Recently while driving, we passed a woman drinking from one of these. I was immediately taken to the past!

Growing up we had drinking fountains like this in all the city parks and on the playground at school. Water never tasted as good as on a hot day when it gurgled up from below ground (I could hear it arriving) and splashed up to my mouth, into the dish, down the overflow drain. There are many modern versions of this from the same company, Murdock.

Murdock’s M-1776 Old Style was one of the very first water fountains to exist, and it’s still manufactured in our factory today. While fabrication methods might have changed with the invention of new technology, our commitment to durability, longevity, and style remains unchanged. In fact, many of our century-old models are still in operation today and can still be repaired with original parts.

https://www.murdockmfg.com/history

Just one glimpse of that drinking fountain and it might as well have been 1958 for me. Eight years old, playing in the park. And if you can imagine, unsupervised by adults.

What was your favorite? The swings, the monkey bars, the teeter/totter?

Enjoy Bob showing the Grandgirls how to dominate a teeter totter!

When was the last time you let yourself go to a park? Outside to play? Drink from a drinking fountain? Better hurry, because in winter they turn off the water to our fountains in the parks.

Celebrating the company’s 170th anniversary in 2023, President Bob Murdock reflected on the Murdock legacy and looked forward on new innovations: “If you had the opportunity to go out there and be in a park, chances are you were out there with your family, at a picnic, and Murdock was there in the picnic shelter. Having that long history of involvement with the public is, more than anything else, why the Murdock brand remains strong. As we continue the innovation, all the things that we’re doing to make it a much better product, we’re building on the legacy of what it was in the very beginning.”

Bob Murdock