Piggybacking on yesterday’s plug for the upcoming Seattle Center art, culture, and design meeting, I wanted to touch on another intriguing aspect of the lead-up to The Next Fifty.
Seattle Center is seeking stories related to the Century 21 Exposition, and they’re collecting them via a cool website where people can share their personal stories and discover connections at the intersections of time and place. Tell your tale – short or long – and upload an image if you have one.
I’ve read a few great ones thus far, including Peter Rinearson’s tale of accompanying his father to the top of the Space Needle as a seven year-old back in 1962, then replicating the same trip 49 years later with a child of his own. Peter and his daughter tried to replicate the pictures his father took during the World’s Fair, and the view east from the Needle is one most of us wouldn’t recognize.
Another tale from Dill Irwin tells of a Spokane 12-year-old’s very first trip “across the mountains” to Seattle and a special ride on the Monorail, coupled with a contemporary photograph of a souvenir Monorail medallion purchased that day in 1962.
Were you or someone you know at the 1962 World’s Fair? Do you have stories, photos, or video you’d like to share? Help create a collective community memory of this momentous event in our region’s history. Then find out where your stories intersect with others.
Seattle Center has partnered with Intersect and KCTS9 on an exciting new online social experience to collect our community’s stories from the Century 21 Exposition. Browse the stories at http://www.nextfifty.org/stories/ and add your own.