Knoxville World's Fair--Summer 1982
Guest Posting by Karen Pairan, writing to Gramma Knauff
Kountry Kitchen--Scott and I waited forever in line there Monday noon for lunch. Fries are huge pieces of potato with skins--not greasy. Tom and Ron got chili dog at next door stand (also cheese and gyros stands. Pasta Palace--"Excellent food and good value are to be found in this cafeteria on the first floor of the Candy Factory across from the east gate" outside from main entrance on back. We ate pizza there twice. Great crust. Also of note: Fresh Fruit Works, Buddy's Bar-B-Q, Brookhaven Country Kitchen Farm.
We also ate lunch at Strohaus. Collection of steins, etc. I froze in sundress. Food is expensive but they are meals. Scott was cold in shorts and short sleeves. I got chicken children's portion--good.
Don't wait 'til you're starving to look for a place. Sometimes you have to walk to find what you want. We lucked out timewise for our other meals. Strohaus had long waiting line as we were leaving. We were able to find tables both times at Pasta Palace.
They no longer sell 2-day tickets, so we had to buy one-day ones. Get a Kodak pamphlet as you enter gate. It has a small map and schedule of events for week.
We read "Sing Tennessee" was good in the Weekly World's Fair paper put out by Knoxville newspaper. It's in the amphitheatre about 3 shows daily, Tuesday through Sunday. We rode in sky car over that show. Looked like a musical ballet. "Up With People" show we heard was good--times and locations change. When we got to right building last show (5 p.m.) was filled. They are supposed to tell when and where on video monitors.
Women's restroom in Lifestyle & Technology Center have half-hour long waiting lines. There are 3 there, but only 4 stalls in each. U.S. Pavilion has restrooms and drinking fountains. No waiting lines in Candy Factory's restrooms. We went there a lot.
Folklife Festival--nice area--not much to see--2 stages--Bluegrass & Mountain Blues. Sculptures. We went evening--cool, not crowded--nice break for kids--took Skytranspo there.
Maps seem so easy--but there are different levels and sometimes hard to get to right places at certain times. It think you'd need 3 days to see most things. One day only would be very frustrating.
Mark on your map--yellow gate, north; green, west; blue, east; red, southwest.
Best thing about waiting in lines was talking to people. Some lines look unreal, but move rapidly. U.S. Pavilion was very long Monday, but it moved. Then we went Tuesday and it was twice as long. We heard Tuesday had 94,000+ I think it was a record breaking number for Tuesday. We didn't think Monday was as bad. They said no one was there Sunday evening.
We took shuttle bus from motel Monday morning to Fair--left motel at 10:30 a.m. and we had to meet it to go back at 10 p.m. outside of fair gate. Tuesday we drove to parking lot (arrived at lot about 8 a.m.) We left Fair that night about 10:15 p.m. Pavilions open at 10 a.m. Outer gates at 9 a.m. But they let us buy tickets earlier. The driver from motel said we'd never see Japan or China Monday and to go right to Lifestyle & Technology Center. No lines and cool. Union Carbide's "See How They Run" exhibit in there. Over 150 toys and computer games. We waited in line for over half hour. In same building at other end is Gatorade's Sports Hall of Fame and Circus exhibit (at least half hour wait for circus). But it was fantastic. Ron and kids waited in that line while I went to restroom. I got back in time. We took turns sitting and waiting in line. We sat on floor in places.
Usually the better the place, the longer the line.
Karen's big regret--not staying in line for picture by Japanese robot. They put Japanese writing on it after he finished painting. The guy said it would be 1 1/2 hour wait, so I got out. Kids and Ron decided to try standby line for movie in Japan and I waited. Could have easily gotten painting. Japan stamps arms for movie times between 10 a.m. to about 11:15 a.m. and you come back 10 minutes before your show and get in express line. We didn't get stamped because we picked China ticket line. As soon as they let us in the gate Tuesday morning, we went in China ticket line and then each got a 10-11 a.m. ticket and then got in China line. They let people in at 10 and we moved after that. It was cool in there. So many beautiful things. Ron and I could have looked more but kids were ready to go after an hour. They have some artisans from their country working.
We didn't get to see Egypt, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Korea (that we wanted to). Also not Italy and United Kingdom--didn't really care.
Walked rapidly through Hungary, France (missed 2nd floor first time)--go there--it's about art forgery and detection and other techniques, Germany, European Community. Bought Philippines shopping bag for $.25 and got passport stamps from those pavilions. Tom wanted to collect those starting Tuesday evening. Some woman told us to buy guidebook Monday morning and have the proper pages stamped in each pavilion, but we didn't want to spend $5.
We liked Australia, Canada, Philippines, and Japan, but if the lines were too long I don't know. We got in after supper in all of them. I think you're lucky to get in one international pavilion in the a.m. and one in the afternoon. I thought Japan was great but Ron wasn't as impressed because line was pretty long.
Robot show in U.S. is informative and fairly easy to understand. Wait for IMAX theatre is pretty long. That's why we went back 2nd time and went directly to theatre line. Movie is 27 minutes in length, shown every 45 minutes. You get to sit down, but I think you'll get dizzy, Mom. I closed my eyes a lot. We were in 2nd row. Maybe it would be not so loud or bad farther back.
Peru was not as great as we thought it would be. We hurried as we barely got in. I got dizzy--light headed--lots of gold there--like a museum--a 3000 year old mummy and funeral bundle that will be opened July 28.
If we had had more time, I think we would have like the TVA exhibit, solar home, home of the future, health pavilion, Conenergy and alternative energy houses.
The kids, Ron and I like the gas exhibits and Anheuser Busch Clydesdale horses.
Parade at 5:00 was short but good. We just happened to be in the main middle section. Fireworks and laser show at 9;45 is good.
Back to Liefstyle & Tech--West Virginia exhibit and Dairy men theatre is great. Taste the UHT milk (Farmbest).
Ron and I loved the Fine Arts building--we only went on the upper floor.
Scott's 3 favorites "See How They Run" and milk show and Japan movie.
Tom's--"See How They Run" and circus and IMAX.
Ron--U.S. and China, "See How They Run," milk.
Karen--U.S., China, Japan.
We forgot--long line in hot sun Monday afternoon. Federal Express--excellent.
P.S. In the Lifestyle & Tech building, there are Texaco pumps where you get a receipt. If you take it to a Texaco station, you get a bumper sticker--A Visit to Remember--The 1982 World's Fair. (We got 3--someone had left it in our motel room).
