re: On this day in 1984, the New Orleans World’s Fair opened

Went with my best friend at the time. We were between sophomore and junior year of Almost didn't ask and was shocked our mothers let up go. All I really remember was Fosters at the Aussie place and the mid-day total eclipse.

Went to that and the American Legion baseball World Series on the same trip. Got to meet Will Clark and Billy Martin. Martin asked 9 year old me if I was a bat boy. Told me not to worry about it, he had been a bat boy for a girls softball team. Had my Dad and Clark rolling with jokes that were over my head then. Wish I could remember them now.

Could you see that now in that shithole?

Latoya would be destroying the show!

The break-dancers on Fulton St after-dark always drew a crowd.

Then from the mid-80s and thoughout the 90s, I'd routinely see 2 or 3 of those same dudes busking below the Moonwalk stairs across the street from Jackson Square drawing even bigger crowds on fair-weather weekends.

I was five years old. I remember:

- Taking a picture with Seymour D. Fair
- Riding the gondola across the river
- Balloon animal guy from France
- Enterprise space shuttle
- Snack cart that sold chocolate covered bananas and my old man saying it looked like shite on a stick

That’s it. I do have some pictures boxed away somewhere.

I was in elementary school at the time. Still have fond memories of the Space Shuttle, kid wash, gondola, monorail, and a big viking ship somewhere (was there a Scandinavian exhibit?). I had no idea so many huge music acts played the Fair!

Looking back, albeit with imperfect recollection, I wonder if the early-to-mid-80s was the pinnacle of New Orleans life. Pre-oil bust. Pre-90s crime wave. Seemingly thriving professional and blue collar workers & their families supported by good jobs in Oil & Gas, Shipping/Logistics, and Aerospace & Defense. Areas like New Orleans East and Algiers were still growing and fairly safe / prosperous. Older neighborhoods like Mid City, Gentilly and the Irish Channel still had their original character. Lakeview and Old Metairie were on the nicer end of things but still family-oriented and not out-of-reach. The Orleans Parish public schools were generally awful even back then, but that was not the case in Jefferson Parish. People actually relocated to the New Orleans metro area. The notion of moving out to the North Shore seemed weird.

Early 80s New Orleans sure seemed similar to cities like Charlotte, Tampa, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio and other fast-growing mid-size metros of today. Not sure New Orleans and the larger metro area ever recovered.

Would love to hear what others who were a little older at the time think. Am I overly nostalgic? I purposely did not look at historical census or economic data to see if my recollections and perception is somewhat accurate or mostly nonsense.

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I remember me and my brother being terrified riding the gondola over the river. That thing was high in the sky

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Same, that shite was nerving racking as hell as a kid.

Its wild that they built a monorail and a 350' tall gondola ride over the river for that then tore it all down.

I went and met Bo & Hope. Got some autograph pics somewhere