EVENT COMMENTARY
I can hear Thumper's words echoing in my head ("If you can't say something nice...etc."), but a day before vacation, and in need of a mental respite, I'm a bit cranky, and no one else has submitted an article this morning.
I trotted down to Main Street last evening expecting to be charmed by a friendly group of motorcycle men and mamas, as I was last year.
I don't know if it was the late day gloom, the spitting, glowering clouds or the inescapable haze of Marlborough smoke and oppressive metal music churning from oversized speakers, but I found Motorcycle Mania depressing.
It looked like a "before" ad for metabolic syndrome with Harley tees stretched tight over expansive bellies, tats inked blue on sagging skin, facial features tanned into a stunned rictus and cigs dangling precipitously from unshorn lips. Everything looked the same - the crowd, the motorcycles (two wheels and chrome, two wheels and chrome, two wheels and chrome and a flameout detail).
Forgive me, but with all the black leather, aging flesh and balding pates, I felt as if I had descended into the ninth ring of purgatory. And unfortunately where flesh, and hot metal is balanced on two wheels, gravity is usually the winner, and Mr. Death is hanging tight on the back saddle.
A few of the restaurants were crowded (First and Last, The Firehouse), but several were empty.
I guess you know how I felt. Hope you had a good time.
3 comments:
Wow, I sure hope your aging well. Gravity gets all of us at one point. Maybe if the music was something you liked,you would have had a different spin on it. It is called Bike Mania for a reason......
I haven't been to this for a couple of years, so can't speak to the feeling this time. I seem to recall seeing a sprinkling of European bikes - maybe the event organizers need to reach out to more types of motorcyclists, to diversify the participation.
If some percentage of the motorcyclists return some day for dinner at a place they spotted on Main St., or tell their friends they had a nice time in Middletown, then I think the event will have benefited our economy and town.
I thought the event went off well considering early on it was raining and there was a only twenty five motorcycles there. As time went on more people showed up as the weather improved and more motorcycles showed up. It was a good time for many I spoke to and most of the bikers said they look forward to this event and said Middletown opens up for them. I think it is a win win for businesses and for Middletown on a whole.
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