Don't Drink the Koolaid!

“The Koolaid Fountain”  Watercolor.   © 2023  Linnie Aikens Lindsay

In the late 1960’s, they called it the “Kool-Aid Fountain” for the alternating pastel colored waters of the Mulholland Fountain near the entrance to Griffith Park. Every ten seconds, the fountain lights would change colors, and so too the waters shooting 50 feet into the night sky. This fountain was an iconic daily sight in my youth, as well of that of my parents who’d also lived in the same area and drove by or hung out here daily. In the sixties “buck the establishment” period of American history, or at least Los Angeles & Hollywood history, the moniker took on a different meaning tied to an admonition to all to “beware of drinking the Kool-Aid,” in this case, beware of trusting government, corporations, and institutions in general.

As a note here, for those of you who may not know; Kool-Aid™ was a fruit-flavored, powdered drink mix introduced in Nebraska in 1927 and was still a wildly popular drink in the 1960’s. It is still somewhat popular with kids in the 2020’s, with its rainbow of flavors.

  The fountain had been erected in honor of Mulholland in 1940, a civic leader attributed with the vision and design of the first Los Angeles aqueduct system, now in the 60’s was being criticized for his dishonesty in stealing land from the natives in order to build the aqueducts, which locals have always called the L.A. River (Los Angeles River). In the 60's, the Koolaid Fountain moniker took hold more than ever.

To us teenagers, while we’d heard all of these stories as kids, we were more concerned with the fun-factor when it came to the fountain. Kids of all ages waded in the waters of the 90 ft. concentric pools of the fountain. When we had drivers in our ranks, we’d go pick up the birthday boy or girl when they were in bed at midnight, haul them out into the night in their pajamas and throw them into the colorful reflecting waters.  We’d dance and sing around the fountain.  Much later I reflected that the scene often had the feel of Burning Man, silhouetted dancers around the fire shooting high into the air. It was the 1960’s and 70’s, so the fountain dancers too were often under the influence of one substance or another, letting their spirits dance joyfully.  Of course, I wasn’t; too afraid of getting in trouble. I just deferred when offered and said a line I’d heard and adopted, “I’m “high on life,” to much eyerolling of friends.  My friends and their older siblings, many of whom were in our unlikely Church high school group, were not so constrained by dos and don’ts.  They fully embraced the “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid” philosophy as it were.

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Note: All artwork, stories and observations posted within should be credited to the author, Linnie Aikens Lindsay (unless cited in the post). Permission is required for any use of my words or artwork. Taken from my work, "My Life As Wallpaper Art".