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Poletop cooler's a fond tribute Photo by Steve Johnson Thanks to an offhand remark from his wife, Jim Weaver's lunch box is enshrined atop a power pole. Over the years, the red-and-white lunch cooler mounted atop a power pole in south Medford became a kind of community mystery. Jim Weaver would hear people talk about the cooler and the 40-foot pole, which is next to the railroad tracks near Abby's Pizza at Barnett Road and South Riverside Avenue. The retired Pacific Power foreman would read about it in the newspaper once in a while, usually a query from a reader wondering why it was there. Now Weaver is fessing up: It's his. "It got retired the same day that I did," Weaver said. On Feb. 1, 1995, Weaver's Pacific Power co-workers used a spike to mount his lunch box on the pole behind the pizza parlor where they held his retirement party. Skip Patterson, the company's general manager in Medford who also retired last year, said that linemen -- who are often called to fix power lines in the middle of winter storms -- have a risky profession and this was a show of camaraderie. He said he didn't know whether the lunch cooler met company specifications. "Sometimes management and the union work force don't discuss some of those most intimate details," Patterson said. Sharp-eyed Jackson County residents can find other tributes around the area: A yellow hard hat is mounted on top of a pole at Riverside and Stewart avenues. On Linn Road in Eagle Point, a pair of boots were mounted on a pole. About 10 years ago, another retiring Pacific Power employee had his metal lunch box stolen, painted bright orange and mounted on top of a power pole on Central Avenue. However, the pole and box have long since been taken down. Weaver, who worked 39 years for the company, actually came up with the idea for his tribute. Or his wife, Pauline, did, indirectly. When Weaver retired, Pauline gave him his lunch pail with one request: "I had been fixing lunches every morning at 6 a.m. for years, and I said, `Don't you dare bring that lunch pail back anymore,"' she said. So Weaver went to work, ate his lunch and then gave the cooler to Rick Norris, who is now a Pacific Power foreman. "I asked him if he could find a place for it," Weaver said. "He said he could." Norris said a crew slipped in and out of the parking lot of Abby's Pizza before anyone noticed. He said the tribute was just friendship. "You know, the guy had put in 30 or 35 years around here," Norris said. "And it was something that a couple of crews could do to show respect for the guy after he retired." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA