My parents joined a biker gang in 1974. This picture was taken at their initation. It took place at The Beer Barrel in Sparta, MI. It was dark and smokey with cheap wood paneled walls and brown shag carpet. My mother got loaded off the spiked cider and danced on the tables of the biker bar. My father thought it was funny and snorted cider out his nose. I was thirteen at the time, and I had invited a boy, Kevin, from my class that I had a crush on. My mother pulled him up on the table with her and taught him the Hustle. I was mortified, but Kevin must have been impressed, because the next day he asked me to go steady and told everyone at school how cool my parents were. I later figured out it was because my dad slipped him a joint in the Men's room. Kevin and I broke up a week later, but my parents still bike around the US on their brand new Golden Wing.

by Thea Newhouse
Ann Arbor, Michigan USA
submitted April 2000