Hell's Angels

Hell's Angels

This past week Jack and I attended the Manassas chapter of NARFE's May meeting where we got to hear a Prince William County police officer speak about gang related activity in our county and how to recognize the various gangs thru their graffiti. It was an interesting presentation to our group. This officer happened to mention in his address the very famous and notorious gang, Hell's Angels. Well, that remark made me think of two things that have happened to me.

My first year of teaching with Dayton, Ohio Public Schools I had a little boy in my first grade class by name of Randy and he very proudly told me that his father was a member of Hell's Angels in Dayton. Sure enough, in the fall when we had parent-teacher conference Randy's father showed up for the conference in his Hell's Angels regalia and afterwards he roared out of the school parking lot on his motorcycle.

Another time Jack and I were on a combination business/travel trip to the San Francisco area where one night we had a hard time finding a motel room along Highway #1 that was not completely sold out for Friday night. We finally did find a motel and I think we ended up with the very last available room. After we had checked in we asked the motel clerk why there was so many motorcycles in the parking lot----at least fifty! When the clerk replied that the local chapter of Hell's Angels was having a reunion at the motel we just about died! That night before we went to bed we moved the dresser in our room to stand right in front of the door just in case the Angels were up to no good that night.

Someone at the NARFE meeting asked the police officer if anyone drops out of a gang, and the officer replied that most people drop out with age, marriage, children and responsibilities but that motorcycle gangs are the exception. Apparently once a motorcycle gang member always a motorcycle gang member so that might explain that Hell's Angels reunion in California in 1985.