15 Years Later and the Chapter is Going Strong

March 26th 1988 dawned cold and grey with  wind driven rain and sleet that lasted into the night. The next day was to be "Bill's Bridgeport H-D" organizational run to promote a new HOG Chapter for Bridgeport. The weather forecast wasn't that great for Sunday and I was selected director until the club could be formed and elections held. Fliers had been sent out and it was to late to change the date so we had to go with March 27th. The run was scheduled for 10 AM of that day.

I arrived at Bill's Bpt H-D about 9 AM and found myself there alone. It was grey and cold, but at least no rain. I remained alone for about half an hour. I started to think that this was going a major flop. Then a guy named Al DeMarco and his wife Barbara showed up. They were really upbeat about bikers showing up, but it was about 9:45 and it was just the three of us. Al kept saying, "they'll show up, just wait".

Well, damned if he wasn't right, about 10 minutes to ten bikes came from all directions and added up to close to a hundred. Everybody was bundled up and raring to go. So off we went to Putnam Memorial Park in Redding. It wasn't a long ride but it gave everybody the feeling of riding with a group.

At the park we got names and addresses of folks that wanted to join and we were on are way to a club.

I guess I got the directors job by default, there weren't many volunteers to run the show. We did get up a group of officers who got the ball rolling. Our first meetings were outside at the Shakespeare Theater State Park (which is no more). From there we ended up at Ray's Grill on Barnum Ave in Stratford. Those meetings at Ray's where lot's of fun, if you walked in on them you'd think it was a party not a meeting, but we did get things done and formed a strong Chapter. I stayed on as Director for 5 years and then decided to give the next guy a chance.

So here it is 15 years later and the Chapter is going strong and growing. Good luck to all and I hope there's at least another 15 years ahead.

Bob Peel was the founding director of the Bridgeport Chapter of the Harley Owners Group. He still resides in Stratford and rides a trike.