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FReeper Motorcycle Hooligan |
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Posted on 08/24/2003 5:10:02 PM PDT by UB355
Cue the theme from the "Hallelujah Chorus." Or, rather, the chorus from "Born to Be Wild."
Finally, it's here.
And what shall we see during Harley-Davidson's 100th birthday party this week, officially kicking off Wednesday, several Summerfests-worth of doings coming to their apex next Sunday during a huge hootenanny along the lake? (Tickets required.)
We'll see a steel-and-chrome spectacular regarded by boosters as Milwaukee's best chance yet to shine in the klieg lights of national exposure.
We'll see upward of 200,000 people - some say even more - coursing through our day-to-day pathways in every corner of the region, loosing an inescapable four-cycle bellow, riders shuttling from party to party, from town to country, from Kenosha to Green Bay, hopefully spilling cash along the way.
We'll see closed streets, filled fairgrounds, raunchy shenanigans, upended beers and roasting pig flesh, sanctioned parties, unofficial parties, spontaneous parties rolling out into city neighborhoods and country burgs.
And then there's what we'll hear, and yes, many Milwaukeeans in our midst have heard louder - the hurt-dog-whine-and-boom of German 88s during World War II, the clang-bang of drop forges here, the first cry of a newborn at St. Joe's, the foghorn off the Great Lake - but never so collectively.
We'll hear the inescapable thump-thucka-thump-thucka-thump of the Harley-Davidsons that are making, or have made, their way here this long week, hauled by rider, boat, train and plane, for the centennial party of one of industrial history's most popular brands.
Indeed, in ways big and small, the region has been in vigil for months (and some people have been at it for years) for the largest and most logistically complicated, and certainly THE LOUDEST, celebration it has seen.
Rumble, rumble and, oh, the preparations.
In Wauwatosa, a priest is readying his sprinkler for the holy water that will bless bikers Saturday. On Milwaukee streets, city crews have changed light bulbs on seven bridges to orange, the Harley color. At Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, chest kits, IV tubing and laceration trays are being stockpiled.
The Health Department has issued two temporary tattoo and piercing parlor permits.
At various secret locations, federal agents are preparing surveillance on members of the biker gangs, most notably the Outlaws and the rival Hell's Angels, who are expected in the area.
Forty-seven law enforcement and emergency management agencies have created a coordinated Intranet and command post to swap information.
Mitchell International Airport is awaiting a jumbo jet chartered to carry in Harley riders, and bikes, from Japan.
"This is the biggest event in Milwaukee's history, there is no question about it," said Martin Jack Rosenblum, a Harley house historian and a former professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Prohibition's end, V-J Day, the American Legion convention on the eve of World War II, Gen. MacArthur's drive-by, aviator Lester Maitland's parade in the 1920s, the Milwaukee Braves' victory in the World Series, General Grant and the Civil War veteran encampments along Lake Michigan in 1880 . . . as sensations go, they've got nothing on this baby, Milwaukee.
Riders are coming from all the inhabited continents, and so are the foreign and national press. Just as with last year's All-Star Game, city boosters see this as a chance to market the city and shed what they see as its hoary image of braumeisters, braunschweiger, smokestacks.
"We see the potential as huge for the city's image," said Vanessa Marie Welter, director of public relations for the Greater Milwaukee Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Yet academics such as UW-Milwaukee professor Mark Levine look at breathless branding efforts with skepticism.
"My guess is that the long-term impact of building Milwaukee as a tourist destination will be minor," he said.
And what will they see?
Harley is calling it the biggest birthday party the world has seen, though the 80th birthday fete of Chinese Emperor Qianlong in 1790, or the American Bicentennial in 1976, would probably give it a run for its money. Or, for pure enduring impact, there was that modest gathering in a hay mow in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago about which much has been written.
It may be the biggest deal by Milwaukee standards, but it doesn't match in numbers the size of Carnival in Rio, or the annual hajj to Mecca.
Still, it's big.
The Harley 90th and 95th birthday parties drew an estimated 100,000 riders into town, went smoothly for the most part, so there is at least a framework of what planners here can expect.
The chamber of commerce types are floating a dollar amount of how much economic benefit Milwaukee and Wisconsin will see ($132 million total), but even they admit that the figures are wobbly.
At any rate, if we know what we will see of our visitors, what will they see of Milwaukee and Wisconsin?
It is a prospect that titillates the marketeers, who have worked with Harley, and local institutions, to make some suggestions beyond admiring chrome and swilling beer.
So will the Harley dudes see the mural of the ax-wielding schismatics of Vitebsk martyring St. Josaphat at the basilica of that name? The vendors selling tamarind popsicles outside Mexican groceries on 16th St.? The reproduction of a slave ship interior at America's Black Holocaust Museum?
Will they see the strong patchwork of neighborhoods and the hale suburbs, the unglaciated beauty of the western state or the clean streets of its metropolis? Or will they catch a whiff of the sourness that's in town, the segregation, the fractured politics dominated by a disgraced mayor, a scandalized legislative leadership, a budget below sea-level?
Or will they not see beyond the beer at the end of their arm?
Whatever they see, we'll all hear the same low groan of Harley engines.
David Krey, a city neighborhood services manager, anticipates complaints.
"People should be tolerant of it," he said. "Before they know it, it will be gone."
Ahhhh.... tradition.
We live in an area between two Harley dealerships and several businesses who cater to cyclists. We are expecting the worst. The scariest part for us is the drinking that goes with so many of the events. We have two young, inexperienced drivers in our household that have been given special instructions for altering their normal driving routes and being extra vigilant for motorcyclists.
They're noisy, not exactly high-peforming, and not manueverable compared to the best Japanese bikes and BMW bikes. If you want a decent long-distance cruising bike the Honda Gold Wing beats any Harley hands down. If you want a high-performance bike, the best Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha bikes will leave any Harley WAY behind.
Aside from the worry, have you noticed all the decorations and hubbub that John O. (the O stands for Zero) Norquist has generated? Me neither. Milwuakee goes through one of the biggest events in the last 20 years and he and his administration are dead silent. What a joke and what a jerk.....I guess since it has nothing to do with light rail, or women with apples, he doesn't care
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FReeper Motorcycle Hooligan |
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Me too, Sturgis, SD in Beer City.
The standard Hog answer is, "if you have to ask, ...."
Other bikes do not outperform Harleys. There is no other bike in the world that looks, sounds, or feels like a Harley. When you are on a Harley, you know you're burning gasoline; that's why they call the Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha, "rice-burners."
Hank
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