{"id":244782,"date":"2017-01-20T06:06:26","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T20:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=244782"},"modified":"2017-01-20T06:06:26","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T20:06:26","slug":"origins-giant-soda-pop-bottles-previewed-rotary-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/origins-giant-soda-pop-bottles-previewed-rotary-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Origins of giant soda pop bottles previewed at Rotary meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Steven<\/a>
Steven R. Connor was the Rotary Club of Saipan\u2019s guest speaker during its weekly meeting last Tuesday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan. (Mark Rabago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steven R. Connor, Mariana Stamp and Coin Club founder, spoke about the origins of the giant concrete Coca-Cola bottles that once littered the landscape of Saipan and Tinian during last Tuesday\u2019s Rotary Club of Saipan meeting at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.<\/p>\n

The presentation was a preview of the 2016 Rotarian of the Year\u2019s talk set for today, Jan. 20, at the American Memorial Park auditorium titled \u201cHistory of Coca-Cola in the Mariana Islands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connor, a retired engineer and recent Saipan transplant, said his presentation is a research paper he wrote under a grant from the Northern Marianas Humanities Council.<\/p>\n

More than anything, curiosity prompted him to do his research\u2014someone came up to him and asked, \u201cWhere did these [concrete bottles] come from?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter driving by these concrete soda pop bottles on Saipan and Tinian, I recognized that they were unique\u2026I thought these bottle advertisements to celebrate successful American industry would not be considered with just a little respect and\/or consideration of the truth. So, I sought out a way to understand for myself and increase awareness of others about these concrete bottles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Connor said the giant concrete soda bottles, which includes the Sprite and Fanta brands, were first shipped from Macau to Saipan by Chinese businessman Timothy Lee Po Tin in the 1970s. Lee took over Coca-Cola\u2019s bottling operations on the island and it became the hub of the iconic soda brand in Micronesia.<\/p>\n

Lee\u2019s company proceeded to import these typhoon-proof concrete soda pop bottle advertising behemoths\u201420 in all\u2014and planted them in strategic places on Saipan and neighboring Tinian.<\/p>\n

Of the original 20, only 13 remain\u2014nine on Saipan, one on Tinian, with three \u201crescued\u201d from demolition and shipped to Guam. <\/p>\n

Of the remaining structures on Saipan, one is at the Subway location at the Paseo de Marianas, one in front of a commercial complex near T Galleria in Garapan (painted to match the building\u2019s color), two at Coca-Cola\u2019s warehouse and main office in Gualo Rai, three in front of Joeten Dandan, one on Tinian along Broadway, and two in \u201cstorage\u201d at the back of the Coca-Cola warehouse along Middle Road.<\/p>\n

The Garapan Roundhouse, the present Cargo Express facility in Lower Base, and the Galaxy snack bar near Northern Marianas College also used to host these giant soda pop bottles.<\/p>\n

The three in Guam can be found at the Coca-Cola distribution plant, at the Guam Football Association, and in front of the Subway restaurant in Tumon.<\/p>\n

Connor\u2019s presentation, \u201cHistory of Coca-Cola in the Mariana Islands,\u201d will be from 6pm to 7pm at the AMP auditorium and admission is free. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steven R. Connor, Mariana Stamp and Coin Club founder, spoke about the origins of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":244784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5534,233,1209,377],"class_list":["post-244782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-guam-football-association","tag-hyatt-regency-saipan","tag-joeten-dandan","tag-mariana-islands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}