EXTRA ! EXTRA ! READ ALL ABOUT IT ! ! ! !
THE CALALLEN GYPSY'S DO IT AGAIN ! ! !
It takes hard work and a lot of "Team Spirit" to put on a rally like "The
Calallen Halloween Run!" And, although they have been putting on this rally,
now, for 17 years, 16 of them have been held at The Lake Corpus Cgristi KOA
Campground. this run will be one too remember for many different reasons.
The weather that threatened rain all weekend, never fell. It did fall all
around the run, from Del Rio too Houston and many decided not to make the
trip. But, although the sun shone to brighten our spirits, a dark cloud
hovered over our heads. Charlie "BIG C" Harris, lay in a hospital bed
fighting for his life. And although we knew he would want the rally to go
on, it still was hard to get into the party mood. The news of his passing,
came early saturday morning, and many stood around in shock and disbelief.
"BIG C" will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him. An impromptu
auction was held, saturday night, with vendors coming forward with donated
items, in hopes of helping "BIG C'S" family with the high costs of his
funeral exspenses. "SNOWMAN" of The Tradesman Cycle Club, out of Corpus,
volunteered to be the auctioneer. And members of that chapter helped out by
being spotters for the auction as well. Here are some of the items donated
and by whom: "MIDGET" & Sue, leather and jewelry vendors whom have always
given ALL bikers the best prices at the many, many rally's they vend, donated
a beautiful leather jacket! That didn't surprise me at all. It's where I do
all my shopping. They have "good" prices and will always work you on your
purchases. They are "GREAT" people. They started the ball rolling which
prompted the other vendors to dig deep, and come up with similar high priced
items. That leather jacket went to "6 PACK" who donated it back to be
auctioned off again! Jan, a woman who can be found always sitting behind her
sewing machine making her skull caps or sewing on patches, embroidered a
t-shirt in memory of "BIG C." After being auctioned off twice bringing in
over $100 each time, it was donated back to The Calallen Chapter. For once
upon a time "BIG C" was a Calallen Chapter member, serving as President as
well as other positions, before going on to be Sargent At Arms, for "AZTEC"
and Area C Internationa;. T&A Cycles, donated a very attractive leather
shirt. Jim & Patty, t-shirt vendors, donated a rebel motif comforter. Judy
of "Starfire Creations" donated a pair od engraved wine glasses commemorating
this memorable occasion. A broach, donated by an unknown party at this time,
was auctioned off in a very unusual way. For a dollar, thrown into a bucket,
you could be the highest bidder by being the last to throw a buck into the
bucket! Rick Rister had said that he would match what ever the bucket
collected. He was disappointed, when, the bucket only revealed $350 bucks !
So when he wrote out his check, it was for $1,000 ! UNBELIEVEABLE!!! "THANK
YOU" Rick, for your generosity!! The Luftkin Chapter of The Gypsy"s, donated
$100. Pelton Airbrush, donated a Air Brushed paint job...."Ragu" donated a
$120 Tribal Arm Tattoo. Over $3,500 was collected that night, and I along
with The Calallen Chapter want to say "THANK YOU" for everyones generosity.
If I missed anyone, I appologize. You can blame "MASTER CHIEF" because it was
his idea that I write for The Calallen Chapter. He said to me that last day,
"Sweetie Pea, you can't put all that you have to say in The La Feria
Chapter's article! I think you should write a seperate article for them."
So, as you can see I did. Although this article is a month late, because I
had sent it to the wrong e-mail address, this article finnally made it to the
Folly's.........Of course, The Calallen Halloween Run is famous for it
"Skits" involving chapters whom prepare for this in advance. FIRST PLACE
bringing the term "Erectile Disfunction" and the medication "Viagra" into the
fore front of medical history! All I can say folks, is this...silly string
was involved, and it took 8 to 10 members to carry this rendition of a "Skin
Flute." And they sure did play it well, I might add. "HILL COUNTRY" took
SECOND PLACE with "I'm Too Sexy For My Hair, Pants, Shirt etc. As the music
played, men dressed as woman? and woman emphasizing body parts, some lighting
up with each bump and grind, danced to the delight of the crowd. It helped
some of us watching, to forget the mood our minds were in. Because this
article has to be cut shorter than I had planned, we must skip the winners of
the games and go on to more pertinent business. A special THANK YOU too
"POOR BOY" Calallens Sargebt At Arms, for the fantastic job he did in cooking
the perverbial feast. After the weekend was over, it was time to say"GOOD
BYE" to "BIG C". The funeral parlor was "PACKED" with friends and family.
"BIG C'S" son's stood before the crowd of over 500, and talked about what it
meant to be the son of such a fine man. Many of us there, learned more about
the big guy, than we ever thought we would know. And whenit came time to
take "BIG C" to his final resting sight, a 20 mile journey , a procession of
bikes 2 by 2 stretched out for over 3 miles. Followed by folks in thier
cages, making the whole affair over 5 miles long. Tghose going about thier
business on the highway that day, stopped in awe at the sight. I remember
folks doing that for the likes of Presidents. I guess they knew that whom
ever we were honoring, must have been a great human being. I'm sure, that,
any life that "BIG C" touched, never forgot the day theymet him.
Dianne "LADY DI"Hammond T.M.R.A. #32066
e-mail : Gypsy32066@aol.com
Email to Lady Di!
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