Are parents obligated to provide the "amusement park experience" to your kids?

Shrinkrap · August 24, 2012, 3:02pm

I never did a state fair in the sixties, but the worlds fair in NYC was not; not that you could tell from this;

<a href=“The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair Remembered - YouTube”>The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair Remembered - YouTube;

Anybody do the nyc worlds fair? My father used to drop us off every weekend.

07DAD · August 24, 2012, 3:11pm

My wife and her family drove from Dallas to the NYC World’s Fair. With Texas plates they caught grief due to the Kennedy assassination.

sseamom · August 24, 2012, 3:16pm

My mother grew up in NYC and we stayed with my grandmother so we could do the World’s Fair. I was pretty young but I remember a moon exploration exhibit where we got to bounce as if there was no gravity, HUGE crowds, and my mother buying bamboo she was going to try to grow (she wasn’t successful in NH).

About those segregated state fairs:head/desk. Yet another reason my H’s parents got the heck out of the south as soon as they finished high school.

alh · August 24, 2012, 3:17pm

My father used a conference in NYC as an excuse to take a family vacation. We drove up from the deep south, stopping in Williamsburg and Washington DC on the way. We did the NYC museums, landmarks, a Radio Center Music Hall show and the World’s Fair. It was all wonderful.

edit: good to be reminded about segregation… inexcusable

MommaJ · August 24, 2012, 3:26pm

I grew up in MA, and going to the NYC World’s Fair was the thrill of a lifetime for me at age 13. But I’m quite embarrassed to say honestly remember very little in the way of specifics other than the Belgian waffles! I do have intense and fond memories of the Tilt-a-Whirl at our local amusement park–couldn’t get enough of it.

I don’t know how any parent could tell a child they couldn’t go on any rides that are in plain sight–I sure couldn’t do it. I agree with the advice here to have the kids pick out three rides each in advance–and if they whine and beg for more, well, saying no and ignoring whining is about 50% of parenting, isn’t it?

jym626 · August 24, 2012, 3:34pm

LOVED the NY worlds fair. Especially the GE Pavilion- the world of Imagination or World of the future (or something like that which sorta ended up in Epcot, or am I totally confused?) Love that the globe is still there. Use dto see it whenever we flew into LGA.

alh · August 24, 2012, 3:36pm

Which one had the underground house of the future? World’s Fair or Disney? I am really glad we didn’t have to end up living underground.

Shrinkrap · August 24, 2012, 3:37pm

"Love that teh globe is still there. "

Yeah, but I believe the place looks a bit post-apocalyptic now.

Especially this thing…what WAS that? Ah! I looked it up. The New York state pavillion!

<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:186park.jpg[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:186park.jpg</a>

I went ice skating there until the place was about to fall on our heads.

jym626 · August 24, 2012, 3:39pm

But it still brings back good memories. As does driving by the boat docks on the highway approaching LGA. For some reason I remember that image in my head, with some structure with a restaurant, IIRC, as part of my Worlds Fair memories

Mansfield · August 24, 2012, 4:02pm

I think we went to the NY Worlds Fair about 4-5 times (wasn’t it held over 2 years?) since we lived in northern NJ. JYM, I remember the GE pavilion and how futuristic it all seemed. Then, many years later, when I saw it again at Epcot, it seemed more like a scene from the Jetsons. Do you remember the Coke pavilion, where they had the Small World ride? I could have stayed there all day, in spite of the nagging song that always got stuck in my head.

Shrinkrap · August 24, 2012, 4:07pm

^ “The fair ran for two six-month seasons, April 22–October 18, 1964 and April 21–October 17, 1965. Admission price for adults (13 and older) was $2.00 in 1964 but $2.50 in 1965, and $1.00 for children (2–12) both years.[3]”
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_New_York_World’s_Fair[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_New_York_World’s_Fair</a>

Jym, was it Terrace on the Park?

<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrace_on_the_Park[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrace_on_the_Park</a>

Looks likes things have changed since I lived there, and for the better. Looks like the ice skating rink was rebuilt. I suddenly realized that was the first place I fell in love with “It’s A Small World”.

garland · August 24, 2012, 4:21pm

We went to the Worlds Fair a few times. My grandparents lived in Flushingjust a couple a miles away. So those two years, our vacation was the Fair and Jones Beach.

However, we skipped a lot of stuff at the fair. never went on the Monorail, or up those flying saucer restaurants (the ones that are in Men in Black.) I"d love to know what the algorithm was with my parents for why we did some things but skipped others. I have a feeling if I saw a map of the FAir, i’d find out that the parts we did were one small area, or the ones with short lines, or something like that.

Still, we did the only fireworks i ever went to with my family there, so that’s a good thing.:)

HotCanary · August 24, 2012, 5:03pm

We went to the Worlds Fair, and also to Expo '67 in Montreal. I remember that one better, because I was older. Both were spectacular to me. I still have a souvenir from the Worlds Fair, a small carved wooden Polynesian fishing hut. As souvenirs go, it’s really nice.

Pizzagirl · August 24, 2012, 5:13pm

No, I grew up in a normal part of the country.

alh · August 24, 2012, 5:25pm

Pizzagirl: What state did you grow up in?

I grew up in the deep south with segregated fairs (though I didn’t realize it till I googled after post 240 -yes, an example of white privilege that I didn’t know and had to google) swimming pools (or white only pools) separate water fountains and, of course, segregated schools. I am older than you. My youngest siblings grew up without (official) segregation.

cartera45 · August 24, 2012, 5:27pm

Our county fair was segregated. We had “white schools Wednesday” and “colored schools Thursday.” That was up until at least 1963 - not sure how far beyond, but then again, my high school didn’t integrate until 1970.

Marilyn · August 24, 2012, 5:27pm

For some reason, one of my memories of the NY World’s Fair is going to the Clairol pavilion and learning that I was a “brownette”; before that I thought I was brunette. I do remember the GE Pavilion (which I also saw at Disney) and some kind of car ride - or was that Montreal? And absolutely the Belgian waffles! Imagine that being considered exotic.

alh · August 24, 2012, 5:34pm

I attended an integrated junior high school before 1970. In 1968 I attended an integrated girl scout camp.

Pizzagirl · August 24, 2012, 5:39pm

I grew up in Pennsylvania. The idea of segregated fairs, proms, water fountains, lunch counters and any of the rest is just completely unimaginable to me. Then again, so is prayer in public school and that type of thing. It’s like it’s a whole different country in some places.

07DAD · August 24, 2012, 5:43pm

LOL–no you didn’t if you were born in 1950 and mean racial harmony. It was just de facto segregation outside the South.

Listed below are riots that either were directly caused by a racial attack (ON blacks or Puerto Ricans) often by the police or indirectly due to assassinations of black leader(s). Factor in poverty due to exclusion from higher wage jobs and racial enclaves due to whites refusal to sell to blacks in white areas–and, voila --mass violence in the “normal” states.

(1964) Harlem, Rochester, North Philadelphia; (1965) Watts, CA; (1966) Cleveland* (Hough); (1967) Plainfield, Ill, Newark, NJ, Detroit, Buffalo, Cairo, Ill.; (1968) Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, DC.

<ul>
<li>The Hough riots in Cleveland started when a bar posted a sign on the door–“No Water for ■■■■■■■.” What did they teach in US history in the 1980/90s?</li>
</ul>

Wasn’t the recent Huntingdon Swim Club racial discrimination event in Pa. three years ago?

Are parents obligated to provide the "amusement park experience" to your kids?

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