Hollywood Happening 2012

Our day at the Hollywood Happening was a pleasant one.

The weekend was supposed to be a wash out, and it did start out that way. Friday was rain, but the rally still rode. Saturday started with rain, and by 11 am it started to clear up. The forecast was calling for more rain by 4 pm so I got ready and headed out the door for Gowanda while it was dry.

Those of you not familiar with Western New York weather, you get used to sudden changes. The lakes can add watter to the air and make it rain or it can suck the moisture out of the air and keep us dry, all in a seconds notice. If you live here you know what I mean. You can not plan your day or weekend around what the weather forecaster says.

Our ride out to Gowanda was a bit uneventful. The rain stopped, but the winds picked up over 20 miles an hour. Usually not a big deal but having new tires that I had very little time on did put a little fun into it.

We pulled into Gowanda and like usual the main street was blocked off with bike parking only. To my surprise a side street was also blocked off for the "Star Boys" to do their stunts down. When we got there, not many bikes had arrived. It was about noon. Carrie and I walked down the side walks and visited the booths and vendors. Eventually we wandered over to watch the "Star Boys". Carrie likes watching them do their stunts.

I didn't get a lot of good pictures because I was taking it easy. Carrie got a few better ones but I don't have the patients to download hers too.

In the center of this old town is an old theater, The Hollywood Theater. I don't know all the dates and facts, but it is well over 100 years old with a lot of history. As a kid growing up I had seen a few films there, and remember the last film I watched there with my dad at about 17 called Medicine Man. Shortly after it was condemned as unsafe because parts of the ceiling were falling.

About 14 years ago someone got the idea of raising money to fix the place up and with the help of the local bikers, started the Harley Happening. Live bands, boothes, vendors, bike rides and even celebrities like Willie G showed up to sign jackets for raffles.

This went on for awhile, but eventually Harley didn't want to sponsor this event any more so it became The Hollywood Happening as the organizers were not allowed to use the Harley name any more.

A couple of years ago, the town of Gowanda had a massive flood that covered main street in a few feet of water. The theater was in several feet of water and it destroyed a lot of the work that had been done to it over the past years.

This event still draws about the same amount of people as it ever did. Even though it rained for the rally, people rode. Even though it was forecast to rain all weekend, people came. http://www.gowandahollywoodhappening.com/

Here are some pictures of the theater.

Entering the theater I saw my high school art teacher Mrs. Dye, and she honestly remembered me. I was impressed because I had not seen her in 19 years (and 40 ponds ago).

I ran into a few others that I knew (I went to high school in Gowanda and then moved to Hamburg a few years after graduation).

We walked around and then to the back street, where most of the action is. This is where the beer tent is, the food vendors along with the normal vendors you see pawning off their normal wears. Also back there was a display for the Eden Chopper Class. For those that do not know, we are lucky to have a local school that teaches high school kids how to work on and customize motorcycles. I wish we had that when I was in school. http://edenchopperclass.com/ Check out the link to see some of the cool bikes these kids built.

After walking awhile we found a bench out by the main street and bike watched. Guys and gals were riding their bikes up and down the street. By this time the street was full of bikes.

When we decided to go,  and since it didn't start raining, we took some back roads and headed out over the Indian Reservation to Sunset Beach in Irving. It was still windy so we had the place to ourselves.

We took our time, but eventually made it home just before dark. Netflix had delivered a movie so we curled up on the couch and took it easy for the rest of the night, because come tomorrow it was back to our normal grind.