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Below is the unedited, pre-print story about this years AMCA Omaha Chapter National Meet. The edited (slightly) version is featured in the May issue of the Thunder Roads Iowa magazine. Photos courtesy of Vern Schwarte.

No, this is not a bad photo, it's the actual view from the dark side of the Christensen Field building without the lights. Photos by Vernon Schwarte

46th Annual Omaha Chapter

Antique Motorcycle Club of America

Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet

 

(The Meet That Almost Wasn't)

 

Brought to you by our Proud Sponsor, Lucas Electrics

(Because a Gentleman doesn't motor about after Dark.)

 

 

This year's event was billed as the "46th Annual Antique Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet."

  

To be clear, I have been going to motorcycle swap meets since 1980.  In that first year, I was mostly a "Lookie-Lou" and really didn't yet know much about building or customizing a motorcycle.  In June of 1981, I dragged my first Basket Case motorcycle home and immediately went under the tutelage of Craig "Ole" Olson in Sioux Falls, SD.  

 

Ole taught me more about Motorcycle Fundamentals in the next 12 months than I've learned about Motorcycle Fundamentals in all the years since then, combined.  The man literally changed my life.  One of the most important lessons I learned from him was the value of Spare Parts.  Not the dollars and cents value, but the physical value of having a hoard of obsolete bits and pieces, large and small, at your disposal.  For example: If you happen to need a countershaft gear for a Harley "45" on a Sunday afternoon, where are you going to begin to look for one?  Well, you'd best have one in your Obsolete Spare Parts Inventory, that's where!  And where does one go to find these Obsolete Spare Parts needed in order to build this Inventory?  Well, back in that day, we went to Motersickel Swap Meets.  Lots and lots of motersickel swap meets.  Bear in mind algore hadn't invented the InterWebs yet and the aftermarket catalog parts availability was somewhere between very thin and anorexic.

 

Of course, when you're hitting every Motersickel Swap Meet within 250 miles, you begin to see and meet new people with similar interests.  There were a LOT more swap meets back then than today, too.  No InterWebs meant no eVilBay.  My mind was somewhat 'clouded' back in those days, but I usually had just enough functioning brain cells to remember to bring a pen and a pocket-size notepad.  And CA$H.  U.S. Currency.  Cash is King.  (That means TWO things!)  Always was.  Always will be.  The pen and notepad were for taking names and numbers.  We actually called people on our rotary-dial, six-volt, kick-start, land-line telephones back then.  "Ole" stressed the importance of networking, although we didn't call it that back in the day.  He encouraged me to join the Antique Motorcycle Club of America, and late in 1981, I did just that.  In 1982, I joined the Omaha Chapter as well as the Viking Chapter that year.

 

Ole taught me how to read and interpret the H-D Spare Parts Manual.  He even loaned me a copy until I could secure one of my own.  We weren't as much interested in what was 'correct' for our motersickels as we were interested in getting them up and running and keeping them up and running.  Damn, we had fun!

 

To the best of my recollection, the First Omaha Chapter Meet I attended was at the Late and Great Howard Wagner's Four T and Spring Repair shop in Carter Lake, Iowa.  I believe that meet to have been in February of 1982.  There were a dozen or more cool old bikes on display and a near-equal number of Vendors plying their wares.  (Howard ALWAYS had a table with 'correct' fabric-covered wire and terminals at these meets!)  Back in those days, we would often have an outdoor meet in May as well as the Indoor Winter Meet.  These outdoor meets were held at the Plymouth County Fairgrounds in LeMars, Iowa and were 'hosted' by LeMars' Favorite Son (Not 'that' kind of 'Son!'), the Late and Great Richard Schultz.  At first, they were simply 'Chapter Meets' and not sanctioned by The AMCA National Muckety-Mucks.  Before long, however, the LeMars Meet became a National Event.  As the years went by, the Winter Indoor Meet relocated to the Underwood Municipal Building Association (UMBA) in beautiful downtown Underwood, Iowa.  I do not recall if the 'Underdog' meet was ever an AMCA National Event.  We had several meets in the UMBA Hall, but had to find a new home (Kennard, NE etc.) when it burned to the ground.  The Chapter eventually landed in the Main Arena at Christensen Field in Fremont, Nebraska a number of years ago.

 

The Christensen Field venue is a lovely facility with but a few drawbacks.  The major drawback has less to do with the facility itself than it does with when our Meet falls on the AMCA Calendar of Events.  Historically, our Winter Indoor Meet has been a late-February event from the beginning (1980 or 1981?) until the 2024 event, regardless of location.  The 2024 and 2025 Meets have been in late-March in lieu of late-February.  Most of us are aware that Mother Nature can be absolutely beautiful or absolutely brutal in either of these months.  This year, She was both.

 

To the best of my memory, Omaha Chapter has never canceled a Meet, indoors nor outdoors.  We've had blizzards, rainstorms, and even a tornado at LeMars one year!  We didn't even cancel our Winter Indoor National for the Election Infection (COVID) in 2020!

 

2025 was different.

 

On March 19th, there was an horrible last-day-of-winter blizzard in Eastern Nebraska that set the entire community of Fremont on its Proverbial Posterior Appendage.  (In the vernacular of the Laymen, the blizzard knocked the community of Fremont on its ASS!!!)  Power lines became encased in ice from the freezing rain that preceded the snow and wind.  The ice-coated lines put undue stress on the utility poles and when the wind came up (79mph blast in nearby Uehling, NE) the lines and poles snapped like Joe Theisman's femur.  (If you don't remember Joe Theisman's horrific injury, think of trying to bend an uncooked spaghetti noodle.)  We were able to talk with the motel where we had a room booked a little bit Wednesday evening, but when they lost power, we lost our connection with them.  We ended up canceling our room through the third-party reservation agent.  

 

New Omaha Chapter President, Scott Larson and I were on the phone a LOT in the 48 hours preceding Set-up and Vendor Move-in Day.  He was determined to have the Event with or without electrical energy and put all his eggs in one basket, that basket being Omaha Public Power District.  (OPPD is the electrical energy provider for a lot of the Greater Metropolitan Omaha Area.)  I learned later that OPPD doesn't serve Fremont, as The City of Fremont has its own Municipal Electrical Plant and Service.  I gave Scott my unconditional support in whatever decision he and the Chapter Board of Directors made in regard to having or canceling the meet.  Had I been aware that Scott had not actually had his boots on the snow in Fremont, I may have been less than enthusiastic about giving my unconditional support...  BUT, as is the case in any group, small (Omaha Chapter AMCA) or large (The Federal Government of the United States), we have to trust the decisions our elected officials make on our behalf.

 

The Decision to hold the event without electricity proved to be an acceptable decision to the majority of involved and affected people.  Had the outside temperature been even five degrees lower and/or the outside wind velocity been even five mph higher, that meet could have been as disastrous as everything within miles of the place!  Leaders make Decisions.  Not all their Decisions are always the best possible, but regardless, Decisions must be made.  When Scott asked me about canceling the Even Banquet scheduled for that Saturday evening, I encouraged him to cancel it.  As it turns out, that was the correct decision to have been made.

 

I had a small trailer loaded with swap meet inventory and had pre-paid for my vendor spaces, so I took a Leap of Faith by heading to Fremont Friday morning, not really knowing what to expect.  Thanks to some great friends, Kory and Vintage Rust Stanley, I was able to back up my trailer directly to my vendor spaces.  All of the overhead doors in the building were open to let in some daylight and to let out the precious little heat that had been stored in the concrete floor and the concrete block walls.  Trade was slow, but enthusiasm was high.  As is usually the case, whenever swap meet vendors and buyers get together, a good time is had by all.  The 2025 Omaha Chapter AMCA Winter Indoor National in Fremont, Nebraska was no exception.  President Scott and his Board of Directors pulled a rabbit out of their collective hat.  You-all got away with it!  Congratulations, and I hope I'm never faced with the Decisions you had to make on VERY short notice.

 

I didn't see Ole at this year's meet, but I did see a bunch of my good old friends from Sioux Falls vending and buying.  These fellas helped to shape the formative years as a motorcyclist nearly fifty years ago.  We were all younger then but we're doing our best to stay Young at Heart by continuing to do what we love.