This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
There's nothing quite like a creepy clown fountain on a hot summer day. The leaking hose, the menacing grin, the turbo water, the hard plastic hat that falls on you during the frolic, it's all part of the fun of the Wham-O Fun Fountain. Sure the thing hurt when it fell on you, that's why you learned how to make it fall on someone else. And they knew it was coming, so they learned how to avoid getting hit. These are life lessons. Lessons lost on future generations following a variety of CPSC recalls and replacements due to actual injury. Nevertheless, every year when the weather starts warming, the clown calls from beyond the land of lost toys and whispers to me, "Is this the year we find each other again?"
