BIRTH OF THE

BUSHKILL VALLEY MOTORCYCLE CLUB

In 1935, some members of the Triple City MC decided to organize their own club.

These 13 men became the original Bushkill Valley MC. They were Charlie Orth, Charlie Bassett, Bill Miller, Paul Kocher, John Franczak, Bill Corriere, Bill Serfozo, Don Fisher, Shorty Barth, and his brother, Joe Gava, Earl Lerch, and Paul Long. They held their club meetings in a shed under the old Hay Trolley Trestle. This area is now the driveway at the club.

These were lean times and there was little work. Some members even lived at the clubhouse. On club grounds there were some cows and chickens and members got milk and eggs, although at times they might have been a little close to the Corriere farm property! Sometimes, Mrs. Corriere would bake bread for the men. Paul Kocher worked for Sears and Roebuck and collected wood from crates. With this and some old barn timbers, they managed to construct the first clubhouse.

In 1937 the men were able to get enough money for a charter. Dues were 25 cents a meeting or one dollar a month. In 1938 they ran a hillclimb at a location in Martin's Creek which also added to the treasury.

A lot of men entered the service during the second World War and the club became dormant during this time. In 1945, when the men started to return from the service, they also returned to their motorcycle club. With new friendships and new members, the club grew to about 40 members.

There was still not a lot of work and members could spend their time at the clubhouse playing cards and collecting a compensation (52 weeks at $20 a week) until they found employment.

In 1947, the club started running a lot of motorcycle activities, including poker runs, Hare and Hound events, mileage runs, and another hillclimb. Treasurer Lou Corriere was able to add some monies to the till from these events.

Another event was the club championship where members would ride through the creek and play in the mud. Some members would strip their machines to enter this event, while others would dig up an old junker to run up and down the hills. Successive hillclimbs were run from 1947 through 1951 at the Martin's Creek location, and then the club leased the now famous hill in Freemansburg and began to run there.

The membership continued to grow and many of the members were competition riders. They rode in hillclimbs and in Tourist Trophy (TT) races. The competitors were easy to spot in their wool jerseys of blue and red with the BVMC logo emblazoned on the back. They were soon seen all over the country racing in various events and bringing the club wide recognition

In 1953 the existing clubhouse was constructed and the club continued to grow. When the Bethlehem MC dissolved in 1956, the Fremansburg property was offered to BVMC and the rest, as they say, is history.

by Bob Fretz,

edited by Sally Berger

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Here's BVMC member Bob Fretz's pop, Jake Fretz and Louise Praed on a 1916 (!) Indian, in Plainfield, NJ. Pop looks happy- Louise seems a little worried about getting her skirt caught in the spokes! You have to look carefully to see Bob in this picture- he's the gleam in his father's eye. Check out the NOS bottle on top of the tank!