The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride
by Richard Keshen
Back when I was a kid I remember doing the occasional road trip in my families Chevy Biscayne. In those days parents didn’t have the luxury of providing their kids with cell phones or tablets to keep them from killing each other in the back seat. They had to come up with more creative ideas. Games such as Simon Says or I Spy were popular. The game my brothers and I liked the most was one called Auto Bingo. The three of us were each given a board made of sturdy cardboard. There were 25 windows on each board with pictures of something you might spot while traveling on the highway. The first person to see 5 items in a row was the winner. Being the youngest I was always challenged to beat my older brothers.
On one such road trip we found ourselves traveling down a lonely dirt road. I had closed 4 of the windows on my bingo card and just needed to spot a motorcycle to close that fifth window and go for the win . As I turned around and started looking out the back window I saw this stream of at least 50 or more motorcycles following us. All of the bikers were male and many had a female passenger riding with them. Hands in the air I started cheering my win over my brothers. As I turned back in my seat I saw my father’s hands tightening on the steering wheel and a drop of sweat coming off his forehead. As he began slowing the car down the bikers started overtaking us and I could see the words “ Hells Angels” stitched in to each of their leather jackets. Hands still in the air cheering on my win the bikers thought I was waving at them and one by one they started waving back as they each in turn passed us.
Fast forward many decades. The pandemic has kick started an urban motorcycle boom. Not only does every Tom, Dick and Harry own a motorcycle today but so do many Jane, Jill and Jennifer’s. Every year, since 2012, a motorcycle event to raise funds for prostate cancer research has taken place in many cities world wide. In 2019 there were more than 116,000 participants in 678 cities from 104 countries that raised more than $6million USD for prostate cancer research. The participants all dress up in their finest to take part and some even come dressed in tuxedos or fancy gowns. The event is called the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride, although it’s not limited to only male riders. This years event in Toronto just took place recently with over 300 riders in attendance raising over $150,000. Now if I only had my auto bingo card today it would be one window down and four more to go.
