On Memorial Day weekend fifty years before Nancy and I arrived in Portland, the Jantzen Beach Amusement Park opened on Hayden Island in the Columbia River. Named for Carl Jantzen of swimsuit fame who was one of the investors, it covered 123 acres and was the largest amusement park in the nation. It had four outdoor pools and one indoor, a ballroom, a fun house, two roller coasters, and a merry-go-round built in 1905 for the St. Louis World's Fair. Folks dubbed it the Coney Island of the West.
By 1970 with attendance down and the land value up, it was closed and replaced by the Jantzen Beach Mall. For a couple of decades, it prospered, primarily because Oregon has no sales tax and Washington, just across the river, does. Eventually, the competition from newer, bigger, flashier malls took its toll. It changed hands and the new owners tore about half of it down to make room for a collection of big box stores. They renamed it the Jantzen Beach SuperCenter. When we left for Alaska in 1999, it was a huge success.
This morning we drove the rental car there to look for a printer at Staples. The march of time it seems has once again passed this place by. Several of the "new" stores are vacant, others have been torn down. Ironically, Best Buy, which is now an anchor store in what remains of the 1970s mall, seemed about the only one doing much business.
We did well with our shopping, however. We found an HP printer/scanner/copier on clearance for $51.50. I guess I'm just getting old, but it seems like just yesterday that these multi-function machines first hit the market--big, heavy and expensive, but incapable of doing anything very well. The one we got is compact, light weight, can even print photos, and they were practically giving it away. How's that possible?
At noon I drove Nicole over to Van Mall to meet Tracy, a girl she has known since they were three but hasn't seen in a very long time, not unlike my friend John and me. Their reunion was the main reason we got to Vancouver several days before Nicole's flight.
They had met in a Montessori school that now is located right by the mall, but when they attended was in the old Academy building in downtown Vancouver. After I went back to pick her up, we drove by there. Though many of the stately old trees have disappeared, the building itself has changed little. Just down the street, Officers' Row at Fort Vancouver, which includes the Grant house where a young Ulysses S. Grant lived while stationed here, seemed frozen in time, and a mile or so farther on, the neighborhood of small houses built during World War II to house Kaiser Shipyard workers remained intact, as well.
It was all as I remembered and it felt wonderful. I couldn't stop smiling.
Day 74
Vancouver, WA
Daily Mileage: 0
Total Mileage: 12,169.5
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