"The children's hospital gives...
"The children's hospital gives us something to be involved with and makes us proud to be a part of that." Donnie Smith
Two years prior, Donnie Smith had convinced Barry and Arlen to give the South Dakota bike rally a look. Barry remembers, "When Arlen and I first started going in the '70s, it was pre-Hamsters and before Dave started going. We were telling Dave about it and that started him. But Donnie was the first to go and he got Dave and I going. Then the Hamsters started up in '78." Now, the ride out is Barry's favorite part of Sturgis. "I'm not seeing anything new there. How many booths of black t-shirts can you see? Seeing the Hamsters I only get to see once a year is way more important to me. We've gone so many times from so many directions, we've done it every way you can. I put together the ride every year. Not sure how I got that job," Barry told us. "I always try to have a nice layover where the wives and girlfriends can shop or kick back. We try to ride 300-350 a day. Sometimes longer than that. We always pray for sunshine and dry weather but we've been caught in the rain before. One year I had no rain pants so I used giant hip waders that gave everyone a good laugh."
Jim and Susan started the joke in '78 but it was Donnie who picked up the next leg of the story: "When we were down there in Daytona, I said I'd have Dave Bell who drew pictures in the back of Street Chopper, make us some t-shirts (25-30 of them). For some reason I picked a gold color. I don't wear black shirts. We started wearing them and riding around in the late '70s. Sturgis is our mainstay; our main get together." People liked the shirts and the Hamsters handed them out to anyone who asked for one. Within a few years the group grew like, well, a family of hamsters.
Back then, they didn't consider themselves a group. The Black Hills run had a more historic feel to it; Deadwood didn't have legalized gambling. Everyone rode Shovels or Ironheads. Donnie said, "Well what does that tell you? There was alot of oil in the street from those bikes. One time, in the late '70s, I was riding out of town late Sunday morning, we were the last out of the park, and I stopped at the end of Main Street. There wasn't a vehicle, bike, or car on the street but for a solid block there were four rows of oil. I wish I'd had a camera for that. Four black lines all the way down the street (laughs). It was a Kodak moment and I didn't have one." In the first two years, the regular group grew to roughly 20 riders; the original six plus people they knew who rode.
When the city closed up Sturgis City Park, the Hamsters moved to Spearfish Park. Arlen and Arlin Fatland stayed at the Bell Motel in Spearfish. One favorite hangout was the Latch String Inn. It was an old hunting lodge built in 1860 that had been converted into a restaurant. Later C&D Barbecue was thrown into the mix. According to Donnie: "Dave was crossing the street and saw the guy who owned C&D in his van. Donnie chased the guy down and aksed about doing a barbecue for us. C&D did those barbeques for us for 10 years."