(upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Expo '67 or bust."

This sign was tacked on the back of a pony cart driven by one of these three young men.

What is your name, please?

- My name is Tony Whittemore.

- My name is Tony Whittemore.

- My name is Tony Whittemore.

- My name is Tony Whittemore.

- [Announcer] Only one of these young men is the real Tony Whittemore.

- And in the spring of 1967, the principal of my school told my mother that I could not read a map.

- [Announcer] 100 people in our studio audience on, "To Tell the Truth."

- [Tony] And from that, the journey began.

(gentle music) - I was nine.

My brother Tony was 11 in the spring of '67.

I remember, I came into the kitchen.

My mother was standing at the counter and she wanted to talk to me, and my brother Tony said, "Jeff, do you want to go to the World's Fair in Montreal?"

And I didn't even know what the World's Fair was.

I was nine years old.

- [Announcer] The largest World's Fair ever, Expo '67.

The international twin island wonderland is ready for its gala opening ceremonies.

Host Canada is among 62 nations... - I just really wanted to go to the Expo, and if I got the bug in my ear, then my mother was never hearing the end of the fact.

We lived in Needham, just outside of Boston.

There was no way financially that we were gonna be able to do the 400 miles to get to Montreal.

But you couldn't tell my mother that something couldn't be done.

And I know she was really irritated that Mr. Jenkinson said that I couldn't read a map.

- It seemed like they had already discussed it, and we were gonna go to Montreal Expo '67.

We're gonna take the pony cart.

We're gonna go by pony cart.

So they explained it to me and it sounded like fun.

It sounded like Disney World.

- It was our ticket to go to Montreal.

I had no idea that it would turn into what it turned into.

(gentle music) My dad, bless his heart, was the squarest guy on planet Earth.

He just was, he was just super square.

Opposites attract!

My mother was different.

You know, we did stuff that other kids didn't do.

The kids across the street, they had plastic on their furniture.

At my house, you could play soccer in the living room.

- My mother always thought a little bit outside the box, as they say.

Learning by doing was really important for her.

My father, although there was, I think, some disapproval there, he tried to withhold judgment as far as allowing some things that he might have been a little fearful about.

Like this trip.

- I have no idea when my mother broke the news to him that, yeah, his two sons, 9 and 11, were gonna take the Shetland pony and a pony cart up to Montreal from Needham.

- [Tony] We had a pony that we used for delivering newspapers and pony rides for birthdays.

- King was our pet.

He was part of the family, we all loved him.

- King, he was a sweet pony.

He wouldn't hurt a fly, he was just gentle, which we later learned was unusual for a Shetland pony.

My mother indicated that we needed to start planning.

- We started doing the small stuff, you know, working with running King and getting him into good condition.

My mother did the big stuff.

- [Jeff] She put the tent together.

There was a basket under the seat of the pony cart.

We had our clothes in that.

She planned the whole thing out.

- [Tony] American Automotive Association, they provided us with maps and Triptiks and information.

- Tony and I learned to read maps.

We could see the cities, the towns, the route we were going to take.

We got good at it.

- And mom wrote to all of the townships that we would go through to let them know that we were coming in, to please be on the lookout.

(marching band music) - So the plan was, on the 4th of July, we ride the pony cart in the Needham parade, and then, the following day, we'd pack up and we head to Montreal.

It was exciting, it was all really exciting.

I think my mother did a very brave thing in letting us go.

- I mean, I look back and remember when my children were 11 and 9, would I have let them go?

I'm not sure.

But she had absolute faith that, with proper preparation, we would get this done.

- The day we left, my memory of it is just the thrill of being in the cart, hearing the clipity-clop came.

We were on this trip, on this adventure, no idea where it was gonna go.

We got our maps, we looked at the maps, we were off.

- I really didn't believe when we kicked off and left the driveway on the 5th that this was that extraordinary.

It never entered my mind that it could be dangerous.

I always thought that it was going to be a lot of fun.

(thunder rumbling) - [Jeff] That day, I think in the afternoon, we were caught in a brief, but torrential rain.

We had these little straw hats, they got soggy.

And the smell of a rainstorm in a hot summer, I can smell it now.

The sun came out after the rain.

Turned into a beautiful day.

Day two of our trip, trudging up the hills.

That was a very hilly part of the trip.

King, we were probably walking him, trotting him, walking him, and my brother and I noticed that we were being followed by a car.

(mysterious music) - And it followed us for a couple of hours, and it started to make us a little nervous.

- King goes five miles an hour, he's quite slow.

A car would not just follow us for two miles, it would be passed.

At that point, my brother and I, we were nervous and afraid.

We said, "Don't look, don't turn around."

- As we got into a populated area, I decided that I needed to find out who they were.

So I got out of the cart and went back and spoke with them.

As it turns out, it was a reporter and the staff photographer for the Boston Globe.

(camera shutter clicks) - [Jeff] That was our first introduction to any of the reporters.

(camera shutter clicks) - Jeff was a remarkable companion, but he really didn't like to talk to the press.

I've always been a smiley loudmouth, so I really didn't have any trouble talking to the press.

But we just didn't understand what was going on.

"You have nothing better to do than to follow two little kids on their way to Expo?"

- I have no idea why the press was so fascinated by this trip.

(upbeat music) The amount of attention and the amount of reporters that were following us, the trip definitely tickled something.

(upbeat music) - I was very surprised at how much press they got because, in the family I grew up in, a trip like that did not feel press-worthy.

But when you consider what else was in the news that summer, I think people just craved following a fun and feelgood story like the Pony Boys.

- [Tony] Oftentimes people would stop and talk with us.

They would walk alongside with us.

And we got a lot of personal attention from people.

- I remember people passing us and then pulling over.

Especially as we approached a town, there'd be crowds walking with us.

(hooves clopping) The first five or six days, we knew where we were staying, and then I can't remember how we knew where we were staying the rest of the trip.

- As the day started to end and we had put enough miles in, we would look for a house that had fencing around it, like they had animals.

You know, it's hard to say exactly, but it had a friendly vibe.

The first night we actually knocked on somebody's door, it was a little nerve-wracking.

But that first night, we stayed with a nice family, and after that, you know, if somebody turned us down, I don't remember it happening.

- For the whole trip, there was always a place to stay.

People were inviting us to stay with them.

We had to turn people down.

- [Tony] Everybody was very gracious and gave us nice meals, and we never even had to put up our tent.

- I hate to think about laundry.

As far as I know, I wore the same thing every day.

I think along the way I lost my shoes too.

I had sneakers when I left.

Towards the end of the trip, we didn't have sneakers.

- We got used to the press being a little bit in the background.

They became pretty good friends over the course of the trip.

And there was a point in time where a photographer said, "Well, you guys should feel honored.

This is the second color photo that has ever been in the Boston Globe."

(phone ringing) - While my brothers were on their trip, the phone calls started coming into the house.

We got phone calls that were supportive, "Oh, that's a great thing, the kids must be having a ball."

But we also got some phone calls from people who were quite free with their disapproval.

And the letters started coming.

There were letters that said, "You guys are fantastic, here's a dollar to help."

And there were a number of people who sent a dollar or $2.

It was very sweet.

But then there were letters that were very negative, people who said that my brothers should be removed from the home and my parents should be arrested and thrown in jail.

- I mean, some of them were even talking about the poor pony and how we were being cruel to the pony.

There were so many letters and complaints that when we were in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, the MSPCA examined King.

And he got a complete bill of health.

- King is from a breed designed to drag carts of coal from the bottom of mines out every day.

King was more than up to the task.

And as I like to say, King was probably the adult on that trip.

- King was definitely a caretaker.

They were in good hands.

Hooves!

- [Jeff] Every day was great.

We'd get up, we'd have breakfast, we'd greet King.

He would always greet us with a horse's little grumble.

- The days would start with us brushing King, cleaning his hooves, tacking him up.

We would go over the map, talk about where we were headed, and we would set goals as to where we were gonna get to by noon and set another goal for where we would try to get to by the evening.

- I think our goal was 20 miles a day, and depending on the terrain, it would be, more or less.

Tony would drive, then I would drive.

I'm not sure what we talked about.

- [Tony] You know, it was pre Walkman, or cell phone, or anything.

So we didn't have any portable entertainment with us.

We were our own entertainment.

- I know there was a song that we would sing, which was "Up, Up and Away" by the Fifth Dimension.

♪ Wouldn't you like to ride in my beautiful balloon ♪ ♪ Wouldn't you like to ride in my beautiful balloon ♪ ♪ We could float among the stars together, you and I ♪ - To this day, when I hear that song, it brings me right back to the pony cart.

♪ Up, up and away in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon ♪ - I think as we got closer to the border, that is one of the discussions Tony and I would talk about, whether we were gonna get through.

Not having any money or a place to stay, all I knew at the time was that it wasn't going to be easy.

- So it was probably the 25th day that we were at the border.

You know, with all the press and everything that had gone on, the border was a big deal.

- I could tell that the officers that were there waiting for us, I think that they were thinking, "Oh boy, here they are."

They were so nice to us, but they didn't let us just pass through.

- Somebody came out and said, "Where are you staying tonight?"

And we said, "We're not sure."

"So, well, then you can't cross."

- We were probably there for two hours.

And that's when my mother showed up.

She dealt with them.

You know, I think of my mother's involvement in the trip.

I thought she had nothing to do with it.

Once we were gone, it was Tony and I. I suspect, being my mother, that, you know, she was keeping a good eye on us.

But that's the only time I really remember her meeting up with us.

- She showed up as we were trying to figure out what the next step was gonna be, and I don't know what the conversation that ensued was, but about 25 minutes later, we were across the border and went on our way to Montreal.

(crowd cheering) - We were on the road for 27 days when we arrived at the Expo.

- Coming into Expo, imagine two little kids, 11 and 9, and the people were all cheering and smiling, and we were the arriving conquerors was kind of the atmosphere.

- We were greeted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

And the mounted police officer came right up to us, and King got very excited about this horse, this big horse coming up to us.

- That was kind of the official, "They have arrived."

- Joining them in Montreal was not the plan, as far as I knew, but because it became a famous trip, a bank sponsored flights to send us up to Montreal to join them, which we did.

And it was really fun and it was really good to see them.

- [Tony] When we met the family at Expo, first thing my sister Meg wanted to do was to make sure that King was okay.

- It's a funny thing being reunited with family.

At that point, we were surrounded by so many people and we were asked to sign so many autographs.

It's a bit of a blur.

- Wasn't long after that that we were ushered into a room with international press.

(cameras clicking) - [Jeff] There was a podium, loaded with microphones.

I had never seen so many microphones.

- [Tony] And here we were, two little kids, taking serious questions from serious reporters.

- I'm pretty sure that Tony handled the press conference.

I did read that I was shy.

Somebody said that, "Jeff was a little shy."

- [Tony] And once that was over, we were given VIP treatment all over the place.

(upbeat music) I thought Expo was a hoot.

It met my expectations times 10.

And when you get to see it as, you know, a celebrity, how could you be let down?

- I didn't even know what VIP meant at the time.

I do remember asking my mother, "Mom, what's VIP?"

She said, "A very important person."

And I was like, "Whoa, great!"

- GM had a car that had been cut in half and would unfold mechanically, and they unfolded it and let us sit in it.

I just thought that was the coolest thing that ever happened to anybody.

- It's an interesting thing, we wanted to go to Expo '67.

We got there.

And my feeling was, once I arrived and spent a few days in the exhibits, okay, we were done, I'm done.

The real adventure was the trip up there.

- When it was all said and done, and we'd made the trip home and unloaded King, there was a little bit of publicity after that.

- [TV Host] Incidentally, we'd like you to meet Tony's brother, 9-year-old Jeff Whittemore, who made the trip with him.

(audience applauding) - My brother and I were celebrities.

It was everywhere we went.

"Were you one of the Pony Boys?"

It was great fun, but it faded and it disappeared, and then we just became regular people again.

- You know, life kind of turned back to normal pretty quick.

The trip has been forgotten about, for the most part, which maybe is as it should be.

But, for my brother and I, it was a life-changing and absolutely remarkable experience.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)