The thing people get wrong about the old food court fountains

I keep seeing posts calling those big tile fountains in mall food courts from the 80s and 90s "water features" or "art installations." No, they were just really expensive places to lose your keys and have your little brother fall into after eating a Sbarro. I spent every Saturday at the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, New Jersey from 1987 to 1993, and that fountain was mostly a coin graveyard with pool float toys stuck in the filter. People forget those things were LOUD too, you couldn't hear your mom calling you from across the food court over the water. Am I the only one who remembers the smell of chlorine mixed with day-old Chinese food coming off those things?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowan_hayes17d ago

And you remember how that pump would always sound like it was dying around 2pm on a Sunday, right?

rivera.keith17d ago

And the pump dying was the best part because the water level would drop just enough to see the mountain of change and random trash at the bottom. I swear half the coins in there were from 1982 and worthless. My cousin threw a whole slice of pepperoni pizza in once to see if it would float. It did not. Worst part was they never cleaned those things, just added more chlorine to mask the fact there was a happy meal toy decomposing in the drain.