nywf64.com: What were your greatest challenges in creating the website?

BILL YOUNG: Definitely learning how to use HTML. The program that allows the website to have drop-down menus was a "canned program," meaning it was an existing free program that one could download and incorporate in their web pages. I believe it is written in either the "C" or "C++" computer language and it took me a while to figure out how to make it work for nywf64.com. I still struggle with it today.

Another problem was trying to figure out how a visitor to the website would want to navigate it to find information. There are literally thousands of pages of photos and information on nywf64.com and how does one make them accessible to people? As this interview takes place, I'm in the process of making some drastic changes to the navigation of the website. Over the past 25 years, how people access websites has changed. In 2000, it was most common for people to use desk top or lap top computers to view nywf64.com. Today it surely is by phone. So I'm in the process of making things like icons larger so that they are easier to "tap" on a cell phone. I'm also relying less on "drop-down" menus for navigation and more on static web pages instead.

I'm also in the process of converting as much of the web page content into PDF files as I can. This is an idea I stole from Bill Cotter's website, WorldsFairPhotos.com. PDFs allow a visitor to easily resize content to make it easier to view. They also allow for easy printing of documents. These are two things that web pages are bad at.

Overall, it has been a challenge to keep adding things to nywf64.com and to try to keep it relevent. For example, I have a section on World's Fair Legacies that feature the pavilions and objects that survived the Fair and were relocated elsewhere in the country. Twenty-five years ago I wrote about AMF Monorail Car No. 6 being in Texas and sets of the Glide-a-Ride trains relocated to a fairgrounds in New York. Are they still there 25 years later? Possibly not. I still have tons of information on the Fair in my files. I hope to get it all online before a die -- chuckle here.

nywf64.com: What has been the most rewarding thing about having nywf64.com?

BILL YOUNG: Knowing that I'm providing people with information about the Fair. In that respect I feel I'm trying to keep the memory of the Fair alive today. I'm very proud that I can feature unusual things like plans for pavilions and exhibits that were never produced. I'm also very proud and greatful for the contributions that other people have made to the website ... various essays and features that they provided over the years. Eric Paddon's and Craig Bavaro's contributions come to mind. Perhaps the most rewarding thing that has come from the website are the number of wonderful people I've met and have become friends with. People like Gary Holmes, Craig Bavaro, Liz Klug, Mary Ellen Coughlan, Bill Cotter, Mike Kraus, Ryan Ritchie, Greg Buracker and many more. Had it not been for nywf64.com I'd have never gotten to know them. Well maybe not Bill Cotter had I not been too chicken to introduce myself to him in New York at the bourse so many years ago.

Bill Young with his prized collectible

nywf64.com: How has the website changed over the years?

BILL YOUNG: Besides the logos, the change has come in the amount of content that has been added. There's A LOT OF STUFF on nywf64.com. A website reviewer a number of years ago said of nywf64.com, "You can spend an insane amount of time on this website" and it's true. There was also, at one time, a forum that was a part of the site. That spun off on its own and I think it's still going today. The biggest change to the site came when I added the drop-down menus feature. They were all the rage at one time for websites but are much less so today. Still, they are handy for navigation. I just need to use less of them.

I've also tended, over the years, to focus on the idea that the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair is the best representation of the era we called "The Space Age" and if there is a "theme" to the website it would be that. I also like to tie-in the cartoon series The Jetsons because, in optimism and style, that cartoon reminds me of the Fair! That shows itself in the current Home page and the About page where I make the connection.

The Jetsons' Orbit City looks like the Fair!

BILL YOUNG: In some ways, that's hard to say. I have to admit that I can become bored with it when my focus turns from the '64 World's Fair to my other collecting interests. From 2022 until just recently, I didn't do a single thing to nywf64.com for four years! It's only been recently, since I've come in contact with Greg Buracker, that my interest has been rekindled. I hope to do a spotlight on Greg for nywf64.com. Greg is, as of this interview, in his early thirties. Obviously he never went to the Fair. It happened over 30 years before he was born! Yet he is as fascinated by it as I am. He represents a new generation of people that the Fair has captivated. I consider him to be the next World's Fair Historian and my plans are to donate my collection to him in the future as I know he will cherish it and preserve it.

nywf64.com: Anything else you'd like to touch on?

BILL YOUNG: I think that pretty much covers everything. I'd just like to say Thank You to anyone who reads this ... for taking the time and interest to do so. If you've read this it means that you're visiting nywf64.com and I really appreciate your doing so!!