Seattle: Finds

Seattle World's Fair, 1962

            I went to a couple of estate sales this morning, both in really beautiful houses overlooking Lake Washington. It’s fun to get to be inside these houses and take a glimpse at someone’s life. But I can’t help feeling a little sad. I walked into one man’s room and found style and grammar guides on top of a beautiful cherry writing desk. It was the perfect writing room high up in the house looking out into the beauty of Seattle. I could see myself sitting there typing away and I could imagine what it must have been like for this gentleman. I wonder what he wrote, what he read and really just who he was. I take some time to reflect on the person who left all these treasures behind.
            As I was looking around the downstairs living area in one house, I ran across some memorabilia from the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair – a guidebook, some tickets and a brochure. I’ve always found world’s fairs to be fascinating. It’s amazing the way people came together and built these temporary cities to introduce the world to technology and global culture. It’s fun to imagine what it must have been like walking around Seattle Center when the buildings were brand new, riding the monorail for the first time ever, seeing the Space Needle towering overhead. The brochure shows the Seattle skyline and there’s Smith Tower shooting above its neighbors, not dwarfed as it is today.
            As I work on my book, I’ve been thinking a lot about the people who’ve lived in Seattle all their lives. I bought the world’s fair memorabilia because it was interesting, but it occurs to me that I just purchased someone else’s memories. It makes me all the more determined to make my own. I think about the things I’ve kept with me to remind me of the trips I’ve taken and the things I’ve seen in my life. The world may be an ever-changing place, but it’s no less full of wonder than it was in 1962 Seattle when the world was marveling at the Space Needle and anticipating the parade of cultural and recreational activities about the take their city by storm. 

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