LIFESTYLES
WEEKEND, OCTOBER 28-29, 2017
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pendleton resident Jesselee Leachman has turned his 1998 Oldsmobile Aurora into a Zombie Outbreak Response Team car.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A skull decal and fake blood adorn the fuel door of Leachman’s
Zombie Outbreak Response Team car.
Zombie-mobile prowls
Pendleton’s streets
Leachman said he recalled in his
youth hearing the Kingston Trio’s
tune, “Zombie Jamboree.”
“That made Zombies sound a
When the zombie apocalypse hits,
Jesselee Leachman of Pendleton will lot more fun than they are,” he said.
be ready. Or at least ready to drive “But, I think, it may be they are fun.”
Fun became the aim of the Olds,
through the hordes of shambling and
even if it’s macabre. Especially the
rotting dead.
Leachman, 34, is the owner fake arm he sticks out the trunk. The
of a 1998 Oldsmobile Aurora he rubbery prop scared one woman so
bought two-and-half years ago and bad at the Pendleton Walmart she
decked out to become the “Zombie almost called police, Leachman said,
Outbreak Response Team” unit. He but ultimately clutched her chest and
laughed.
gave it a name: Zom-B13.
“I’ve had people stop and look,
Because that looks something
and another took pictures of the car,”
like the word zombie.
Multiple decals adorn the worn he said. “A lot of positive response.”
When people talk to him about
exterior, from the large response
team logo on the hood to bloody hand the car, he’ll ask if they have seen
prints here and there. Leachman said any zombies. Their answer is, of
he has no plans to rectify the weath- course, no.
His reply is, “You’re welcome.”
ered look.
Children also take to the car, he
“There’s no perfect cars in the
said. They appear “intrigued and
zombie apocalypse,” he quipped.
interested”
The
only
rather
than
non-zombie
More online
frightened.
sticker on the
And he said the
car, he pointed
For video of the
clients he serves
out, shows his
car in action visit
support for the
eastoregonian.com on the graveyard
shift at Columbi-
University of
aCare Services,
Oregon.
The
small decal replaces the lead “A” in Pendleton, get a kick out of seeing
him arrive in the zombie mobile.
Aurora on the car’s rear.
Last year he installed fl ashing
Leachman said he wanted a
reliable daily driver and the Olds green LED lights that blaze from the
checked that box. The four-door top interior of the windshield. He
sport sedan packs an eight-cylinder said he knows better than to run the
engine powering a front-wheel drive LEDs when he drives because of the
and tips the scales at about 4,000 law. He wanted something similar
pounds. Leachman said the ride gets for running lights, he said, but police
advised him against it.
about 15 miles per gallon.
Leachman for the past two years
But he also wanted to decorate
the car in a fashion that was “kind of drove Zom-B13 in the Dress Up
under the radar,” he said. He scoped Parade at the start of Pendleton
around online for possible exterior Round-Up week. About 10 others
decals and spotted the zombie theme. have been willing to don makeup
That worked, he decided, because and outfi ts to play along in the
it played on the overall popularity presentation.
“My group of zombies and
of zombies in popular culture. The
designs also lacked trademarks, he hunters,” he said. “That was a lot of
said, a bonus that allowed him to fun to put together.”
The entry took second place for
adapt the looks as he saw fi t.
While the ghoulish monsters of vehicles in this year’s parade.
Leachman continues the undead
movies and TV shows are about
consuming the fl esh of the living, motif on his own back. He said he
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Jesselee Leachman, who works in residential care services, says he transformed his car for fun.
“This is just
something in the
community, it’s not a
business. It’s for fun.
Something for the
community to be
involved in.”
— Jesselee Leachman,
automotive zombie enthusiast
went to DG Gifts, Pendleton, for help
with the car decals, and the business
created his zombie response team
jacket, complete with fraying cloth at
the shoulder. Zombie designs adorn
his T-shirt and ball cap as well.
Leachman grew up in Eastern
Oregon and graduated from Pend-
leton High School, he said, and the
car is a way to connect to the place
he considers his home. He said he
would have the car out Tuesday
during Halloween, perhaps in down-
town Pendleton, where children
trick-or-treat merchants.
“The community that gave so
much to me as a teenager here, I’d
like to give back to,” he said. “This is
just something in the community, it’s
not a business. It’s for fun. Something
for the community to be involved in.”
Other vehicles in the community
also play on zombie themes. One
passenger car in Pendleton sports
a decal for Umbrella Corp., the
fi ctional company responsible for a
outbreaks of all kinds of bad in the
Resident Evil video game and fi lm
series. Leachman said he heard of a
pickup with a zombie theme, but he
has not seen that.
Leachman said he is entertaining
ideas for what more he can do with
the car, perhaps charitable organi-
zations could use it as a draw for
events. He also might add decals and
other elements, perhaps in time for
next year’s parade.
“Hopefully next year,” he said,
“I’ll have a zombie dance troop.”
———
Contact Phil Wright at pwright@
eastoregonian.com or 541-966-
0833.