Wow. It was mentioned on the news last night that it's now the 20th Anniversary of Expo 86. It was on May 2, 1986 that Expo 86 officiall opened, BC welcomed the world, and Vancouver went from "a sleepy provincial backwater to a city with some global clout." (According to the dude who wrote the Wikipedia entry.)
I remember the summer of 1986. TV ads for Expo 86 were non-stop. The TV-ads featured late-80s computer animation flying over Science World and several other venues. I *really* wanted to go, and lobbied my parents. My parents actually did seriously look into it, but sadly determined that a summer's vacation in Vancouver was just a bit beyond their budget that year.
I had to e-mail a friend of mine - a lifelong Vancouverite - and asked her if she went. (Yeah, we've been friends for a while, but I could never figure out how to slip that into a conversation.) She told me that yes, she did go, and as she was only 6 at the time, it was a pretty seminal event in her childhood.
After we traded e-mails, we both had to sit back and take breath. wow. 20 years since Expo 86. It makes me feel old.
No...it doesn't make me feel old.
It makes me feel like a grown-up.
Sadly, the lustre of Expo and the World's Fair is no longer what it once was. Some say it's because Expo hasn't been held in North America in ages. The last one in the States was New Orleans 1984...the last one in North America period was Expo 86. Who knows? I"m sure it'll be a big deal again when a North American city has it.
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