Chapter 11: The Hemisfair Experience
The boys met up the next day and got the unairconditioned bus. It was hot and the ride downtown was miserable. The boys were drenched in sweat when they got off the bus downtown. Joe said, “Let’s go in Joske’s and cool off.”
They agreed and went up to the fourth floor. It had that musty smell the boys recognized and loved. They played around for a while and cooled off. Dave said, “Let’s go to Hemisfair. Those pavilions are unreal. With the money we made we can do whatever we want.”
They walked down the alley and entered the regular way. As usual the guard automatically waved them through. When they entered Hemisfair, like the river, it had a smell and atmosphere all its own. It had a futuristic fantasy land feel to it. With the amount of time they spent there, they’ve been able to take in almost all the experiences, and the boys were becoming worldly.
They loved Fiesta Island which is an amusement park. On the island was a roller coaster, Farris Wheel, and many more carnival rides. The boys enjoyed the Institute of Texan cultures, and the US pavilion.
The US pavilion was unique. The boys had been there several times. It’s the first time you go in that blows your mind. You enter the building and there are three theaters. The movie is about the history of the United States. You pick a theater and go in to sit down. The movie starts and runs for about fifteen minutes. At a certain point the theater starts to rumble and shake. It seems like the building is about to collapse and it’s scary. Out of nowhere the walls in the theater start to rise. In thirty seconds, you are in one big theater. Everyone is looking around astonished. The movie starts back up again and now everyone is watching one huge movie screen. It was amazing. Their favorites though were the monorail and the Tower of the Americas. Both rides were up high and gave a bird’s eye view.
The boys stood at the bottom of the tower looking straight up. It was fantastic. Not much was said as they boarded the elevator. It was like any other enclosed elevator. The large box started to move upward and after a few seconds the world opened up. There was a large glass window overlooking the city as you ascended at a high rate of speed. The view of the city falling beneath their feet was overwhelming. The boys reached the observation deck. They exited to an inside deck. There were stairs going to the outside deck. The boys immediately started naming things they recognized.
Joe pointed and said, “Look, there’s our houses. I think I see the tree where I watched them build this place.”
Mike pointed and asked, “What school is that. It’s big and has a football stadium.”
Dave chimed in, “I think that’s Brackenridge high school.”
The boys started walking around facing west towards the downtown area. Joe pointed again, “Hey, there’s the bank my dad works at!”
After walking around the deck viewing all sides of town they decided to go back down. It was the same ride but this time they saw the ground approaching fast and their ears popped.
As the boys entered the main park the Kodak Pavilion was first up. It had a room with a massive computer. It felt very space age and clean. Of course, it was airconditioned almost to the point of being cold. The boys went to the computer. Joe said, “Okay, type your name and date of birth in and you will freak out at what happens.”
First up is Dave, “So, I type in my birthdate?”
Joe reached and started typing, “Yeah, When’s your birthday?”
“It’s September fifteenth nineteen fifty four.”
Joe typed in all the information. The printer started churning out several pages of things that happened in 1954. The guys were all born in 1954 and immediately started reading. The printout was fantastic. The sheet told what day of the week he was born on. Dave was born on a Wednesday. It went on to tell them what happened on that day. It told of the Interstate Commerce Commission ordering all U.S. interstate trains and buses to end segregation practices. It went on to say the minimum wage was raised to a dollar an hour. UHF television was developed, and the Brooklyn Dodgers won the world series. It named the top entertainment events of the year. There was a list of songs, movies, TV shows, and books from 1954. This is wild to the boys. They would have to spend hours at a library to find out this information. They insert Joe and Mike’s information and get print outs to show their parents.
The next stop was the Southwestern Bell Pavilion. It had all kinds of things for the future. They had the display of a regular phone you dialed, and a touch tone phone of the future. There was a big clock, and they gave a phone number to dial. As the phone number was dialed the clock timed it. Then you punched the same phone number into the touch tone phone. It was no contest. The boys bet each other they could beat the clock on the dial phone. It didn’t happen. There was a lot of laughing and fooling around.
The boys liked the Ford and General Motors pavilions. They had cars of the future in their exhibits which fascinated them. The boys definitely visited the Coca-Cola pavilion. They got free coke. There were pavilions from countries all over the world. Those interested the boys for a short time, but it was mostly a commentary on the country’s culture. The boys would check it out and find something else to do.
The boys climbed onto the monorail and rode it around several times laughing and yakking it up. The view was great, and they started yelling hi to people on the ground. This was basically a glorified river walk.
The boys continued their walk around the grounds. It was mostly older couples but there were also girls walking around. The boys saw three gorgeous girls walking by. They all wore brightly colored summer skirts. Two girls had soft flowing brunette hair. The other had beautiful blonde hair. All three had cute faces and big smiles. As they walked by Dave said, “Y’all from around here?”
All three girls stopped and turned around. They were all smiling at the boys when the blonde in the middle said, “No. We live in Austin. We came down here for a few days with our parents. Do you live here?”
Joe said, “Yes mam. We’ve been coming downtown since we were little kids. We can show you anyplace down here. I’m Joe and this is Dave and he’s Mike.”
The girls giggled and a brunette spoke up, “I’m Jana.” She pointed to the other brunette, “That’s Cynthia. Then there’s Sandy. We’re all twelve years old.”
Mike said, “We’re all thirteen. I guess that’s good. Right?”
Everyone laughed and Cynthia asked, “What’s fun to do around here?”
Joe said, “Do you girls want to stay at the fair or go into downtown?”
Sandy said, “If we leave the fair, we’ll have to stay close.”
Mike said, “Oh yeah. Everything is right here in this area. What do y’all like to do. We go to the Alamo, and a pinball gallery.”
Joe suddenly said as he cozied up to Sandy, “Hey, let’s go to Joskes and take them up to the fourth floor. I bet they don’t have anything like that in Austin. We can go check out the toys and then we’ll all slide down the escalator.”
Jana asked, “What’s that? Sliding down the escalator?” They had never been on an escalator.
Dave smiled, “Come on. It’s right across the street. We’ll take you there and bring you back. Sound good?”
The girls agreed and Dave got with Jana. Mike hooked up with Cynthia. All six walked, talked, and laughed. They exited the fair and walked a block to Joske;s. Sandy said, “Tell us more about sliding down the escalators.” Joe said, “When you get in there, you’ll see what we’re talking about. There’s a thick metal rail next to the escalator and we look out for you on both floors. When the coast is clear you jump on the metal part and slide down to the next floor.”
Sandy looked at Joe, “That sounds fun.”
“We’ll show you how it’s done. It’s easy.”
The kids reached the fourth floor, and the girls loved all the toys to play with. Jana played Hot Wheels with the boys while Cynthia and Sandy played with the easy bake oven. It was a weekday and wasn’t crowded. After a while Sandy said, “We need to get back.”
Everyone agreed and they started their descent to the first floor via sliding down the escalators. The boys decided they would do the usual procedure of alternating lookouts on the lower floor. They would let all the girls go down the slide first. Mike went down for the first lookout. He rode the escalator down and looked around. Dave helped Jana on the slide, “Just put your hands on your chest and slide down. When you get close to the bottom get ready to slide off.”
Mike gave the okay and Jana took off. The girls’ skirts made them go faster. When Jana got to the bottom she flew off. She handled it great. She hit and stumbled but gained her balance. She didn’t fall. The kids laughed as Cynthia got ready to go. Dave got her ready and Mike gave the okay. Down she went. As she came off the slide, she hit the floor and fell. Mike and Jana ran over and picked her up. She wasn’t hurt badly because she was smiling. Mike said, “Are you okay?”
Cynthia said, “I hit my elbow but I’m okay. It was fun until the last part.”
After watching Jana almost fall and Cynthia fall, Sandy was getting cold feet. Joe walked up and told her, “We can just ride down if you want to. We’re just messing around. It’s no big deal.”
She smiled and said, “Yeah. I’d like doing that.”
Dave slid down and Joe rode the escalator with Sandy. The kids came out of the store and headed back to the fair. They got to the main gate and Dave said as he walked up to Jana, “Okay girls. It was fun running around with you.”
Jana was smiling and Dave decided it was now or never. He was never going to see her again; he might as well take a shot. Dave leaned forward towards Jana for a kiss. He went for the mouth. He was so close yet so far. She jumped back in surprise. It appeared she was going to slap him. Dave jerked back. She said, “What are you doing!”
Dave was visibly shaken, “I was just going to kiss you!”
Jana turned around and said, “Come on girls. Let’s go.”
The girls strutted off indicating they were through with the boys. Sandy looked at Joe and said, “Sandy Michaels. Look me up.”
Now Mike and Joe have a blank stare for Dave. Mike said, “What the hell was that?”
Dave was stammering, “I don’t know. I figured if they left, we had no shot anyway so what difference did it make?”
Joe was trying to control himself, “Maybe we could find out who they were and get with them later.”
Dave was now reflective, “I guess you could be right. I just figured. Oh, hell, I don’t know what I was figuring.”
The boys never saw any of the girls again.
