July 2013 Hogwash

 

I’m fortunate to be able to attend the 110^th anniversary of Harley-Davidson in August. Every five years since the 95^th in 1998 I’ve made the pilgrimage to Milwaukee. It’s not for everyone that’s for sure, but if you’re a Harley-Davidson enthusiast you owe it to yourself to attend at least once. It’s not the decadence and debauchery that is Daytona, Laconia or Sturgis. It’s not meant to be.  I’ve been to all of the “Big 3,” but always particularly look forward to Milwaukee. The city of Milwaukee and the Company pull out all the stops. I was there first in 1998 when the Doobies rocked the house at the Summerfest Grounds... Steppenwolf was there, as well as ZZ Top that you couldn’t get close to if you tried.

In 2003 at the 100^th, I had just left Milwaukee as the mystery musical guest came out on the stage after months of buildup and speculation (the Stones for one) of who was going to close the 100 year anniversary celebration. One of the last performers most of the bikers would expect to see on stage in front of thousands of leather clad Harley folk was Elton John, but that’s who showed up. My friend who was in the audience called and said that there was a collective moan from the thousands of biker types who (many hundreds) simply got up and left.  I like Elton John, heck I have an album called 11-17-70 when he was just becoming famous. But hey, to the biker crowd, it was kind of a letdown. Molly Hatchet, Doobies, Motorhead, anyone but Elton singing “Saturday Nights Alright for Fighting!” There were even rumors of a possible Led Zeppelin reunion happening in Milwaukee that weekend. The marketing person who set this up might have been looking for another job on Monday morning.  You will sometimes still find writers slamming the Company for this decision. This concert is still infamous in the history of Harley-Davidson Motor Company.

I was at the 105^th, and the Company redeemed itself when The Boss, Bruce Springsteen was the headliner. It was a memorable evening under the stars.   You know I don’t remember that much about the 105^th, only the concert and that guy at my hotel who was on a Road King and had a Kevlar drive belt that snapped. I had never seen this before or since on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He told me later that day that the dealership in Milwaukee replaced it for free. There had been a recall of bikes between such and such VIN number and that they knew the belt could possibly do this.   

I always stay at the same place in South Milwaukee except in 1998. A bunch of us rode in torrential rain to the 95th; including retired DPD motorcycle sergeant Ben Caperton, PCH’s first Safety Officer, who is now living the good life on a mountain in Colorado. He and his wife Jamie have a wine bar in Woodland Park. We rented a house from a single guy who moved out when we moved in. The first night I received several calls (well many) from what I guess could be described as this guys ex girlfriends. We finally turned off the phones since apparently they thought it was a party that they were not invited to! Well I guess they weren’t since he had a bunch of friends that did come over, and probably some of the ex’s too but it was a blast and I still wonder whatever happened to the guy.

Once I was outside the old and historic Juneau plant. It’s the birthplace of Harley-Davidson. This is something that you have to see if you go to Milwaukee. Heck, every time I’ve been to this building, there are people lined up and down Juneau Avenue in all sorts of biker wedding gear and yes regular wedding dresses and tuxedoes.  Anyway I was standing next to an exit door when a bunch of H-D accountant types came out on a smoke break. Suddenly all these people, including a bunch of people from Mexico City, surrounded these pencil pushers and wanted their picture taken with them. Later after the throng departed, they told me it happened all the time.

Last time that I was there in 2008 the Harley-Davidson museum had just opened. I was lucky enough to get tickets to get in the day before it officially opened. It took 3.5 hours to tour this really high tech homage to the all American motorcycle.  This year, I’m sure it will be even better. I’m really looking forward to it.

One thing that I always look forward to is the Saturday morning parade through downtown Milwaukee.  My first, at the 95^th I was on my bad boy days raised and lowered Wide Glide. I remember forming up with a thousand other bikes it seemed on a new freeway that hadn’t opened yet about 5:00am. We had left the much too in demand single guy’s house and headed out into the Milwaukee darkness. In those days anyone could show up to ride. It was a blast and I was hooked. Thousands of Milwaukee citizens line the streets and this is the closest you might ever feel to being a celebrity!

At the 100^th, one had to have an invitation to ride in the parade that could only be won through a type of lottery. Luckily, my friend Tim Bradley had won an invitation but he couldn’t go. I rode the parade route with the PCH flag. It was great! A couple of years before, in 2001 I had gone to a HOG National Rally that was held in Milwaukee. Since my flight attendant wife at the time had to leave early to go to work in DFW, PCH member Shirley Fowler rode on the back of my 2001 Electra Glide holding which, at the time, was the brand new PCH flag including a “streamer” from the rally. This was the first “honor” in the form of a streamer that was attached to the flag pole that was awarded to PCH, or any chapter that participated in the parade.   

It’s getting pretty late to find a hotel in Milwaukee for the 110^th, but you might be able to try and swing something. The ultra chic Iron Horse Hotel across from the museum might have rooms (probably not actually) but going for big bucks even on a regular day. My buddy in South Milwaukee and the girlfriends, if I really look I might be able to find his number and you could hang at his place. Who knows?    

 

Corvette at Le Mans 2013 this past weekend

July 2013 Dallas Police Shield

 

A few years ago I took the liberty of mentioning some clubs that were around in the 1960s through 80’s. Back then there seemed to be a dance club on every corner in Dallas. A lot of D.P.D. officers remember answering calls at these joints, and many were places that police would go off duty. After writing the article, I received more e-mails about this subject than any other. I’m sure a few next ex’s were met at some of these clubs, as well as other relationships that may have lasted the test of time. Most  were just places to hang out with your buddies after getting off work. My squad in Tactical (now Swat) worked central, northeast and north central in the 80’s and 90’s a lot, so I remember seeing a bunch of them come and go.

  I’ve been to some of these, either off duty, working off duty or grabbing a drunk out of some of them on duty. Others, I wish I would have made it to. Like LuAnn’s, a gigantic club that was at Lovers and Greenville Ave. from the 1940’s until 1969. Everyone from Jimmy Dorsey in the forties, to Jeff Beck in 1968 played there. A husband and wife team owned the place, I’ve been told by guys that many of their somewhat underage girlfriends snuck booze in their perfume bottles past the watchful eye of the wife, who would sit in front and pass judgment on who would enter. I was too young (really) to have visited this historic club, but I’m glad I missed the riot by some Highland Park kids (if you can believe it) that happened there in the in the 1960’s. According to a recent D magazine article, it was not the HP kids but the Lakewood Rats that were feared, and were later banned by the club. Speaking of Lakewood, it had the 1960’s dance club Electric Circus where Dixie House is now, and the Lakewood Landing which is still there.

Okay, see if any of these sparks a memory or two. An old bar at Main and Harwood was called the TV Bar. As a young rookie I answered a call there. The bartender then began name dropping every Dallas police chief and captain there ever was. I was scared to death that he would call across the street and complain about something. Heck, I shouldn’t have worried about a call; the chiefs probably were there after work that day! Other police hang outs, were the infamous Cookies, the really infamous Luke’s Outhouse down from the old academy, the Idle Rich Bar downtown, and the old DPA Club (yes the DPA once had an upstairs bar on Young St.)  Later in the 80’s and 90’s were Alley Cats, The Starck Club and The Boiler Room in the West End. Deep Ellum had the Art Bar, Trees, Club Dada, Green Room, Blind Lemon and others I can’t remember!  Downtown in the late 60’s also had the famous “Cellar” on Commerce (Ft.Worth too!) and the not so famous “Cave” bars. The “It’ll Do” was a not so cool dive bar that was addressed on Elm near Carroll Ave. Somewhere there was the Profit Bar, can’t remember where this one was!

Others include Mother Blues on Lemmon, Gerties, Longhorn Ballroom, a rock and roll venue called “End of Cole” where Javier’s is now, ( freaks called it Endacole,)The Old Church around the corner from Travis Street Electric Company and the Players Club near downtown.  On Greenville Avenue you had Belle Star, Café Dallas, Packard’s, the oh so exclusive (supposedly) Elan which is a post office now. Million Dollar Saloon that Vice visited I’m sure a few times, and a few off duty officers too! There was Papagillo (sp) behind Studebakers off Park and Greenville. H.P. Cassidy’s, The Basement, Mad Cap Molly's, and of course Depp Ellum's Son's of Hermann's Hall which is really haunted by the way, Froggy Bottom's, The Fair, The Circus, Texas Tea House, Shakesperes, Randy Tar, In Cahoots, Fanny Anne’s, the Railhead, Borrowed Money and the similarly named but years apart Daddy’s Money. James Comedy later became the popular Whisky River with the advent of the Urban Cowboy craze which was big in Dallas in the late 70’s. Try to remember how you got home from Arthurs, Foxhunter, Scotland Yard, Cardis’, Bijou, Lamp Post, Thirsty Thirties, Caboose and Abbey Inn. Confetti was a popular dance place on Greenville. I have a cool story about us SWAT guys looking for some recent  North Dallas or Village bad guy and running into a popular Dallas newscaster (no longer here) of the time in the parking lot! Funny! Yale had a bunch of bars; Cardinal Puffs, Milo Butterfingers for two. A couple are still there catering to the SMU crowd. Ozona for one is still hopping.

In the late 80’s Playboy clubs were on their way out.  However Dallas received one of the last clubs that were built, and it only lasted a few years. It was at Yale and Central in the old Dallas Cowboys building. Lots of Dallas officers had keys however! Actually, now Playboy casinos are back in places like Las Vegas and other cities. How about “After the Gold Rush?”  Lower Greenville had San Francisco Rose (still there) Stans Blue Note (ditto) and Tango that was in an old bank (with three frogs on the roof) later it was Redux and Nick’s Uptown was further north where this writer saw Vince Vance and the Valiant’s once.

Believe or not European Crossroads at NW and Webb Chapel once was a big Dallas singles hangout. It had Number 3 Lift and also Clicks pool hall. Then there were the Bachelor, Bellringer and Beggar clubs (the three b’s it was called!). I met a girl there once named Olga, and yes she was really from Russia! I saw her years later while I was working the Fair. I said “Hey Olga!” Her really big husband apparently didn’t appreciate this type of interference from an old friend and uniformed officer since she shook her head and just walked off. Oh well.

Circle Disco was nearby, I think! On Harry Hines at one time were Spot 77, and a big C&W place that was in an old movie theater called Cotton Eyed Joe (the building is still there.) Chief Rick Watson I’m sure doesn’t remember, but this academy classmate of mine was there one night when a bunch of us SWAT guys showed up about 1983 and we hung out with him and his buddies off duty. All I remember was Dwight Yoakum’s “Thousand Miles Away” playing. Pappy’s Showland at one time was a really big deal.  The Old Top Rail was at the border of Dallas and Irving.  

You might have answered calls, or were thrown out later off duty at Chelsea Street Pub on McKinney near EndaCole! Or possibly SRO, Harlo’s and Bobby McGee’s at Mockingbird and Abrams. Ask Scotty Holt about Harlo’s! Wills Barn was on Routh Street. Soul City was on Greenville Avenue. The Fog Club was popular at Lemmon and Oak Lawn. The ladies had the really popular La Bere club across from Confetti’s on Greenville. Denim and Diamonds was a C&W joint on Greenville with a fireplace you could see from the street. Later it was a Black Eyed Pea restaurant, not sure what it is now. Diamond Jim’s was another C&W dance place. The Filling Station was on Greenville and Park, it was a very popular date place until the neighborhood around it became the number one crime beat in Dallas. All I remember is a bunch of single cops and their girlfriends living there in the area in the 80’s. It was great! We used to cruise by the swimming pools on Sundays fighting crime and protecting the innocent! Okay don’t tell me you never did?

Others were Greenville Avenue Country Club, Blue Planet dance club, Traxx, and the famous Greenville Avenue Bar and Grill next to Blue Goose. When I was in communications in 1979-80, we would get off on Thursday nights and go see the old guys play jazz at this oldest bar in Dallas, that unfortunately burned a couple of years ago. The sign is still there I believe. Remember Genos Lounge, Max’s 403, Cowboy’s, Stampede, Outlaws, Amnesia, Skillman Street Pub, Ma Brands, KC Disco and Red Dog Saloon on Northwest Highway? Someone has mentioned the Painted Duck. Adair’s, having moved from the Oak Lawn area (near the old Step Ladder Club) is now for a long time in Deep Ellum and is still going strong. For a few years now the Elbow Room on Gaston caters to doctors looking for nurses, and nurses looking for doctors from the nearby Big Baylor hospital. Baby Does was a great date place on Stemmons and well I guess it was actually addressed on Harry Hines. The waterfall is still on a billboard there I believe.  

The Palms, Memphis in Addison, Pasha, the Rio Room, Emerald City, the Iguana Club and the Acapulco Club round out our Wayback Machine tour of fun, decadence and debauchery that was Dallas at one time. Okay there was a time when Dallas was doing great, the City had money, the Cowboys were winning, the DPD was the most technology advanced department around and the Dallas TV show was #1. Now, maybe not so much. Or maybe as time passes it’s just that we remember the good stuff. Yeah that’s it. I guess the officers now have their places to hang out with their friend’s. Lee Harvey’s is one I’ve been to. It’s funny but I don’t like to think of the night that a crazy girlfriend tried to run over a SWAT buddy of mine in her Monte Carlo outside a North Dallas nightclub. He and we jumped out of the way just in time!     

Just remember the good times.   

Corvettes at the 24 Hrs. at Lemans starts tomorrow.

Hellcat pilot WWII. Fleet Air Arm Royal Navy

Corvette at the 24 hrs of LeMans

B-24 noses in,San Giovanni Italy, April 12, 1945

British WWII Avro Lancaster bomber

Title was "About 1948"

Matt brought over his 2013 Corvette for Fathers Day

Matt's new 427 2013 on the right and mine on the left

My Uncle Cleo,Homer Lee and Dad

WWII HD WLA

Old Lake Hollywood is to the right.

I remember that Madonna's house was just to the left in this shot. The turrets of the house were striped like candy cane. Pissed off her neighbors big time.

Bad Boys-West Virginia State Police 1930's-1940's

GEETar

The guitar experience is gaining momentum kind of. I shoulda learned 50 years ago after seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in Feb 1964. A lot of bands got their starts on that Monday morning when guys and gals picked up guitar's and started learning.
Better late than never...

9th AAF HD-WLA in Franch, March 1945

D-Day then and now.

D-Day invasion June 6, 1944.

At 2;47am Dallas time, Tuesday morning sirens wailed all over the city waking people to the news that fortress Europe had been invaded by Allied forces.