Contrary to what Simon and Garfunkel sang, it didn’t all happen at the zoo.  A great deal of it happened at Riverfront Park.

When Expo ’74 closed down, the area became a city park for Spokane.  Some of the pavilions were of an exposed pole design.  The electrical wiring had to be run on the surface, and yet appear artful and neat.

There were many bollard light fixtures.  They made me think of hitching posts.

We installed street lights that were designed to appear like old time street lights that had an open flame.  The old time street lights required “an old lamplighter from long long ago” to light them up at night.  In recent years the park has removed and replaced those fine old light fixtures with new designs.  I have often wished I had access to such treasures.  I could see them fitting in just fine in my own yard.

We also installed electrical wiring for the decorative water fountains.  Not only was there lighting with the water fountains, but the fountains would spout up in changing patterns.  Do you sometimes wonder how the fountain is controlled to make the water spout up at different heights and patterns?  They require special pumps, plumbing, controls and wiring.

There are many things we look at and admire, but usually without realizing the effort and expense put into them for our enjoyment.

One time I was given the job of putting in some special wiring for a “Pigout in the Park” event at Riverfront Park.  Part of the job required me to dig in a conduit run through a portion of the finished lawn area.  The run was down an extended slope.  I had to dig up the sod carefully, so that after installing the conduit, the backfill could be done and make the sod look like it had not been disturbed.

After I was finished, at some point the sprinkler system came on.  The water ran down the slope and filled up the junction boxes I had installed on the downward portion of the lawn.  I had to do some re-designing to make it work properly.  (Because, as we all should be aware, normally electricity and water do not mix well.)

All of the work in that job had to be accomplished quickly, as the event was scheduled to open in just a couple of days.

There were many more things that occurred there.  Many of those things happened to me for the first time at Riverfront Park.