Pacelli graduate documents Sturgis
Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 3, 2002
Steppenwolf's song has lost its edge.
Instead of singing "Born to be wild," the anthem of motorcycling is "Born to be mild."
Instead of Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson, cruising across America on their Harleys, it's more likely to be some "poser" -- an investment banker and his soulmate with cell phones in the pockets of their leather pants.
Today's motorcyclists can be wild if they can fit into their leathers.
The wild ones and the mild ones will have the opportunity to do that at the 2002 Sturgis, S.D. next week.
The world's most famous motorcycle rally is expected to attract more than 400,000 people to the South Dakota town of 7,000.
However, the image of "outlaw" bikers menacing a small town are relegated to Marlon Brando's classic film of the 1950s "The Wild One."
Today's cyclists are the not-so-wild ones. For instance, Thomas G. Endres.
He is a professor and chair of the communication department at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
Endres has written a book "Sturgis Stories: Celebrating the People of the World's Largest Motorcycle Rally."
"This is a unique slice of Americana," Endres said, "There are other motorcycle rallies, but this is the granddaddy of them all; nothing on the planet compares with it.
"No words can do it justice. Unless you have been to the Black Hills of South Dakota during the annual Sturgis motorcycle rally, you cannot understand what it is like to drive down the highway and be surrounded -- completely surrounded -- by hundreds of motorcyclists traveling in both directions."
"The air literally vibrates with the sound, and your senses start to rebel at the overwhelming visual display," he said. "How can there be that many motorcycles? Where do they all come from?"
In 2000, 750,000 came from all over the world for the 60th annual Sturgis rally.
Endres obtained a St. Thomas faculty research grant to return in 2001 to interview and videotape the sight for a book and spent a week in Harley Davidson "Hog heaven."
Today's Sturgis rallies have more "RUBs" than anything else, according to Endres. Those "Rich Urban Bikers" or "posers" -- people from more sedate and secure walks of life posing as something else for a weekend in their lives -- have taken over cycling.
"The real outlaw bikers is only 1 percent of the total. The rest are something quite different," he said.
Endres graduated from Pacelli High School in 1978. He remembers first being fascinated by motorcycles after seeing the movie "Electra Glide Blue," starring Robert Blake, at the Sterling Theater when he was 13.
He has been riding cycles for more than six years and now is on his fourth bike, a 1980 Harley Davidson Sportster model.
His father, Joseph Endres, founded the original Gerard of Minnesota adolescent treatment center in the former Jay C. Hormel mansion at the east edge of the city.
His mother, Patricia Wahl Endres, continued to operate the center after her husband's death until she sold it.
Mrs. Endres now lives in Colorado Springs, Colo, where another son, Todd, also lives.
His book includes a dramatic photo essay of the 2001 rally's sights as well as interviews with a diverse cross-section of rally-goers.
"Sturgis means motorcycles," write Endres. "Motorcycles are freedom. Freedom is America."
Endres and his wife, and three children live in Apple Valley.
He is planning his fourth trip to Sturgis this week.
His 136-page book is published by Kirk Publishers, Minneapolis, and sells for $24. Call toll-free at 1-888-698-1828 or ask any book dealer to order it. The publishers's web site is www.kirkhouse.com.
Lee Bonorden can be reached at 434-2232 or by e-mail at :mailto:lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com