1982 World’s Fair, Part One

Remember the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville? No? What’s a World’s Fair? Do they still have them? Apparently they do – although it looks like they get cancelled every once in a while. In the summer of 1982, I was almost nine years old, and I remember there being a lot of buzz about THE WORLD’S FAIR and how big of a deal for it to be hosted by Knoxville, home of the Tennessee Volunteers (no comment coming from this Georgia Bulldogs alum).

And Troop 20 was going! It was our first trip as a troop. I had no idea what a World’s Fair was, but they had this big silver ball! [Note: This whole time I remembered it as silver, but apparently it’s gold.] And I wondered WHAT WAS INSIDE THE BIG SILVER BALL? Is it a ride??? A water tower? Is it like EPCOT’s big silver ball?

My troop leader made a BIG DEAL about the Chinese exhibit and we learned all about Emperor Qin’s Terra Cotta Army and how some of the statues (or were they just reproductions?) were making the trip to reproduce his tomb. I was really excited, until I heard my parents talking about the lines being two hours long. What! Forget that! But the Peruvian exhibit featured an unwrapped mummy! SPOOKY!

Apparently someone made a Pinterest board just about the 1982 World’s Fair. That’s how big of a deal it was! Squirrel!

Anyway, we sold a ton of Girl Scouts cookies and scrimped and saved for our trip. Mrs. Vickers was the expert on planning inexpensive trips and could pinch pennies like nobody’s business. And she was always promoting Girl Scouts and Troop 20 in the local papers. I have a lot of newspaper clippings and pictures from our photo shoots. So here’s our first newspaper photo (that I know of – I joined one year after Troop 20 started):

We took the picture during a troop meeting, and I remember being disappointed that we couldn’t have our family’s awesome Dodge Ram Van in the picture (with no seat belts for the backseats along the sides and a removable table, natch). We didn’t even drive that station wagon in the picture on our trip!

My parents went with us on the trip. I don’t remember the name of the camp, but during our stay at the World’s Fair, we stayed at a Girl Scout camp (Camp Tanasi, maybe?). All I remember is that we stayed in cabins, and there were mice. Everybody was freaked out except my dad and me. My dad picked up some mouse traps and caught a few. Then everybody was grossed out except for Dad, and I was sad because the poor little mice died.

Then we get to THE WORLD’S FAIR! All of those cookie sales built up to this moment! I couldn’t WAIT to see this big silver ball! We turn the corner – and there it was! But it’s much, much, much smaller than I thought it was going to be, and hence my disappointment. I think we went up into it, but I vaguely remember being unimpressed. Oh well.

Here’s my World’s Fair passport!

At each country that you visited, you got your “passport” stamped. Mrs. Vickers had our schedule planned down to the second, and we were able to visit the China exhibit when the lines weren’t as long. We only stood in line for 45 minutes. I’m sure we all complained about how much our feet hurt the whole time. But I was blown away by the terra cotta statues! And the MUMMY! I was completely entranced and grossed out at the same time. I was also afraid there was some kind of curse and that we would all be haunted by said curse because we were staring at it. I probably picked this up from an episode of In Search Of or Scooby Doo.

Here are the stamps from my passport:

Did you know there was a badge made especially for The World’s Fair? It was a Council’s Own Badge created by the Tanasi GS Council (h/t thecarolinatrader.com). EARNED IT! I wish I had a copy of the requirements.

In the NEXT INSTALLMENT, I’ll have Part Two of our World’s Fair Trip – which has nothing to do with the World’s Fair and probably not of any interest to anyone except me. BUT, you will find out about my first official GS Trip injury. It wasn’t a REAL Girl Scout trip without me becoming sick or injured. So STAY TUNED!