subject: The Tough Harley Guys Are Softening [print this page] As and adult I have been surprised to find that these tough, freedom loving, hippies that I watched from my youth aren't so tough after all. At least not in a negative sense of the word. But they are tough with matters most. They are advocates for children's rights. They are professionals that during the week and year hold responsible jobs; they are doctors, engineers, accountants, fathers, husbands and contributing citizens of their communities. Not the pot smoking, anti-establishment persona I always knew from my youth. Have the Harley Davidson recruited new types of members or did the old ones just grow up?
We have neighbors that are community minded, responsible parents and adults. He is an engineer, she is a university professor. They are involved in civic and leaders in an international non-profit organization helping Africans combat disease and mortality rates, teaching them to be better teachers and better educated. Once a year this educated, contributing couple don their men's and women's Harley Davidson leather jackets and hit the highways and take a week to ride across the country with other professional Harley Davidson fans. I love it. It seems so out of character for these two, but it is the glue that binds them and makes their marriage fun and gives them common ground.
I Goggled Harley Davidson Foundation and found that they are involved in education, community revitalization, arts and culture, muscular dystrophy, health and environment and veterans initiatives, Big Brothers Big Sisters among other things. Who would think that Harley Davidson would sponsor arts and culture? I have never seen a Monet or a Michelangelo painted on the side of a chopper.
The face of the Harley Davidson group is changing. Professionals by day, bikers by night. Women in Harley leather jackets clinging to their men as the miles and pressures from life whip by. Tough? Yes, but tough in life, tough in relationships, tough in civic organizations, tough with what matters most.
