The Greasers Got Down – in New Hope, PA
New Hope + New Zealand = Good Times
Many times when you finally meet someone, or see something, that you’ve admired from afar for years, it ends in disappointment, dreams dashed, myths busted. Last July, Team T&D didn’t just meet the Selvedge Yard (our long time crush), we threw a party with them, and not only did the experience live up to the hype, it eclipsed it. Why are we telling you about this now? Because we’re getting some pretty special visitors this week- more about that shortly …. but for now, let’s get back to the story.
From the moment we crossed the Delaware River into New Hope, the world seemed decidedly more at peace with itself. With its rolling hills, colonial digs, numerous antique stores, art galleries, and laid back vibe, we knew immediately that we were in for a memorable weekend.
We called our gathering the Greaser Get Down, for no better reason than Greasers like to ‘get down’. The preparations had spanned many months of skype calls traversing endless time zones and thousands of airpoints, it was fun but now the night was upon us, we had to actually pull this thing off.
And then it rained, ‘rain be damned’ we murmured through gritted teeth, fists shaking skyward, sure enough by 6pm on a Saturday night the house was packed with bikes, babes, and plenty of greasers, all vying for a chance to win a trip for two to New Zealand.
At Triumph & Disaster we spend a lot of time talking about the T&D family, the people who are great to work with, special to T&D, when you travel half way around the world to a party that you are throwing with one of your retailers and find that they are the best kind of people, people who love the same things as you. And when you meet their friends and they are open, cool, intelligent and sharing of their energy and time, the only word that comes to mind is humbling, and of course ‘fucking awesome’ after all it’s the whole reason why we do this, right?!
So we want to say a massive thank you to Ashley & JP from the Selvedge Yard, we just love your work, words cannot express all we want to say – but may the best kind of karma come your way - always. Special shout outs to; Christian at Leftfield (what a dude), Chris Bray from Billykirk (champion), Sumner Dilworth (star), but also to all the greasers who came dressed to kill and ready to party – you really made the night.
And of course we gave away a pretty cool prize; the rules stated that you had to come in your best greaser duds, with bonus points to be awarded for rolling in on the baddest set of wheels. As it turned out, it was Grand Prize Winner Linda Missal’s Triumph Bonneville and the fact that she rode from Brooklyn through the rain to meet us, which separated her from the other “best dressed” finalists.
Six months has flown by since that party, and we are stoked to have Linda and her partner James arriving this week – stay tuned for more on that, and if things work out we hope Ashley and JP might come for a visit also.