By STAN STAPP

FORTY YEARS AGO (the day before it opened to the public) I toured Century 21, Seattle's space-age World's Fair. In that one day, with other journalists, I probably saw only a tenth of its exhibits and new buildings, including a trip to the top of the Space Needle, and rides on the Sky Ride, and the Monorail. Yet to come that summer of 1962 would be a more thorough look at my favorite exhibits, including a night-time visit and dinner at the Space Needle, and Gracie Hansen's popular, but "tasteful" bare-breasted show.

(That same summer, Gracie served as one of three judges in choosing Miss Wallingford as our local Queen, the other two being Al Cummings, theatrical actor/director and radio personality, and John Franco, restaurateur. The winner was Gloria O'Flaherty.)

Perhaps the greatest impression I carried away from the Fair was, that despite the immense strides humans have made in the field of science - as amply demonstrated in exhibit after exhibit - there were still some pretty big gaps needing to be filled in.

For example, consider these inconsistent situations:

1. A boy visiting the Fair could step up to a satellite-tracking station and as a guest operator "lock on" to a radio signal from an actual satellite circling the earth ... yet a young man from IBM, acting as a guide for a group of us newspaper people, got lost trying to figure a way around the new Opera House.

2. The Phone Company showed us push-button dialing, machines that talk to other machines, and how easy it is to phone all over the world ... yet when I was unable to complete a phone call from the Space Needle, not only did the phone company give me my own dime back - but two others to boot.

3. And despite IBM computers demonstrating how automation is widening science's horizons on an ever-increasing scale ... as for myself, I wasn't smart enough to figure out the simple combination of patterns that a pigeon could decipher well enough to reward itself with food, by pecking at the right ones.

4. In another exhibit, we were ably guided around the sun, past distant nebulae out of the Milky Way to a super nova two billion light years from earth and safely back ... but upon our return, it took the combined efforts of a dozen edgy newspeople and one worried Century 21 guide to finally locate a restroom on the fairgrounds - and just in time.

One summer night Wallingford business people and residents were invited to visit the Spanish Village at the Fair and enjoy a traditional Paella dinner for $4. Reservations were made through the Outlook newspaper, and a chartered bus picked us up from the Food Giant (now Wallingford QFC) parking lot. The Spanish Village was sponsored by eight Wallingford businessmen: Frank Polletta, Bill Jensen, Ray Fleek, Vic Green, Dorwin Cook, Dick Thompson, Howard Ross, and Tom Horike.

The eight men had invested some $5,000 each (totaling about $50,000) in the Spanish Village which had about 75 Spaniards in a village setting: kitchen workers, waiters, flamenco dancers, tuna singers, and others. None of the Wallingford men expected "to get rich" from their investment, but had hoped they would at least break even. But the Spanish Village, $200,000 in debt, had to close early. Fifty Spaniards were sent home, and Century 21 took over the operation.

Although the Wallingford backers lost their investment, one man felt he had made out all right. Frank Poletta, owner of Frank's Serv-U Super Market, 4268 Aurora Avenue, acquired a beautiful Spanish bride, Milagros Lopez Cisneros.

Perhaps a ride on the Goodyear Blimp was my most exciting event of the World's Fair. Its headquarters were at the Interbay Parking site, formerly a garbage dump, on which the Fair had spent $211,000 to construct. However, it turned out to be unneeded, and Goodyear spent $2,000 "reconverting" the site to an airfield by removing some wooden barriers, erecting a mooring mast, and running its flag up on the office flagpole.

Besides myself, several other Outlook people were on this ride: Carl Bengtson, advertising manager; Herb Weckworth, Trudy's husband; and Jack Johnson Jr., son of our staff photographer.

Ropes dangling from the blimp as it approached us were grabbed by the ground crew, arresting its movement so that the previous passengers could make a hasty exit, and we could take our turn. The blimp jumped around as we tried to get on the rope ladder and into the gondola. There we were greeted by our pilot, J. C. Maloney, who made a rapid climb, and then inquiring:

"Where would you like to go?"

"To Outlook Land!" we shouted - pointing in the direction of Wallingford.

So we headed north, crossing the Ship Canal, over Ballard, then eastward to the heart of our North End delivery area, cruising along at about 35 miles per hour at an elevation of a thousand feet - slow enough that we got a good look at Wallingford, Greenwood, Fremont, and Green Lake. For the first time I discovered that the Home of the Good Shepherd (now the Good Shepherd Center and Meridian Playfield) had a large beautiful swimming pool, filled with "blue water."

After exploring around for some 40 minutes (Jack Johnson Jr. taking some photos) we returned, circling the Fairgrounds and over the Space Needle a couple of times, and back to Interbay. We all agreed this is the only way to see Seattle, in a blimp that travels slowly enough that one has time to enjoy the view.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention we were able to spot Trudy Weckworth (our news editor) waving at us from her then-home at 1912 N. 47th St., just like she said she would do.

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Such were some of the highlights of Seattle's 1962 World's Fair. However, the following summer a number of local folk dance groups were invited to put on a series of exhibitions at the Fair's Music & Dance Center (now the Northwest Rooms). Several dance clubs took on one Sunday night each, and Festival Folk Dancers, my group, took on the remaining six nights. I was the emcee each night and played the records. Most of us wore our costumes. We attracted several hundred people who seemed to enjoy our efforts, the music, and costumes, and the dances from all over the world.

I challenged the audience to name a country whose dance we didn't know - and then promptly found a record and dance we could! Most of the time I came up with one, but I admit, occasionally I had to slip in a dance that wasn't really from the country named -The audience enthusiastically enjoyed our program, and also the chance to sit down after they'd spent hours traipsing around Century 21's Second Year of the Fair.

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Gene Buck, who has been leading the Leo Lassen Legacy Project, reports that a number of sports fans have endorsed the idea of naming the new Lower Woodland Ball Park after Leo. He was known and loved as "Mr. Baseball," radio broadcasting the Seattle team for many years, first when they were the Indians, and later as the Rainiers.

Among the endorsements are those of: Norm Dicks, member of Congress; John Spellman, former Washington Governor; Brian Sonntag, Washington auditor; R. W. Duncan; and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Donations to the Leo Lassen Legacy Project should be mailed to Gene Buck, 8311 54th Ave. S, Seattle, WA 98118-4702.