Boozefighters Motorcycle Club
National Website
THE ORIGINAL "WILDONES"
EST
1946
|
|
Boozefighters Motorcycle Club National Website THE ORIGINAL "WILDONES"
|
EST 1946
|
|
IT’S IN THE BOOK “ THROWING OUT A ROPE TO THE LOST & LONELY.YOU ARE LISTENING TO COUNTRY GOSPEL ON THE Irish Ed Mahan, the Boozefighters National Chaplain, and Pawnshop Julie are our special guests today (Sunday morning 6-12-05). Ed tell us how you became a biker chaplain:
Well Billy back in the 70’s I was in training to become a preacher. After graduating from college I became the pastor of a Baptist Church in Louisiana. Later I moved to Fort Worth to attend the Seminary to earn a Master of Divinity degree. I was a very idealistic young guy who inevitably saw too much hypocrisy along the way. It’s always there ready to take you out if you let it. I let it. After one year I dropped out of Seminary. My faith and Christian practice soon crashed and burned. I made my family swear they’d never tell anyone I’d been a preacher. That was in 1980 and I had to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up, and it was time to grow up. My first thought was…I want to be rich. My second thought was…and I want to retire early. Needless to say there weren’t many jobs available that would fill that bill so I figured I’d have to get into business on my own. I thought of a lot of schemes to get rich quick and settled on real estate. I bought repoed property on the courthouse steps, fixed them up and resold them for a quick profit, or I’d rent them out until they did. After the real estate crash of 1987 I jumped into the “tote the note” used car business. I made good money mostly on the mistakes and misfortune of others. I thought I was on my way to riches and leisure. In 1997 I got a Harley Davidson and started riding with the Boozefighters Motorcycle Club. By 1998 I became a member. I certainly didn’t let any of those bikers know that I’d been a preacher. However through on going conversations with my good friend JQ Quattlebaum, the National Historian for the club – he kind’a figured me out. He said I was different and he demanded to know what I was hiding about my past. I fessed up that I use to be a preacher but I made him promise to keep it a secret. Wrong – he rat’ed me out! One day he and Harpoon, our chapter president, came to me and said they needed an ordained preacher to marry a couple and asked if I was legal to do it? I said I was and would think about it, but at least don’t let anyone else know until the wedding day. Wrong – in our very next monthly party I was called up front and presented with a “CHAPLAIN” patch. And I was told my new job was to hitch people up and plant em down when the club members needed it. I didn’t have much choice so I agreed to do just that. I handled that wedding and then one of our brothers died about eight months later. I had to brush up on how to conduct a funeral so I got my dusty old Bible down from a top shelf. I hadn’t cracked it open in over 15 years. After that I got to reading my Bible again. I read about how Jesus ministered to the people in the streets and in the wind on the hilltops. He didn’t have to use a church to get his message out. I prayed to God to let me be his servant again where ever I could be most effective.
One day `Big John’ our National President called me over and said, “Ed you know Easter is coming up – can you do us a little thing for that?” To my surprise he meant a sunrise service. I agreed but figured there wouldn’t be more than a dozen or so bikers that could and would get up in time to get there by 6:30 AM. I invited some of my CMA friends to be there just to have some sort of showing.
When Tish (my wife) and I arrived at the clubhouse around 6 AM Easter morning we were shocked. The parking lot was already full of motorcycles. At first I thought they must be still there from the night before’s party. GREAT I thought in disgust. A house full of drunks. But there was a steady stream of bikers coming down the road and pulling in. As it turned out everybody was early arrivals and even after the service begin people were still pouring in to a standing room only clubhouse. And they were rock’n to “Johnny Red & the Roosters” Gospel rock music. That overflowing crowd energized me and I preached my first message for the LORD in 18 years. Most seemed to receive it good and I had lots of compliments and thanks for doing it. I thought…okay Lord I guess you’re not through using me yet. What do you want me to do now? About a week later I got a call from `Pawnshop Julie’. She said “Brother Ed I need to talk to you. Things you said at that Easter deal has been working on my hardened heart. I want to be saved but I don’t know how to go about it. I’ll let Julie tell you the rest of her story. THE LORD SENT BROTHER ED TO WATCH AFTER ME Billy the radio station announcer asked Julie to tell her story: “Well
you see I was in the audience that morning and I heard Brother Ed say anyone
could change. Bill went through a lot more interview and finally asked Ed…I understand you all have a book coming out. What’s that all about? Ed responds…The Boozefighters have a book coming out. It’s called “THE ORIGINAL WILD ONES” It will be released in Hollister, CA over the July 4th week and weekend festivities. A fellow named Bill Hayes is the author and my friend `JQ’ Quattlebaum provided most of the stories. As the National Historian he has been researching and interviewing the `ORIGINALS’ for 10 years or so. He’s traced our club’s roots way back to when it was formed in 1946. Then Bill Hayes did lots of follow up interviews with many of them and would you believe…even with me. Bill and JQ worked together on this new book for about 3 years. The book chronicles the lives of the `originals’ that came out of WWII and how they formed the club. It tells how on July 4, 1947 4000 motorcyclist led by the Boozefighters converged on a little central California town called Hollister and allegedly held it in hostage for three days until the troopers came in mass force and freed it. At least that is what the newspapers and Life magazine reported at the time. However in this book Bill and JQ uncovers the real truth and reveals the actual facts as stated by eyewitnesses and the original bikers that were there. The true story was hardly anything like the press reported in 47, but it is a fascinating story anyway. There were a lot of funny exciting events the late arriving doom and gloom reporter missed. They bring out a lot of other humorous stories that the Boozefighters were involved in through the 40’s & 50’s. Half way through the book there is a chapter about me. Not that I’m old enough to be one of the originals, but because I am the first club Chaplain. Bill interviewed me in Auburn, CA. while we were having a Spring National meeting a couple of years ago. I told him pretty much what I’ve told you all today. Right towards the end Bill pulled his sunglasses off and wiped tears from his eyes and said, “I’ve covered and written a lot of human interest stories in my life but none has ever touched me like this one. This has got to be included in our book. You know GOD really does work in mysterious ways. Here he’s taken a dropout preacher and threw him into the midst of a motorcycle club. Then he uses him to hitch and plant people. Next he’s assigned to introduce bikers to the Word of God through Easter services, which leads to folks like Pawnshop Julie getting baptized in a horse trough. Add to that someone films the whole deal and makes a DVD that’s being circulated all over the USA and touching others to follow suit. Now the biker chaplain story is going to appear in a new book called “THE ORIGINAL WILD ONES” and it will be distributed to thousands and thousands of readers all over the globe. There are already orders coming in from such places as France, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Yep – God moves in mysterious ways…and now “IT’S IN THE BOOK!” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A note from JQ: Irish Ed’s email is (bikechaplain@hotmail.com). If you’d like a FREE copy of the “HORSE TROUGH BAPTISM” story, in which is not only touching but also humorous as heck, just contact Irish Ed and he’ll send you one on a DVD. He won’t ask you for a dime, but - considering producing and shipping cost for him I encourage you to donate a few bucks, you know $5.00 or so. And in case it’s too much I’ll guarantee you it’ll be put to good use in his “IN THE WIND MINISTRIES” which ministers to hitching and plant’n and spreading the gospel to bikers that are in need. Now go do the right thing and we’ll see ya down the road and around the bend. JQ
|
Enter | History | Reports & Articles | Current Events | Archives | In Memory || Chapters | Contact | Humor Trivia Merchandise The Gallery Other Links Profiles
That we all had choices, some were good and some were bad but all were up to
us to decide how to live. I’d grown up in a bad environment and all I knew
was the wrong path. In the 1980’s I got into the pawnshop business. I met
and dealt with all walks of life but there were a lot of desperate down and
out people bringing stuff into my shop. Business and life in general was
pretty tough for me. I’ve been stabbed with a knife three times, shot twice,
and knocked off my bike once by an alleged hit and run driver. I figured
“man I must have really made someone mad.” That was a serious WAKE UP
CALL! Brother Ed explained that everybody could have a fresh new start
and he broke down the barriers for me. He prayed with me down in the club
warehouse and I accepted Jesus right there. Later he baptized me and some
others in a horse trough”.
