Bike Week at Gettysburg

I've never been a big fan of Bike Week here in Gettysburg. Its not the Bikers themselves that bother me, its the noise. Now, I work third shift and I also live on one of the main "roads" that the Bikers use. The noise in my house can be deafening. But I also understand that the people who attend this event are also "people".....normal people, with normal lives, doing normal things.

A few years ago I was working as a volunteer at the park and my job that day had me working in the National Cemetery. My job was to make sure that no one drove into the cemetery without special permission (and those were few and far between), to answer questions, hand out brochures, and just be there....just in case. Well, these two scary looking bikers drove up and tried to park their bikes at the entrance to the cemetery where there is clearly a sign that says "No Vehicles". So I redirected these two men to the parking lots on either side of the Visitors Center (this was before the old Visitors Center was knocked down). Now both of these guys were pretty scary looking. They both had the leather chaps, dew rags, leather vests, helmets, and the rest of the "biker uniform". My initial reaction was "Ewwww". But I was nice and sent them on their way.

A few minutes later, these same two bikers came back into the National Cemetery. The helmets were off and in their hands. Suddenly they didn't seem so scary. They both took their dew rags off and lo and behold they had well trimmed, short hair. They had some questions about the place and I tried to answer their questions as best I could. We ended up talking for 45 minutes or longer. It was one of the best conversations I had ever had while volunteering. They didn't ask the usual questions like: Where did Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address? Where are the Confederates buried? Can I be buried here? They asked more thoughtful questions. It was obvious that they had done their homework and they knew the cemetery....but not everything. The one guy even wanted to discuss Edward Everett's address! I was impressed. Bikers who were smart! Little did I know.

After talking to my two friends (yes, I now considered them my friends), I found out that they were lawyers in Virginia and had come to town for Bike Week....but they also were very interested in the history here at Gettysburg....not just the battle, but everything associated with it. They wanted to discuss the civilians, the dedication ceremony at the National Cemetery, the placing of monuments, one of them even knew who John Bachelder was.

They left me and started to wander around the cemetery. They took their time. I watched them for about 10 minutes and they stopped and looked at the graves. They didn't just give them a fleeting glance, but they stopped and read the headstones. They took in the Civil War burials and I saw them walking around each of the states. After awhile, I lost track of them.

Over an hour later, these two men came back and had some more questions about some of the burials. They wanted to know why William Miller's grave was engraved in gold. Great question (BTW he was the only Gettysburg Medal of Honor recipient buried here)! We talked for at least another 1/2 hour. I was greatly impressed with these two men. They thanked me for talking to them and answering their questions and then they left. I never saw them again.

My point to this whole thing is that beneath the rough exterior of the bikers are real people. Most of these people are smart, have "real" jobs, live regular lives, and have the same worries that you or I have. Just because they look and act tough while here in Gettysburg during Bike Week doesn't mean that that's who they really are. Yes, I still get really annoyed at the noise, but my tolerance for the men and women who ride those noise machines has greatly improved. I don't look forward to Bike Week, but I know that its just another way to bring people from all over the country here to our fair town to help them see what it means to truly be an American