The top of the Space Needle was recently painted Galaxy Gold just like it was in 1962 when my parents took the above picture. The Space Needle was built for the Seattle World's Fair, also known as the Century 21 Exposition. The fair was held from April 21 to October 21, 1962. The theme of the fair was focused on science and the future, hence the visionary design of the Space Needle. Today the top of the Space Needle is normally white, but in honor of the sixtieth anniversary it has been returned to its original Galaxy Gold.
My parents attended the 1962 World's Fair just a few weeks after the birth of my older brother. My mom recently pointed out that she looks tired in this photo, which is not surprising since they had a newborn at home. But she said they were not about to miss the World's Fair!
1962 was a big year for my parents. They had just returned home from Germany that spring after serving two years in the Army, which while a serious assignment to be sure, was a bit of an extended honeymoon for the newlyweds. Returning home in the spring of '62 pregnant with their first child and having to settle into a new routine as an "old" married couple was a definite jolt to their idyllic European experience.
You can see my mom in these pictures using the Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) flight bag she was given on her return trip to the US as a day bag for their visit to the World's Fair. She is pretty sure she brought their lunch in that bag - the lunch she is eating in the picture below. Knowing my mom, I imagine that to her the SAS bag was symbolic of the life they had left behind and using it that day was a small shout out to say, hey, they were world citizens and proud of it.
