Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 17, 1995 TAG: 9509180084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It was raining in downtown Roanoke on Saturday, but the thunder that left 5-year-old Paul Fleming wide-eyed wasn't coming from the sky.
Clutching his umbrella with one hand and the edge of his bright yellow He-Man raincoat with the other, Paul stepped away from his father and peered down Campbell Avenue toward the approaching sound.
This was man-made thunder - the echoing, feel-it-to-your-bones roar of 200 Harley-Davidson motorcycles advancing down Campbell Avenue.
The unmistakable soundtrack of the Harley Owners Group state rally.
"Here they come, Paul," said his dad, Jeff Fleming, himself a former Harley owner. "Get ready."
The 5-mile parade through Roanoke was the climax of the three-day H.O.G. rally that brought more than 1,400 H.O.G. members, hundreds of Harleys and a dozen vendors to the Roanoke Civic Center. The parade was the only rally event that was open to the public.
"It's been a terrific, terrific rally," said Lu Steger, the state rally coordinator, as she wove her way through the maze of leatherwear vendors and bike painters and H.O.G. members at the Civic Center. "Although the rain might have kept our attendance down a little bit."
The rain also led to some creative improvisations by rally organizers. Outdoor motorcycle races were moved into the Civic Center - and turned into bicycle and foot races instead.
To bikers like David Lathrop of Virginia Beach, the rain was just an inconvenience, and certainly no reason to skip the parade.
"Sure, it's more fun to ride these things if it's not raining," he said as he snapped up his rain gear. "But I'm still going to ride." Lathrop, who works in the parts department of a Ford dealership, bought his Harley in 1993 as a 50th birthday present to himself. He's been to every state rally since then.
Steger got bit by the Harley bug about a year and a half ago, when she turned 40. That's when she bought her baby, a maroon 1983 shovelhead custom trike that she rode at the head of the parade.
"Yeah, you'll find all kinds here," Steger said. She pointed to the disc jockey/H.O.G. stationed at one end of the room. "See him? He's a lawyer."
"We've always crossed a lot of socioeconomic groupings," said Ken Reid, Harley-Davidson's northeastern regional H.O.G. director. "A lot of professionals can get involved in a Harley Owner's Group and lose their profession. It's very therapeutic for them."
Ann and Paul Clark of Roanoke didn't say anything about therapy or "losing their profession" while they were suiting up for the parade. They bought their bikes several years ago and they ride - well, because it's fun.
"It's a great way to meet people," said Paul Clark, an accountant.
"Yeah, but I rode my bike to work yesterday and really got razzed," said Ann Clark, an internal auditor. "Everybody said, 'Oh, look out. The bikers are here.'"
She would have been more than welcome at Star City Diner, where a sign proclaimed, "Bikers Welcome ... Try our H.O.G. shooter."
So just what's in a HOG shooter? Like any good bartender, Nancy Hodges wouldn't tell.
"It's a secret," she insisted. "But it's guaranteed to, ah ... release the animal in you. It's so delicious that you'll 'pig' out on it.."
Or maybe just go H.O.G. wild.
by CNB