02 January 2006

[pdx_life] Zim's Ball: Gone But Not Forgotten

From The Oregonian we find some good-ish news.

Over the last year The O has been running an ongoing series (in the East Metro pullout) about Gresham's first 100 years (it's Gresham's official centennial year). Now, I rib Gresham a lot but the series has been very interesting with many good pictures and stories. This last week was no exception.

The last page of it was a collection of quotes taken over the year. One was a loving rememberance of Zim's Shopping Center (223rd and SE Stark) by Jan Weston of Weston Pontiac, the firm that acquired the land and subsequently cleared off the old Zim's building, including the landmark ball-shaped sign (which I eulogized earlier).

The O quoted Jan as saying that the ball been carted away to storage. It didn't say what they planned on doing with it, but I certainly hope we can see it put up again some day.

Good on you, Weston-the building was dilapidated, but the sign was unique. I'm hoping you honor it's uniqueness.

5 comments:

meagan said...

ooh, relocated post :-)

Samuel John Klein said...

Uh-huh. B-]

Imagine how I felt when I saw this in the RSS feed from Zrharc! about two days after I posted it. I was kinda surprised nobody complained about it.

Sorry about that!

meagan said...

I just thought it was funny; I'm always worried about posting in the wrong blog.

Anonymous said...

The Ball Lives On!

Google this:

NE 223rd Ave & SE Stark St, Gresham, OR 97030

You can see the ball and its shadow quite clearly.

Samuel John Klein said...

Well, that's true. Google Maps's satellite images aren't live, of course; they can be as many as several months old, so 'artifacts' such as that can remain long after being cleared away; a sort of distrbuted, silicon-enhanced afterlife.

It is a cheerful thought though, and thanks for sharing it.

I'll not load it, alas; for my flaky-damned dialup connection, loading Google Maps is a one-way ticket to the intersection of SE Carrier Drop Street and Unexpected Hangup Avenue.