NOVEMBER 22, 1963

I didn't know where to go.

It was as if the floor had disappeared and ... what? Everyone felt it that day. I was in a classroom at St. Michael's School in Flushing, Queens when a nun suddenly came into a 7th grade English class and told the students to double-up in another classroom down the hall. It had a TV. We all had done this before for air-raid drills during the Berlin Wall and Cuban Missile Crises, or to watch the launch of John Glenn and his three-hour orbit of the earth. It was always scary or exciting or a combination of both. But the faces on the teachers were different this time. Before turning on the TV the nun told the crowded classroom that she had some bad news. The President had been shot. And they thought we should now all just watch the TV.

Everyone who was alive that day - Friday, November 22,1963 - remembers where they were when they heard the news. It was for our generation just like we used to hear our parents talk about how they remember exactly where they were and what they were doing on December 7, 1941, when the attack on Pearl Harbor was announced. I suppose it is like what all of us alive on September 11, 2001 will always feel.

After agonizing minutes of waiting the students watched, like the rest of the nation, Walter Cronkite announce officially that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had died. Wiping away his own tears, the newsman said that Lyndon Johnson would soon take the Oath of Office as the next President of the United States. Many in the class erupted in gasps and tears. The nun shut down the TV and told us to pray. They huddled with the other teachers and the principal and then announced that we should all go home to be with our parents and family.

I remember walking the always bustling streets of downtown Flushing on my way home and watching people walking in a daze, like zombies, talking to strangers or standing in front of local appliance shops just watching black and white TV sets in the store windows. It was eerie. I got home to my housing project on Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, but I was alone - both parents still at work in Manhattan. I couldn't call them because they were on their way back home also.

I didn't know where to go. But then I did! I ran out of my apartment like a maniac. I ran across the Roosevelt Avenue bridge under the IRT No. 7 subway trestle and ran and ran until I reached the gate that led into Flushing Meadow Park. There was the Administration Building for the upcoming 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, a one-story, unimposing prefab looking structure that stood outside the main construction site where the great international exposition was rising in the background. I knew why I had to come here. It was the only place where I could truly think about this moment that had had just seemed to change everything. All I could think about was another day, just barely a year before . . .

DECEMBER 14, 1962

When I had first seen that building in the late summer of 1962 it was a scary place where the Pinkerton Guards had unceremoniously dropped me off after stopping me from my sneaky excursions into the construction site of the Fair. Then, one day, the guard's "boss" spotted me and told his secretary to take my name and address down so they could send me stuff on the future Fair and I wouldn't get caught in that dangerous place until the Fair was ready in 1964. Shortly after that I started getting all kinds of neat stuff from the Fair: Progress Reports, Fair News newsletters, glossy photos of future Fair buildings, etc. It didn't take long to learn, pursuing these intriguing booklets, that the guard's "boss" was actually the FAIR'S BOSS - this guy Robert Moses, who my father proudly told me was "a great man -- he built Jones Beach!" Then one day in late November, I got another mailing from the Fair - but this one looked different. It was a typed letter saying that I was cordially invited to the Official Groundbreaking Ceremony for the United States Pavilion on Friday, December 14, 1962.

It sounded cool but that was a school day! I showed the letter to my teacher and she said it should be "very educational" and I could take off, but I had to write a little report on the event for the class. "Great!" But then I got a little scared. The building was still intimidating to me and when I called to RSVP, I asked if my parents could come. "No," I was told. "The invitation is only for one." My parents said I should wear a tie and jacket. For a 12 year old, former Pinkerton cop fugitive, this was frightening. I showed up at that dreaded Administration Building, invitation in hand and a tall Pinkerton guard was there to check it. He looked at me real hard, asked where my parents were and asked if I had any ID! I didn't. He went to the side and made a call on his walkie-talkie (I noticed he had a gun also). He then folded the letter, waved me on into that scary building and ... smiled.

Inside the Administration Building, everything was abuzz. Photographers, ADULTS, guards, ADULTS, pretty secretaries, cops, ADULTS. Then a nice lady came up and asked if I was lost. I just knew this was some kind of mistake, this invitation, but she put me at ease and asked me if I was excited to see the President. I thought she meant Robert Moses and I said "Yes." She laughed and said, "No. The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, PRESIDENT KENNEDY." It didn't say anything about that on the invitation! She said, "He's on the way from La Guardia right now and he'll be here in a few minutes." Just then another flurry of activity took place and, in the lobby, I could see the old man, the guard's "boss," right next to me in the very crowded lobby. Someone went to push me away but then the old man stopped and said, "Oh, here's my friend from the neighborhood. Glad you could come. Show him the model." Then I was whisked away into this large room where there was the most amazing toy I had ever seen. A huge scale model of the entire future New York World's Fair ... with lights! Forget the President! This was cool beyond belief!

President Kennedy surveys the model of the Fair with Norman K. Winston, US Commissioner for the Federal Pavilion and Mayor Robert F. Wagner, both to his immediate right.

But my fascination with the model was soon interrupted by a huge herd of photographers and reporters scrambling into the model room, pushing me to the side with lots of "outta the way kid" shouts. Before I knew it there was Mayor Wagner - such a familiar face on nightly local TV (I think I thought 'Maya' was his first name) and then the old man himself, Moses, and then President Kennedy. I couldn't believe my eyes. I noticed first his reddish hair (I only had seen him on black and white TV). His shoelace was untied. "My God," I thought, "He's human!" I remember for a few seconds how that scared me - he's the President but he's a person! The crowded room seemed to get very small. A Fair engineer with a huge pointer described the whole fair to the President. I noticed JFK constantly looking at a tiny helicopter on top of the Heliport model which was was right by his fingertips. Then everyone was escorted out of the room, down the narrow hallway, back out the main entrance to waiting buses that took everyone on the short ride from the Administration Building to the circular site set aside for the future US Pavilion.

Kennedy exits the model room on his way to the Groundbreaking Ceremony. Fair President Robert Moses is to his right.

THE CEREMONY

At the site there was a tent and a large bulldozer and the crowd of about 100. I watched as the President and dignitaries gathered under the tent. It was bitter cold and windy and you could hear planes from LaGuardia and the clanging of the No. 7 train in the background. I remember the scene looked majestic, maybe because I had never seen a ceremony before. The wood podium had a big Seal of The President of the United States on it. Wow! Then Mayor Wagner, Norman K. Winston (Commissioner of the US Pavilion) and Mr. Moses spoke. I could not believe that this was the same man who was kind enough to take the time to send me all that Fair stuff and now, here he is! With the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! In my backyard!

"We are delighted, Mr. President, that you have come personally to inaugurate the central exhibit of the World's Fair," Moses said. "And thus again to demonstrate dramatically your wholehearted support of this Olympics of Progress and to help us celebrate the 300th anniversary of a great city which has so long been a haven of hope and a bastion of freedom to the adventurous and oppressed of every land."

"We are in the midst of giant preparations which, to a trained eye, represent much more than volcanic disturbance of the landscape and rude interference with travel. Grover Whalen found long ago that it takes a certain amount of chaos to make a Fair. Shills as well as shovels are needed, and I speak for the shovelers."
Moses continued, "The breaking of ground for this pavilion is no childish prank. It marks the rising crescendo of construction and the beginning of order and harmony." He concluded by saying, "We want you to come again in 1964 to open this exposition, further emphasizing your leadership in world affairs and your confidence in peaceful assembly and healthy rivalry among the nations."

Then Moses gave Kennedy the first gold medal of the World's Fair and Kennedy took off his overcoat (which seemed risky due to the very cold and windy temperature) and spoke:

"I want to express my great appreciation to all of you who have been connected with this Fair. Mr. Moses, who has been working so hard to make it a reality; Mr. Winston, who has been working on the American exhibit; the Mayor who has given it his close sponsorship since it began, and all of you, particularly those of you who are building it."

President Kennedy addressing the crowd at the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the US Pavilion, December 14, 1962

"This is going to be a chance for us in 1964 to show 70 million visitors - not only our countrymen here in the United States, but people from all over the world -- what kind of a people we are. What kind of a country we have. What our people are like and what we have done with our people. And what has been done in the past and what is coming in the future."

"This is what a World's Fair should be about and the theme of this World's Fair - Peace Through Understanding - is most appropriate in these years of the 60's." Kennedy continued, "I want the people of the world to visit this fair and all of the various exhibits of our American industrial companies and the foreign companies, who are most welcome, and come to the American exhibit - the exhibit of the United States - and see what we have accomplished through a system of freedom."

"So we begin today," JFK concluded, "with this ceremony. We'll begin again in April of 1964. And we'll show what we have done in the past and even more important - what America is going to be in the future. Thank you."

With that the President jumped away from the tent and went straight to a group of construction workers who surrounded the large bulldozer that was nearby ready to begin the real excavation work after the hoopla and big shots left. Apparently, to the consternation of Fair planners who had the customary golden shovels ready for the dignitaries to break ground for the official photo-op, Kennedy instead went over to the earthmover where a driver was seated, reached up and shook the man's hand. The startled but delighted driver said "You want to try it?" Kennedy then immediately climbed up on the seat as the driver moved aside. With the aid of instructions, the President stirred up the ground for a short distance. The photographers loved it and Kennedy then got off the truck, walked and shook hands with the crowd (there were no barricades) and flashed the most winning smile I've ever seen.

When you hear stories today about that Kennedy magic, I can honestly say it was true. It was not just the fact that he was the President, but that clipped, cadenced voice in that crisp, cold air at Flushing Meadows that day struck me like nothing I had ever seen. Suddenly the Fair, which I had become enchanted with as an idea, took on a newer meaning. I didn't quite know what it was. The adults called it Kennedy's "New Frontier," but it seemed Kennedy and the Fair were on a launching pad to something very bright and good.

Mayor Wagner's remarks to the President echoed in my ears: "We are proud indeed to have with us on this occasion the great President of the United States. He honors us and honors this Fair by joining with us on this occasion. We salute him today, as the World's Fair will salute him in 1964 . . .We hope you will bring us luck -- the luck of the Kennedys and of the United States of America."

I got to shake Kennedy's hand. Then he waved and was gone. I think the whole thing didn't in total take more than about 45 minutes. But those minutes changed something in me. I walked back home and trying the next week to describe the event to my classmates, like my teacher requested, seemed to escape me. My backyard, my world, had changed.

COUNTDOWN

THE WHITE HOUSE Washington, D.C. October 5, 1961 Dear Mr. Moses: I have written the Mayor assuring him of my support of the World's Fair, which under your direction and leadership will be, I am sure most successful. You can be sure of my continued interest and the support of the Administration. I hope to be with you at the ribbon cutting. Sincerely, JOHN F. KENNEDY

The Fair had been born in the last days of the Eisenhower Administration but it was the renewed vision and vigor of the Kennedy Administration that injected the enterprise with the spirit of The Space Age, the optimism and purpose of a new world being born. Kennedy sensed the importance of the Fair in promoting his New Frontier agenda and personally approved the theme for the US Pavilion to be "Challenge to Greatness."

Thomas Deegan, Fair Executive Committee Chairman and Robert Moses, Fair President, confer with President Kennedy in the Oval Office. On the table is a presentation model of the Unisphere, presented to Kennedy as a gift from the Fair.

When Moses wanted a hearing at the White House over some problem with the Federal bureaucracy over the State Department's blockage of a Soviet Pavilion at the Fair (they didn't want it) or Congress' reluctance for a big appropriation for the Federal Pavilion, he got it from Kennedy. The President kept the miniature Unisphere that Moses had given him on a shelf in the Oval Office .It was an odd alliance I always thought, between this old lion and this young prince. But I would discover only much later what drew these two seemingly opposite types close together.

On April 22, 1963, one year before the opening day of the Fair, Moses held a meeting of the Board of Directors in the Administration Building, He had arranged to acquire an impressive looking "Countdown Clock" that had been used by the Seattle World's Fair in 1962. The Century 21 Exposition, as it was officially called, had used the machine to count down the months, days, minutes and seconds to opening day for that Fair. President Dwight Eisenhower had personally pressed the button in the center of the machine to activate it. Moses loved the clock and thought it would be a great incentive for all Fair workers to see it as they entered and left the Administration Building. So it was placed prominently in the entrance lobby. At that Board of Directors meeting, he arranged for it to be activated from the Oval Office by none other than the President of the United States using the first "touch-tone" push-button telephone.

The President's remarks were piped-in directly to the meeting. "Mr. Moses, Members of the Board, guests and builders of the World's Fair; In December I attended your Groundbreaking Ceremonies and, 366 days from today, I plan to attend your opening. We have a deadline to meet and by dialing "1-9-6-4" I launch the final phase of this great effort." With that, JFK pressed the four tones and, in true space-age fashion, the countdown clock began.

The "Countdown Clock" in the Fair's Administration Building. Note both the New York and Seattle World's Fair logos appear on the front of the Clock. The clock was acquired from the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. The large button in the middle was used to start the clock for the Seattle Fair by President Eisenhower. President Kennedy started the clock for the 1964 Fair's countdown by touch-tone phone.

NOVEMBER 22, 1963 - APRIL 22, 1964

It was those memories that drew me back to that Administration Building, that Park, on that fateful day in November, 1963. It was hard to look at that same place where I had seen President Kennedy, so alive, young and full of life and the future. I was not alone. Oscar Hengsltler, the old Scandinavian man who was the building's maintenance director, was lowering the three flagpoles to half-staff. The US, NY City and World's Fair flags went halfway down and I saw this proud man crying as he did it. I left him alone.

Inside the Administration Building, the bustle was gone. Secretaries, guards, Fair executives, press people, everyone, seemed dazed. More than a dozen people I heard say "I just saw him...he was right here" about the day, almost a year before, when JFK walked those halls. I just observed. But I came to that place for the very same reason. It was a way to try to touch something lost. I went to the darkened and quiet model room and looked at that Heliport model that seemed to so fascinate a President. The toy had lost a little magic for me but at the same time it seemed oddly more special because the President who was gone - had been there.

Then I spotted Marion Ritz, Moses' longtime personal secretary, who was telling the staff that Moses was "closing the Fair (meaning the offices) and everyone should go home." This surprised the staffers who knew Moses did not want to waste a minute's worth of work to meet the Fair's deadline. I then saw Ann Petaine, Moses' phone secretary, tearfully getting into her husband's car. She said, "You know I never saw the boss cry before." and then she said "Mr.Moses said it was just a cold he had. Just go home and be with your family." I think she was as unnerved at Moses' emotion as she was over her own.

The Administration Building was soon empty and dark with only a Pinkerton Guard at the lobby entrance. I found it hard to leave that place, but the guard said "you better go home now kid." As I left I noticed the only sound was the beeping seconds of that countdown clock. While the world seemed to stand still, it was still counting away the days, hours, minutes and seconds to an April day -exactly five months away- when the great Fair would open. But without the man who had started that clock.

Now I knew where to go. I walked back home.

"Don't let it be forgot that once there was a spot for one brief, shining moment that was known as Camelot."