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Friday, August 24, 2012

Expo '86

I remain grateful to Mom and Dad for taking Sean and me to see the 1986 World's Fair in Vancouver. The fair's theme that year was transportation and communication, perfectly tailored to my interests. A few memories stand out:
  • Lunch at the British pavilion was, perhaps predictably, disappointing.
  • The Alberta pavilion took a shot at Manitoba, which was one of only a couple of provinces not to build a pavilion of their own at the fair, by displaying an encyclopedia page of Manitoba under glass and calling that "The Manitoba Pavilion." I thought it was pretty crass, personally.
  • McDonald's built a floating restaurant - the McBarge - for the fair. It was routinely packed during the fair, though now it lies abandoned.
  • The American pavilion featured a walk-through 1:1 scale mockup of the planned Freedom space station, which of course eventually evolved into the ISS. I found this exhibit particularly thrilling, though I was just as impressed with the Soviet pavilion, which also prominently featured its space race triumphs. 
For whatever reason I didn't take many photos of the fair, and none featuring my family. I think I was simply too engrossed in what was happening around me, which I suppose is no bad thing - sometimes you have to live in the moment instead of trying to capture it. But perhaps a few additional photos will stir your memories of Expo 86, if you were among the visitors...

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