D. O. M. - Club History

I've wanted to put this post out for quite some time now. This post brings together two of my favorite pastimes, neither of which I am able to do often enough. I love to ride in the Mojave Desert on my quad; preferably with the club I’m associated with – D.O.M. A more recent favorite pastime is blogging, and as you might have noticed I named my blog after the D.O.M. club. I actually enjoy reading blogs more than writing them. You see, I’m not very creative, and I sure as hell don’t have a lot to say. Oh, I complain a lot – just ask my wife and kids. But I don’t have a lot of interesting things to talk about in a blog.

So back in March when I set up my blog – inspired by Bean’s blog, I wanted to meld this new pastime of mine with the thing I like to do the best. I thought I would be posting more stuff about the club, but then I thought I would be posting more stuff, period. I’ve posted a few things about the D.O.M. club, but I’ve never given the history. So below is the history of the club as researched by yours truly. It took several interviews and hours of reading old newsletter, but from the feedback I got after previously publishing it elsewhere – it’s pretty accurate.

In the beginning (sometime in 1972) seven men began riding together in Hi-Vista, California. Their names are:
Neil Anderson, Bill Christian, Harry Essres, Rusty Foy, Gary Sherrod, Jim Sherrod, and Bob Stander. These guys called themselves the Dirty Old Men. Within a year or so, the First Annual Field Meet was held in 1973.

I found an early newsletter quote that described the club: “A club founded for family orientated fun with motorcycle riding involved.”

Here are some fun facts:

The Annual Field Meet was held on Memorial Day Weekend for
the first time in 1990, and continues to be to the present time.

The club's abbreviated name is Dirty Old Men, but is more commonly referred to as D.O.M. The club's full name is Dirty Old Men - Bench Racing, Motorcycle bending, and Beer Drinking Association

The club logo / sticker (pictured below) is a man standing by a motorcycle, and was modeled after early member John Saniger:

At the Annual, the club awards two perpetual trophys named for former members: Harry Essres - which goes to the men’s high points winner; and Dirk Harbor - which goes to the boy's high points winner. The latter is named after Dirk Harbor, who was a member many years ago. Dirk loved riding motorcycles, but tragically passed away from cancer when he was still a boy. I never met Dirk; I joined the club long after his passing, but only know of him from the trophy presentation in his name at the Annual. If you want to read my earlier posts about the Annual click here and here.

Many years ago the club named a lifetime King: Forrest Ely. I never met Mr. Ely, he was no longer attending rides by the time I joined in 1996.

The club has an anthem, for which the words were written by Tom Chadwick, and is sung to the tune of Margaritaville. I have never heard anyone sing this song, although I found a set of words (lyrics) for it. On the topic of singing - it's been a tradition for years to sing "She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mountain" on the last night of the Annual. This song is lead by Fred Weir every year.

I don't know when the tradition of King & Queen began, but the members (a couple, typically husband & wife) responsible for organizing club rides, publishing the newsletter, and keeping the club treasury is known as the King & Queen. What I did find out is that many years ago a 5-year minimum membership was required before a couple could be named King & Queen. This has since changed, as there is no minimum time period.

Here are the names of the Kings & Queens as far back as I was able to research:
1984-85 – Richie & Charlotte Cortez
1985-86 – Forrest & Jean Ely
1986-87 – Forrest & Jean Ely
1987-88 – Jon & Celia Anderson
1988-89 – Joel & Carla Gerke
1989-90 – Kurt & Patty Schiller
1990-91 – Mike & Mary Ellen Harrison
1991-92 – Cole & Rene Woldridge
1992-93 – Larry & Barbara Robertson
1993-94 – Ray & Diana See
1994-95 – Joe & Diana Perez (1st time)
1995-96 – Bob & Joanne Robinson
1996-97 – Joe & Diana Perez (2nd time)
1997 is the club's 25th anniversary
1997-98 – Joe & Diana Perez (3rd time)
1998-99 – Joe & Diana Perez (4th time)
‘99-2000 – Joe & Diana Perez (5th time)
2000-01 – Billy & Gaye Aten
2001-02 – Ron & Cindy Nipstad
2002-03 – Dan & Laura Aguirre (1st time) Yes, that's me and my wife.
2003-04 - Dan & Laura Aguirre (2nd time) Yes, that's us again.
2004-05 - Kenny & Casey Ingram (1st time)
2005-06 - Kenny & Casey Ingram (2nd time)
2006-07 - Dan & Leslie McGhee (Current King & Queen)

So there you have it - history and tidbits of information regarding the D.O.M. club. I'll post something prior to our next ride, which is scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend. We will be going to my favorite ride location: Charlie's Place, which is just off Trona Rd. SE of Ridgecrest, CA.

Busy Busy Busy

Yes, that's right. I’m busier than a one-armed paper hanger. How appropriate, as I work in the paint (and wallpaper) industry. But I’m not posting to talk about work. It’s actually because of my workload that I don’t have time to post. There’s a lot going on in my personal life too.

Anyway, for the first time since being a member of the Dirty Old Men Desert Riders (D.O.M., as in the name of this blog) I’ve missed not one, but TWO rides. I intended on posting something about each location prior to the ride weekend – just to give you a flavor of where we were going and what we would do. But when I knew we couldn’t make them I decided to kill that plan.

And after reading the newsletter following the September ride – I wasn’t about to post that. I don’t want to sound critical, but no one has done it as well as me and Laura. What I mean by that is the quality and thoroughness of the club newsletter. No king and queen (that’s what the couple in charge of the club for the year is called) since we were king and queen have done the newsletter as well as we did. I will not mention that again – this post.

On a different topic, my NFL team – the Raiders – have finally won their first game. Several weeks ago I posted the pre-season wrap up, and after week one I posted again. Well after their performances, errr losses to some of the worst teams in the league, I laid low for awhile. Yeah, so what if I’m a spineless coward?

Personal to Wrider: Thank you for the comment on my last post. I'm glad to hear you're a Raiders fan too, and yes, we're having a rough year.

Okay, so I’ve got to get going now, but I will make an effort to post more regularly. There are topics that I haven’t posted on, such as Brady’s roller coasters, and a classic Mustang for sale; and I have updates on Nina’s cheerleading and Laura’s cheer coaching. So please stay tuned, and thank you for checking in. God bless you all.

Our Little Cowgirl

When I was a little kid, a man would go door-to-door with his pony and camera offering to take pictures of any children in the house. Somewhere my mom has a picture of me on the pony, and a similar one of each of my sisters. This past summer the man with the pony showed up at my daughter's daycare. How could I resist?

The photographer took three poses. We only bought one of each.

So here they are for you to enjoy - free of charge. Enjoy.

Happy Trails!

Happy Birthday Laura

This is Laura's birthday weekend, and we've been celebrating since Friday (her actual birthday). It's Sunday evening now, and Laura just got back from Target with the pictures. This one is from dinner last night at the Cheesecake Factory:

Laura and I went to the Cheesecake Factory last year too, but it was just the two of us. This year Laura invited her parents (Tina and Ed), her sister Sara and Sara's boyfriend, Don, and a few friends from Nina's cheerleading squad. No not the little girls that Laura coaches - their moms. Here's Laura with Sara and Don. Sara and Don were pictured together on an earlier post of mine that covered Don's 50th birthday.

Laura's birthday celebration actually began on Friday the 6th. We had lunch plans, but I surprised her by showing up at her work with a dozen red roses. I then took her to lunch at her favorite Mexican restaurant - Senor Campos. Later on after both of us returned from work, I gave Laura her present(s). A silver bracelet and a silver ring from Nordstrom. She loved them! You can see them in the picture above.

Later on Friday night we had to attend a social event for the La Habra Lions Football and Cheer. Laura is a coach for the cheerleading squad that our daughter Nina is on (Flag White). This event was a lot of fun - it was catered by Lascari's (one of our favorite Italian restaurants), and there were raffle prizes, centerpiece drawings, and an open bar! The best thing was the DJ. Laura had a great time dancing, and we were in the company of some of the parents of Laura's cheerleading squad. Laura was surprised when the DJ had everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to her.

After the banquet we went to Bar 330 in Brea. Laura continued dancing. I think she could have danced all night, but closing time came around and we had to leave. The next day at the football game was rough. More so for Laura than me, but all of us who were there the night before made it to the game. The girls cheered great, but the boys lost the game. Oh well, it's only flag football. After the game, everyone sang "Happy Birthday". This time 4 people were honored: 3 of the boys and Laura. Sorry - we didn't take the camera with us to the social, so there are no pictures to share of that event or of Bar 330.

That evening we went to Cheesecake Factory, this time with camera in tow. Here's Laura with Tanya and her boyfriend, Nathan. Tanya is the coach for the other cheerleading squad of same-aged girls as Nina (Flag Blue).

Here's Laura with two other cheer moms - Jessica & Teri:

Jessica's parents, Bob and Liz joined us too:

Laura really enjoyed her birthday. I had a great time too. I love you Honey-Bunny! Happy Birthday!