescope Pavilion.
I was frightened by the Pavilion of Canada. I was afraid it would tip over.
My dad and I loved La Ronde, the amusement park part of the Expo.
Here’s a web site about Expo '67, with tons of information and photos. I love the internet.
Knoxville 1982. I was 13 but don’t remember a lot of specific things about it.
1972 Spokane
2010 Shanghai
The article says they came with strawberries, but I distinctly remember mine was blueberry. Now I’m in the mood for one! :o
I also remember the jingle from the Monsanto (I think) exhibit: “There’s a great big, beautiful tomorrow, and it’s only a dream away!”
My dad said we’d go back to NYC in the summer of 1965, but we never did. 
He and I went to Disneyland at the end of August 1967; there’s one ride I went on, but I can’t remember if it was there or at the NYWF. After all this time, I’m afraid I may have conflated the two: It was one in which you shrank gradually to molecular size, while all these visual effects swum around you as you moved through the tunnel. It ended with the voiceover saying “Dare I go on, and explore the interior of the atom? No! I must go back, now…!”
I *think *this was at the Fair, but I can no longer swear to it in court.
Adventure Thru Inner Space was an attraction at Disneyland from August of 1967 until 1985. I remember going on it a couple times when my family went to Disneyland in '72. You’re right about Monsanto; they sponsored it until 1977.
In '86, a couple of us were blazed on mushrooms and went to Expo 86 in Vancouver. I called in sick for work, from the grounds, about fifteen minutes before my afternoon shift, about 70 miles away (including 80-minute ferry ride). My hand was muffled over the phone to cut out the noise around me, trying to sound ill. Had a good buzz going, and then we came upon the pavillion where a young girl got crushed to death in the revolving walls…that was a shitty low moment, and definitely cast a pall on the rest of the proceedings.
There was a ROPOS (Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Science) exhibit, presided over by my brother-in-law and a bunch of other ne’er-do-wells, all of us clandestinely sipping on pops that were kinda more slightly wobbly-type pops.
Visiting Montreal in '85 - saw the Expo 67 site and marvelled at its dilapidation - huge concourses and buildings crumbling and rusting away, dangling panels, the odd soul/small group spotted on the other end of some vast, run-down structure.
My morbid curiosity is piqued now for any more cherished Monsanto d’Expo reminiscing…
Wow! What a trip, after almost 50 years! The Power of The Straight Dope, in action!
Oddly, I remember the voice of the “scientist” being very different. I see now from Wiki that he was voiced by Paul Frees, whom I knew well from growing up in the '60s!
My family went to Southern California for vacation in '72, which would have been right around my 7th birthday. I still remember a lot about that trip; Universal Studios, Sea World, the Queen Mary, and several rides at Disneyland, including my dad reaching out to touch one of the giant fake snowflakes.
I went back on my own in about 2008; let me tell you, that is some weapons-grade nostalgia right there. I was kinda amazed at how familiar some of it was. They took the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride with the submarines, added some plastic clownfish, and now it was Finding Nemo, but still the same ride underneath. I’m not much for roller coasters, but I’d heard of Space Mountain. It didn’t exist in '72, then it was built, was cutting edge, and really cool, and then no big deal, and then maybe a little run down, and by the time i saw it, it was kitsch; the '70s vision of what the '90s would look like, as seen in the 2000s.
Some time around that return trip I did some searching to flesh out those old memories, and read up a bit on Adventure Thru Inner Space. Sounds like you were one of the first people to go on it; open less than a month.