Good morning. It's Thursday. Today we'll catch up with the first person to go through the gate at the 1964 New York World's Fair — 60 years ago.
There are things about his big day 60 years ago that William Turchyn does not remember:
He was an 18-year-old college freshman who waited on the far side of a turnstile with a couple of his roommates. They wanted to be the first people to go into the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens.
Turchyn led the way, after a ribbon-cutting ceremony — he was given a snippet of the ribbon, he said. Then came the rush into "the great big beautiful tomorrow" that had been built inside, as a song lyric described it. Turchyn and his roommates from St. Peter's College (now St Peter's University), in Jersey City, N.J., could ooh and aah at the brand-new Unisphere. They could watch a show called "Wonder World," which The New York Times said was "spectacular, lavish, colorful, splashy and, oh so noisy. In short, a perfect show for any fair." Maybe they would see the "spaceman" carried aloft by a jetpack. "We thought 'first person in' would be a good thing to say you did," he said. "It was like, we made the decision and maybe two days later, we went and did it." And, he acknowledges, they thought that "if you're the first person in the World's Fair, maybe they'll give you a car. Here are all these corporate sponsors with stuff: 'We're going to give him that.'" They didn't.
Turchyn said that they slept on the pavement for two nights, in sleeping bags, though they were so excited that no one got much sleep. They had brought food, but "not nearly enough," he said. "We were thinking as long as we're at the turnstile, we'll just go buy some. But you couldn't go in." Turchyn said that one of the roommates was a pre-med student who "couldn't afford not to show up in class," so he did not camp out, but he brought food. So did a Pinkerton guard on duty at the gate. That guard settled a wrangle with Michael Catan, who with his brother Omero had been first at hundreds of openings in New York City: the first to go through the Lincoln Tunnel in 1937, the first to fly into Idlewild Airport (now Kennedy International) in 1948, the first to drive over the Tappan Zee Bridge in 1955. Turchyn said that he and his roommates had taken their places before Catan showed up. Then a Times reporter came by and asked the obvious question: Who was first? "We were first, but this guy" — Catan — "says, 'It was me,'" Turchyn recalled. The Pinkerton guard stepped in: "No, no, the kids were first.'" Catan promptly left, Turchyn said, and the reporter filed a story. That led to interviews on television program after television program, including the "Today" show. Back at St. Peter's, Turchyn's cutting of classes for a couple of days did not go unnoticed. An economics professor, taking attendance, filled the silence after calling Turchyn's name by saying, "First to get into the fair, first to flunk out of school." "Which did not happen," Turchyn added. For others, the first day of the fair was less than exhilarating because of the weather. "Elements conspire to turn dedication of fair into a depressing experience," the headline read on a Times article next to one about Turchyn. Another said that the "4,000 sodden marchers" in the opening day parade "outnumbered the hundreds of sodden bystanders." If Turchyn was sodden, he did not mention it on Wednesday as he walked under the canopy where he figured the turnstiles had been. He did not take in much on opening day, it turned out. "We went to one exhibit, the closest one," he said. "We were so exhausted, we went home." WEATHER Prepare for a mostly sunny day in the mid-90s. At night, expect a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Temperatures will drop to the high 70s in the evening. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Aug. 13 (Tisha B'Av). The latest New York news
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. For domestic abuse victims, child welfare scrutiny adds more trauma
Parents who report abuse to protect themselves and their families often become the targets of visits from child welfare investigators. It is considered child neglect for one parent to abuse the other in the presence of their children. Often, after a victim reports abuse, the city's child welfare agency files a child neglect case against the accused parent, and a judge bars that person from the home and grants the agency "supervision" over the parent who was abused. A lawsuit said that such supervision orders are unconstitutional and that such visits amount to "double abuse," creating new stress and fear for parents who have already endured domestic violence. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Brooklyn woman who had told her therapist that her ex-boyfriend beat and slapped her — and yanked her dreadlocks out — in the presence of their 9-month-old daughter. The judge issued an order of protection barring the boyfriend from the home. But the judge also said that the woman and her daughter would receive "announced and unannounced visits" from the child welfare agency, the Administration for Children's Services. In other words, investigators could search the apartment, question the mother and examine the child for signs of abuse. A.C.S. acknowledges that visits from caseworkers can be "inherently traumatic and intrusive." The agency said in a statement that it had been seeking supervision of domestic abuse victims much less often since 2019 but did not provide specific numbers. METROPOLITAN DIARY On the 1
Dear Diary: I was on my usual route on the 1 train. A man with a rolling cart was seated across from me. Among the items in the cart was a Target bag. Another man came into the subway car through the door at the front. He pointed to the cart. "Target?" he asked "Where is that?" The first man shook his head. "They're all over, man," he said. "In all five boroughs. And Staten Island." — Nareg Seferian Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
|
N.Y. Today: First at the 1964 World’s Fair
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment