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Perhaps I am the one that made the "money" detour. I gleened that from other letters and not from 51FLs original post. Sorry if you thought I was referring to you. Obviously I copped an attitude about the "old guy" AMCA thing, and for that I will not apologize.
When I first started going to AMCA meets in the mid 70s, there were very few people my age. I vended at my first AMCA meet which was at Maguire Field and got the stink eye from all of the old guys because I was a long haired hippy. I left early and didn't have a good impression of the AMCA. However, I kept going because I loved motorcycles, and the meets got to be more fun because I began meeting some great people. Mort Wood. Bud Cox, Dave Leitner, Ralph Mundel, and Jerry Ottaway were some of the people who took the time to make me feel welcome. That's not to say there weren't a few jerks but you have to remember that the cultural wegde between generations in those days was profound. Many of the old guys were WW2 veterans and didn't have much love for people of my generation that were changing America's culture. Some of that cultural change was visiting the AMCA meets at that time and members of my generation could be first class jerks as well. The point of this historical side bar is to say that it's always going to be a transition for new members in any club. There will be rough spots but we can all agree on our love for old motorcycles. I've always been amazed, amused, and proud of the weird mix of people that not only get along in our club, but become lifelong friends.
The last thing I wanted to say was; it will not be the old members of the AMCA that make it die. It will be the new members that don't keep it alive. . . . But, that's a mute point because I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell of the AMCA dying.
When I first started going to AMCA meets in the mid 70s, there were very few people my age. I vended at my first AMCA meet which was at Maguire Field and got the stink eye from all of the old guys because I was a long haired hippy. I left early and didn't have a good impression of the AMCA. However, I kept going because I loved motorcycles, and the meets got to be more fun because I began meeting some great people. Mort Wood. Bud Cox, Dave Leitner, Ralph Mundel, and Jerry Ottaway were some of the people who took the time to make me feel welcome. That's not to say there weren't a few jerks but you have to remember that the cultural wegde between generations in those days was profound. Many of the old guys were WW2 veterans and didn't have much love for people of my generation that were changing America's culture. Some of that cultural change was visiting the AMCA meets at that time and members of my generation could be first class jerks as well. The point of this historical side bar is to say that it's always going to be a transition for new members in any club. There will be rough spots but we can all agree on our love for old motorcycles. I've always been amazed, amused, and proud of the weird mix of people that not only get along in our club, but become lifelong friends.
The last thing I wanted to say was; it will not be the old members of the AMCA that make it die. It will be the new members that don't keep it alive. . . . But, that's a mute point because I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell of the AMCA dying.
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