Ram Fountain

Our local community center was designed by Gottlieb Elial Saarinen, a world famous Finnish architect. Most of his famous works were done overseas, including the Finnish Pavilion at the Paris Worlds Fair, and the Helsinki Central railway station. He ended up teaching at the University of Michigan, which is about 40-45 miles from my hometown.

Later in life, he worked with his son Eero. The son is perhaps more well-known to us. Eero designed the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, a fancy name for the Saint Louis arch. Years ago my wife and I went up into the arch. The ride is not for the faint-of-heart, or for those who are claustrophobic. A small egg-shaped capsule with 5 people packed into it. When you reach the point where it arches, the small car "stalls" many times, and "rights" itself on the way to the top. The ride gave me the willies, but the view at the top was great. The ride gave me nightmares for many nights, and will probably return tonight from just talking about it.

The ram fountain consists of 7 separate rams spewing out water. 3 of the rams are gone. It had not worked for a long number of years until a local boy-scout re-did it for his eagle scout project. It was great to be able to see the sheep spitting again, but now is not working again. I wish I was handy, but I'm not.