Time for another detour to Flushing Meadows, New York, for the 1964 World's Fair. Back in 1938, Westinghouse buried a torpedo-shaped time capsule, intended to remain buried for 5000 years. Their pavilion for the '64/'65 Fair was on precisely the same spot, and a new capsule, "Time Capsule II" was being readied for burial. Among the items included was a Beatles LP ("A Hard Day's Night"), a bikini, a piece of a space capsule's heat shield, birth control pills, a ball point pen, contact lenses, freeze-dried food, and a bible. To name but a few!
This lovely lady is signing the guest book that would eventually be microfilmed and included in "Time Capsule II". The name she used is "Rusty Bedsprings", what a card! To her right are buttons (the kind with the fold-over tabs) which said, "My name is in the Westinghouse Time Capsule for the next 5000 years".
The Fair was bisected by Grand Central Parkway (I believe), and you needed to cross a pedestrian bridge to get from one side to the other. Here's what you would have seen if you had the Westinghouse Pavilion and the General Motors Pavilion behind you, and you were heading towards the main portion of the Fair.
I can only assume that this is part of China's pavilion. Perhaps an entrance to a restaurant? I really don't know. But it's fun and colorful!
Some good stuff here. It was probably the two Mad Men behind Rusty that put her up to the gag.
ReplyDeleteLove that railing on the pedestrian bridge!
ReplyDeleteWhat ever happened to the two time capsules, are they still there???
Hey, I've heard there is an old theme park in Anaheim, thought you might want to do a post or two about it, I'm just saying...
Neat details in this post, Major.
ReplyDeleteDid Westinghouse mention that you were also signing your name to a list to be used for marketing purposes for the next 5000 years!
Tim, as far as I know, the two time capsules really are supposed to stay buried for 5000 years.
ReplyDeleteYou and your fence railings!
A small correction and some more info for you. The bridge picture woul dhave GM directly behind the photographer, but Westinghouse was across the highway. It was to the right of the rectangular building seen, the Missouri Pavilion, with Alaska inbetween.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese junks were at the Hong Kong Pavilion. They had some fast food stands inside and a place to buy pearls.
Great photos - as ever!
Bill
Thank you for the correction, Bill! And I appreciate the additional info as well.
ReplyDeletevery cool stuff today....a lovely pic of our friend, Rusty, but i wish it wasnt so blurry in the background :(
ReplyDeletemy daughter and i both think those are Chinese versions of Noah's Ark!
Like the junks pic and hope you're feeling better soon Maj. ;)
ReplyDeleteOMG! Every time I see a remnant of the World's Fair, like Belgian Waffles or your blog, I feel really weird inside. It's because time, which we don;t notice passing, becomes really, really obvious.
ReplyDeleteYeah, every single thibng I wished for The Future camed true, everything, and more.
Unfortunately, I wished for the wrong things. I wanted my own computer and a huge flat-screen TV like on the Jetsons. I should have wished for "homemade cooking" and "friends" and "being happy." I even HAD those things then, and I ignored them.
As for the time capsules, we are twice as far into the future from the '64 capsule as the '64 capsule is from the '39 capsule. My name is preserved 50 feet below a park, next to a highway.
And as for 5,000 years: in all that time, the galaxy will only have rotated 1/138th of a degree — about 500 milliarcseconds. That's not enough to see with your naked eye even on a room-sized model of the galaxy. The Hubble space telescope can barely take a picture of something that wide in the sky.
The rotation of the galaxy takes 250 million years, which is the longest period of time that has a name. It's done it 25 times.
Where will we all be then? What will happen to us... ALL of us?
Yes, I wished for the wrong things in '64. I should have wished for LOVE.
Too fucking late NOW, though.
faye kane ♀ girl brain
sexiest astrophysicist you'll ever see naked