Hi! I’m posting early this week because I have a little expedition at the end of the week- -not to an exposition, but to the site of one I attended in 1974: Expo ’74, officially known as the International Exposition on the Environment, in Spokane, Washington.
Oh! I remember that. It was part of a trip we took so Ann could see the WSU campus, because she was applying for college. It was really hot in Spokane!
It certainly was, Lily, especially for us west of the Cascade Mountains natives.
Spokane is also the answer to the musical question What is the smallest city ever to host a World’s Fair (thank you, AI). Remnants of the fairgrounds still exist at the repurposed Riverfront Park. The friend I’m visiting is staying at a hotel overlooking the park. I wonder if I’ll see the magnificent carousel? It wasn’t there for the Expo, but was moved soon after to the building that housed the German beer garden.
NOT a place we visited as a family.
You can learn about the carousel, including photos, here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverfront_Park_Carousel
Hey, I was at a World’s Fair, too! I don’t remember much about it, except dumping a chocolate milkshake down the front on my fuzzy blue jacket.
You were pretty little, 9, not quite 3 years old. That was the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle, which is where our friend the Space Needle got its start.
Where were you in ’62? The Seattle World’s Fair, where I first met our friend The Space Needle. . .
It’s not just my upcoming visit to Spokane that’s making me think of World’s Fairs. I’m also doing research for an historical fiction project than concerns Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exhibition. That fair was huge and elaborate, celebrating the quadricentennial of Columbus’s (so-called) discovery of America. As it happens, our great-grandmother Mary Jane Imlay traveled by train from Hillsboro, Oregon, to attend the fair, without a chaperone! This was somewhat scandalous for the time, as she was nineteen years old, female, and unmarried.
She doesn’t look scandalous, but. . .Mary Jane “Mamie” Imlay attended the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, without a chaperone! Pictured at age 19 in 1893.
So your story is about her?
More accurately, it is inspired by her. Right now I’m using the events of her young life to create a story of adventure; also about the realities of being an independent-minded American female in the 1890s. My two major settings (at this point) are 1893 Chicago and 1896 Elk City, Idaho. A study in contrasts as you can see, and two very unusual places for a woman of that era to exist on her own.
Expositions: A small sampling of the books I’ll read as research for this project. . .
It’s very early in the plotting process, working title “Mamie” (great-grandma’s nickname). Today I’m considering how magic realism might be part of the story, and there’s a thread I have in mind involving the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The 1890s is a decade rich with change and the looming modern world. The challenge will be figuring out which plot twists to resist in the final draft!
But that’s a long, long way down the road, a couple of years at the very least. I’ve written some historical fiction (you can read a story that features an older Mamie, here: http://peglegpublishing.com/glassfire14/medicine.htm ) so it’s not completely unfamiliar ground for me. In fact, my unpublished short story concerning Mamie’s 1893 trip to Chicago, “Without a Chaperone,” is a runner up in this year’s Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition (genre fiction category). Receiving external affirmation that this story works is very encouraging!
But, as previously stated, there’s a lot of road to travel yet. A piece of that journey might happen this week in Spokane. . .
Fascinating, Susan! I love all the threads of personalities and history.
The Chicago Fair you mention was a huge influence at the time, proving that there was culture and enterprise *west* of the eastern seaboard. Good for your ancestor to take it in!
Walt Disney’s father was one of its construction workers (!)
Thank you, David!
Speaking of Walt Disney, I read somewhere that his vision for Disneyland was inspired by the 1893 fairgrounds. Perhaps he heard stories about it from his father, or saw pictures of it in his early life. It astounds me that most of the structures were destroyed after the fair! Meanwhile, it’s so much fun to contemplate all the exhibits and attraction and how those affected Mamie’s outlook and plans for life. . .