Sunday - July 30, 2006

We started our day with a delightful breakfast at Pop Diner on Queens Boulevard. This place was designed to package together dozens of icons of googie design (also called Populux). Here you encounter a Flintstones-meets-the-Jetson's of flagcrete, Sputnik lamps, and orange vinyl. While clearly a summary rather than an in-depth reading of the period, Pop sells a tasty breakfast that will please those who don't care about the ambiance.

After breakfast, today was dedicated to departing the city and finding our way to upstate New York, where Jenny and Vienna look forward to seeing a place that is sacred to the Mormon faith: the grove where their church's first modern prophet received his initial revelation. But we had one last stop before we would depart. This one was for me: a chance to return to the site of the 1939-40 and 1964-65 New York World's Fairs in Queens. I'd been here once before, invited to give a speech on the '39 Fair. But the event was rained out and I walked the site forlornly under the cloudburst. I hadn't even taken the chance to visit the Westinghouse Time Capsule because of the downpour. But today the sun shown brightly and the morning traffic moved along at a brisk pace. Jenny and Vienna were game and joined me for my pilgrimage.

I headed straight for that Time Capsule. A few weeks ago, I even hunted for the thing on a Google Earth satellite map of Flushing Meadows park so I knew right where to go. Standing there at last, I imagined the site as its planners had: being unearthed in the year 6939. The temporal distance is so vast, I have no way to visualize what that day might reveal. But it was nice to share a bit of narration with Jenny and Vienna about the Capsule's contents and the ways in which its planners sought to ensure that it could be discovered five thousand years hence. From there, we walked to the Unisphere from the '64 Fair. The towering globe gleamed under a cloudless sky while families and athletes set about their Sunday morning. I imagine that most folks here care little about the park's transformation from the Valley of Ashes as described by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but rather they come here for the rambling green spaces and freedom from the city heat.

For anyone who does seek some history of the Fair, I can heartily recommend the Queens Museum of Art. Once the New York Building for fairgoers, this site has become a place to enjoy changing displays and time-tested favorites. While today's collection of photographs dedicated to Mexico City offered an unexpected pleasure, I came for the Museum's excellent display dedicated to the two Fairs and, even more, for the New York Panorama. As you may know, I am an avid lover of "Tiny Towns," miniature views of vast places that provide viewers a kind of Gods-eye view of urban life. Earlier in this trip, Vienna and I visited Roadside America in Shartlesville and loved it.

Now we followed up with the Museum's awesome panorama of the five boroughs. Walking along the incline path that led around the city, we smiled as the day turned to night and the buildings lit up for us. It was fun to trace our pathways - Jenny via the airport, Vienna and I via Staten Island - to meet here together. We concluded, as always, with a visit to the gift store. I entered with some trepidation. Would they have my book on the Fair? I found several Arcadia Press titles about the New York region and some books about the fairs, but not mine. Then I looked closer to the cash register and there it was: about a dozen copies. The counter person said it's one of their most popular items, which is always nice to hear.

At this point it was time to depart New York City. Jenny was sad; she loves this place so much. But we had a long way to go. Happily, the hours flew by as we cruised across New Jersey, north though Pennsylvania and back into upstate New York. Turning west, we hit Highway 20 and passed along the Finger Lakes region. While Palmyra is our goal, we called it quits near Seneca Falls in hopes that we might add a brief tour of a suffrage monument tomorrow morning. We all agree: that'd be a cool stop. In nearby Auburn, we grabbed dinner at the Hunter Dinerant and chatted with the waitress who enjoyed hearing about our journey. She asked me to email her a picture we took of this glorious fluted chrome beauty, and I certainly will. We concluded our evening with some lemon meringue pie for Vienna and blueberry pie for me (Jenny chose leftover cheesecake for reasons that continue to confound me). We pulled into the Starlite Motel and concluded another great day.