I see the boys of summer in their ruin
Lay the gold tithings barren
—Dylan Thomas
You’re likely aware that for the 40th anniversary of the founding of the club, we set aside the weekend of September 17 and 18 for a special ride and an anniversary bash at il Casaro restaurant in the Castro.
The 40th anniversary bash on Sunday September 18 was special and memorable for so many reasons. First, we had several “old farts” from the very earliest days of the club grace us with their attendance, in particular the two surviving founders Bob Krumm and Dave Freling. Although Dave continues to live in the Bay Area, Bob along with his husband came all the way from New Jersey to honor us with his presence and to recount in detail how the club formed. Only three years after helping found the club he relocated to New York and has remained on the East Coast ever since. Of course there were many old farts who couldn’t make it because of scheduling conflicts or just living too far away (Germany!), and some we couldn’t find despite the Internet’s sleuthing tools. And there were a few who just weren’t interested. Second, courtesy of Supervisor Rafael Mandelman the City of San Francisco issued a Certificate of Honor and he came to present it to us despite his busy schedule. In addition the San Francisco AIDS Foundation also took the opportunity to send two representatives to present a congratulatory letter for assisting it in raising funds against AIDS over the entire history of the club. Third, the gathered crowd was able to enjoy a recently uncovered long lost video of the 1988 AIDS Bike-A-Thon featuring a throng of Spokers some of whom were present at the anniversary dinner!
The evening was overshadowed by the prospect of the first serious rain of the season, something nearly inconceivable. A warning was sent out to all registered participants that we may have to move the event indoors and that may have accounted for a number of no-shows. We waited until 3:30 PM to make the final call and decided that holding the dinner outside and then being rained on was worse than just dining indoors, perhaps unnecessarily. Although it wasn’t the end of days, moving the dinner meant we also had to rearrange our plans for the program as well as shoehorn a movie screen and projector into the tightly packed restaurant. By 4 PM there was still no rain, so celebrants were able to enjoy the back patio for some heavy-duty catching up, which for some meant decades! Unfortunately the rain did come and we scurried inside.
Il Casaro was very accommodating and offered us the entire restaurant, allowing us to decorate the inside with club jerseys and t-shirts from the beginning of the club to today. The fare they prepared for us was delicious and copious—various pizzas, pasta, antipasti, salads, and desserts. In fact there was so much leftover when the event was over that the staff kindly prepared doggie bags for everyone.
After dining the program began, the highlight being Bob Krumm’s detailed recollection of how the club came to be in 1982 as an indirect consequence of the Gay Olympics, how the four principal founders met, and how they planned and organized throughout the year before formally opening in November 1982. Bob acknowledged the contribution of many “old farts” throughout his presentation several of whom attended that evening. Although Bob had been interviewed about the founding before he moved to the East Coast in 1985, it was published in the old ChainLetter in an abbreviated form and included some errors. During the program he gave us the “unexpurgated” version! If you weren’t able to attend the event and hear Bob’s presentation, you will be able to read it here on the ChainLetter blog shortly. Stay tuned!
A few tears were shed at the recollections that evening as well as during the Bike-A-Thon video. Nonetheless the overall mood was festive and animated. Although riding together generates its own kind of camaraderie, spending time together off the bike sharing tales, tribulations, and perhaps tawdry gossip creates another. Thanking the gathered “old farts” for a job well done in creating our favorite cycling club and thanking all the leadership over the years for a job well done was the least we could do. Onward to the next forty years!
The Chain Letter 