“Wow! Look at that!” a rider shouted. Out the window were the Trylon and Perisphere—the Fair. Bert could see the huge globe and its attendant tower, bright and white in the morning sky. Everyone on the train gave the landmarks a glance.
The IRT discharged fairgoers at the Bowling Green Gate, where Bert paid seventy-five cents for admission and bought a guidebook for a dime.
It was only 10:30, so unless fate was to intercede there were hours before he would see Carmen again. He took a look at the Home Building Center, admired the sofa beds in Home Furnishings, and found the exhibits in the American Radiator Building just about hilarious. He kept chuckling to himself at the dazzling-in-those-days presentations by RCA, American Telephone & Telegraph, the Communications Building, and the museum-like presentations of the Crosley Radio Corporation.
He joined the line for Democracity, the lesson in social studies that was inside the Perisphere. He was soon talking with the Gammelgards, a family of six including grandparents, who had taken the train all the way from Topeka, Kansas, to spend a week at the fair. This was their very first day, and Pop-Pop Gammelgard said to Bert, “Young man, never have I dreamed the good Lord would allow me to see such a place as this.” Bert was happy to be considered a young man. His $756 billion afforded him every procedure in the world to look much younger than his sixty-one years.
He told the Kansans he had friends in Salina, which prompted an invitation for dinner at the Gammelgards’, should Bert ever find himself in Topeka.
All morning he checked out every woman dressed in green, hoping to find Carmen. He toured every building in the Court of Power, the Plaza of Light, and along the Avenue of Labor, where uniformed ladies working for Swift & Co. demonstrated the slicing and packaging of fresh bacon. At noon, he blew two nickels on hot dogs at Childs and compared the cut of his double-breasted suit to the fashions-to-come, according to the prophets of Men’s Apparel. He then walked all the way to the Amusements Area, heading for the tall iron tower that was the parachute drop. The Amusements were the Fair’s most popular attractions, and the carnival crowd was thick and jumbled. Bert circled the area again and again, stopping at the parachute tower repeatedly, expecting to find Carmen and Virginia as they rose up, up, up, and came down ka-joink. But they were never there. So he started one last, slow walk around the area and back toward the main fairgrounds.
Then he saw her! Not Carmen at first, but Virginia! He was crossing the bridge by the Amphitheater, where the Aquacade performed, when a multicar tram passed him, Virginia sitting on the rail and, yes, Carmen beside her! They had been among the amusement rides after all, and were now en route to the Plaza of Light. Bert checked his wristwatch. If he could catch up with that tram, he’d meet Carmen nearly an hour early! He ran.
He kept sight of the tram all along the Avenue of Labor, but lost them at the Schaefer Center on Rainbow Avenue. He just couldn’t keep up. The tram continued, passing the Court of States, then stopping at Constitution Mall to empty and take on new passengers. They had to be nearby! Sweating in that double-breasted suit, Bert checked Beech-Nut, Jewish Palestine, the YMCA, the Temple of Religion, and the Works Progress Administration, but no joy. Resigned to the singularity of the Time-Space Continuum, Bert was pivoting toward the lagoon benches when she appeared right in front of him.
Carmen was coming out of Brazil, holding Virginia’s hand. They were laughing. Good Lord, the woman laughed so much and her smile was so adorable. He almost called out her name but remembered they had yet to meet, so instead he fell in behind them by a few yards, following them across the walkway over the man-made river that fed the Lagoon of Nations. He didn’t trail them into Great Britain but headed for the bench. A few minutes later, there she was again, with Virginia. Right on time.
“Excuse me,” Bert immediately said, just as Carmen and Virginia were sitting down. “Do you ladies know if the Futurama is running today?”
“It is, but the line is very long. We spent all afternoon in the Amusements Area. What a time we had!”
“Have you rode the Parachute, mister?”
“I haven’t. Should I?”
“It’s not for the weakhearted.”
“You go up and up and up. You think you are going to come floating down slow and soft. But you don’t. You land ka-joink!”
“It’s true.”
“Have you seen the Futurama?”
“We didn’t want to wait through that long line.”
“I certainly don’t want to miss it.” Bert reached into the breast pocket of his suit. “And I have these special passes.”
Bert showed them the three heavy cards embossed with the Trylon and Perisphere and the letters VIP. “I’m told these will get us into the Futurama via a secret passage. No waiting. I have three. And I’m alone. Would you like to join me?”
“Oh, that’s so nice of you. But we are definitely not VIPs.”
“Believe me, neither am I. Not sure why I even have these.”
“Can we go, Aunt Carmen?”
“I feel like a sneaky pete. But let’s! Thank you so much.”
“Yes. Thanks! My name is Virginia and this is my aunt Carmen. Who are you?”
“Bert Allenberry.”
“Well, thank you, Mr. Allenberry. We’ll see the Future with you!”
The three chatted as they walked the length of Constitution Mall, below the huge statue of George Washington, and around the Trylon and Perisphere. Virginia told of all they had seen of the Fair in that day, most of it spent on the rides in the Amusement Area.
“Have you seen Electro, the Mechanical Man?” Bert asked. “He can add up numbers on his metal hands.”
The General Motors Building was next to that of the Ford Motor Company. Ford showed fairgoers how their automobiles were built, then let them drive a car along a dipsy doodle of a road around the building. GM took its visitors into the future, first by ascending a long ramp, one so modern they called it a Helicline, to a cleft in the architecture so majestic it looked like a gateway into the Promised Land. The line of people waiting to see Futurama looked to number in the millions.
But, flashing their VIP cards at a pretty girl in a GM uniform, Bert, Carmen, and Virginia were taken to a door on the ground level.
“I hope you aren’t tired,” the girl said. “We have a few flights to climb.”
The machinery of the Futurama bumped and whirred around them. They could hear music coming through the walls along with the murmur of a narration.
“You’ll notice the soundtrack matches exactly what you are seeing,” the girl explained. “GM is truly proud of the engineering that went into the Futurama. It’s absolutely modern.”
“Are we going to be driving a car?” Virginia asked.
“You’ll find out!” The girl opened a door revealing the starting point of the ride—sunlight and people were streaming in through the opening. “Enjoy your stay,” the girl said.
There were no automobiles, but rather a long train of wheeled, sofa-like carts lined end to end, each enclosed in a shell. Passengers were climbing into the shells, which never stopped moving as the cars passed through the opening of a tunnel.
The three intrepid voyagers climbed into one, Virginia first, then Carmen, followed by Bert. Before they knew it they were in darkness. Music played and a narrator welcomed them to America, as it would be in the year 1960. The voice was so clear it was like the announcer was in the car with them.
A city appeared before them—a world in miniature that stretched to the horizon. The skyscrapers in the center stood like trophies, some connected to each other by sky bridges. The narrator explained that in just a few decades American cities would be planned and built to the specifics of perfection. Streets would be clear and ordered. Highways would flow with modern automobiles—GM cars, each of them—with traffic that never cluttered or jammed. The sky would be filled with aircraft carrying goods and passengers to terminals as conveniently placed as filling stations. The countryside would be scattered with farms, homes, and power stations, supplying 1960 with all the food, space, and electricity the American people would need.