Fountains of Youth
I think water fountains have finally gone the way of the pay phone. I saw a water fountain over the weekend, two actually – one at a mall, another at an airport – but before that, I can’t remember when the last time I saw one was, let alone two.
This is a difficult situation to assess, proving that something doesn’t exist. It’d be one thing if a tiny plaque was installed at the location of a former pay phone, or water fountain, indicating “HERE ONCE STOOD…” It’d be helpful if some wiring or piping was left sticking out of the ground, or wall – in that case, a plaque wouldn’t be necessary because we’d be able to figure it out, y’know.
Water fountains disappearing, if they are, is a sadder truth to bear.
Pay phones are so much less useful nowadays because of the ubiquity of cell phones, of course. The cost of maintaining a pay phone probably outweighs its profit. And they can be garish-looking things, all unused and empty. Eyesores, all.
Water fountains are so much less useful than they used to be, but not because of a rather involuntary shift in telecommunications standards (whereby You have a cell phone because you basically have to have one, like having a car in LA). No, their downfall, while also the result of companies replacing something public with something private, is also the result of that large portion of us being dumb enough to insist on buying both bottled water and the illusion that it’s the only potable water around, when in many cases the public water supply is perfectly satisfactory for drinking.
It’s private ownership that I’m talking about – there’s too much of it, certainly on the small scale. Think of the difference between buying a DVD you’ll watch once yet own forever, instead of getting Netflix and simply paying for the service. Now, DVDs you love, and will watch annually, yes by all means own those. It’s only practical. But otherwise, share and share alike, huh? City streets and squares are no longer places to commune, just places to walk through on the way from one building to another. It’s just as glamorous movie palaces have given way to antiseptic private screening rooms with twice the legroom but much less than half the charm. It’s just as pay phones and water fountains – water fountains, which provide such a basic human necessity – have vanished into the private sector.
We are not alone.
That’s the point.
December 15th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Its sad how we forget to utilize the simple things. Even sadder knowing this could help protect our environment!