Expo 86 memorabilia on display at the Museum of Vancouver

The Museum of Vancouver has a selection of items from Expo 86 on display to mark the fair's 30-year anniversary.

Vancouver ciy councilor George Affleck was at the museum on Monday to help cut a couple of large 'birthday' cakes and kick off the exhibit.

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The councilor remembers Expo well. It was a coming-of-age for Vancouver and for Affleck as well, who took time off school to work as a 21-year-old host at the B.C. pavilion.

"[It was] a very pivotal moment for me in my life, but of course, it was also a pivotal moment for the city of Vancouver, and the province and how we were positioned on the world stage," said Affleck, squeezed into his old, blue B.C. pavilion uniform jacket. "We suddenly had the world's attention."

"It was really kind of like Disneyland when you went through the gates," he said. "You had this, sort of, surreal, positive experience of the world."

Affleck said that much of his experience at Expo is what you'd expect from dozens of 21 year olds, and some can't be shared in good company. He fondly recalls pranks between his pavilion and the neighbouring Ontario and Australia pavilions. 

Bruce Wilkie was at the museum on Monday to relive some of the glory of the massive event. He was in charge of ticket sales for Expo 86.

"For me, it was more fun before it opened. You know, we were selling the dream for three years before, When the gates opened, it was a totally different experience," said Wilkie. "It got real."

Wilkie said the Knoxville World Fair four years earlier hadn't performed especially well, and there was a lot of pressure to surpass it in Vancouver. 

"We were a little uncertain to begin with. We thought maybe we'd only have 13 million visits, however we did 22 million," he said.

"From a historical standpoint, it was quite spectacular," said Wilkie. "Vancouver changed quite a bit after Expo 86, and we're all pretty proud of the work that we did there. It was a tremendous success, obviously."

The city was forever changed by the event. Vancouverites routinely make use of the SkyTrain, B.C. Place, Canada Place, Science World, the Cambie Street Bridge, and the Alex Fraser Bridge — all buildings and infrastructure pushed to completion for Expo. 

Clive Ramroop was only 10 in 1986, but he was at the museum on Monday filling out a page in the book where people can log their memories.

"I only have a few flickers of memories from the Expo fair," he said. "When you're that age, anything like the SkyTrain or monorail is going to be a big deal to you as a kid."

Rita Baldwin, 91, remembers systematically taking in every single part of the fair.

"My husband and I — about three times a week — every night after work — we started at the Main Street gates and we got through and started going through the exhibits there," she said. "Each visit we moved a little further in. It took us almost five months or so to get through, because I couldn't miss anything."

"I remember the excitement of it all. I used to be so thrilled to come here."

Baldwin's daughter, Barbara Constantine, was a young reporter for CKVU during the mid-1980s. 

​"The SkyTrain was open from the Stadium Station to what's now Science World," she remembered. "Everybody rode it for just one stop."

Constantine was assigned to cover an opening party full of celebrities a year before the fair opened. She said one travel writer warned her the event would ruin the wonderful city, once the world came trampling through.

"Over the next few years, he was right, the world did come here, but what happened was the world brought all of its cuisine and culture and the city did change — for the most part, really, for the better," said Constantine. "It's not spoiled."

The Museum of Vancouver's special $4 entrance fee (the price of admission to the museum in 1986) was only in effect on Monday, but the exhibit, Recollecting Expo 86, will be on display through to the end of the summer.