Oral History Program Dale Nye Interviewed by Randy Bass 12 June 2008 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Dale Nye Interviewed by Randy Bass 12 June 2008 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Nye, Dale, an oral history by Randy Bass, 12 June 2008, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: This is an oral history interview with Dale Nye. It is being conducted on June 12, 2008 at Angelo's Bar at 130 25th St. Ogden, Utah and concerns the history of Angelo's Bar. The interviewer is Randy Bass. RB: Dale you go by another name don't you? DN: They call me "Red Devil". RB: How did you get that name? DN: (chuckles) I'm red (red hair) and I'm dangerous. RB: Really, I hope I don't experience any of that. DN: (chuckles) I've mellowed, I'm 55 years old and I'm quieter now days. I've had that nickname since the 70's. RB: Who gave it to you? DN: A working partner back in them days. He actually rode motorcycle at that time too. He was a Harley rider. We were both riding 60's models. RB: So you have ridden motorcycles for a long time. DN: I've been riding Harley since I was 21. RB: What was your first bike? DN: 1948 Panhead. RB: Do you still have it? Wish you had it? 1 DN: No. It was a chopper when I got into the motorcycling. Somebody had already gotten into it and chopped it out and everything. I grew up in Huntsville and I grew up on a horse, I rode horses. All I ever wanted was a Harley, '74, and when I finally got old enough where I could afford one, I found one and I bought it. An old Panhead (one handed). I rode that bike 15 years, rigid frame, rode it all over the country, no suspension what so ever. I put close to 100,000 miles on that bike, (after thought) a lot of miles on bikes. RB: So you worked on bikes a lot too? DN: Yeah, yeah. I'm up to four now. In 1988 I sold that bike. I had seven old Harleys, and I kind of got tired working on the old things, ya know so... In '88 I went and bought a brand new one. It had a new configured motorcycle. The motor was a lot better and I have never looked back. I love the newer models. I rode that particular bike, I rode in 1988, I rode 100,000 miles on that bike in five years. RB: You ride a lot then. DN: (Chuckles) Yes. I put 175 thousand miles on that bike, I sold it a four years ago to buy the one I'm riding now. RB: What are you riding now? DN: It's a 2004 Screamin' Eagle Electro glide. RB: Screamin' Eagle Model? DN: Screamin' Eagle is one with all the horns and whistles… a lot more chrome, bigger motor, 103 inch. RB: 103 inch? 2 DN: Yeah. Since then they've graduated up to a 110, pretty neat bike. Some people call it the prettiest bike Harley made right out of the factory. That's what I thought, I sold two full dressers. It just showed me how much I wanted it. RB: They’re not cheap. DN: Cost me thirty grand right out the door, base price. That's a lot of money for a Harley…more parking it out back, I'll park it out front, if something goes wrong with it, I guess I'll deal with it." And I've been coming here since 1981. I went through all the different proprietors. When I first started coming here, like I said, it was the "Sheer Brothers," and they went out of business probably about 1984. Closed the doors, the bar was vacated. Some other biker friends of mine missed the bar so they come in and purchased it and it was basically a lease. They put a new name on it and at that time it was called the "Primary Club". The primary cover is a part that keeps your leg up. So they were here for…They claim they got broke into a couple of times, got robbed, so for satisfaction the bar closed again, and it was vacant for a very short time. And another gentlemen came in here, his name was Lonny, and his son, and they came in here and they named it "The Riders Tavern". They were here for probably two years and then Lonny's son got in trouble with the police ....He was in trouble with the law when they first opened. They sold it to another gentlemen, retained the same name, and he had it for six months, and he sold it to a female, Shirley. I remember her name. Shirley, and she had it for another year. She wanted get rid of the bikers. She wanted to make a cowboy bar out of this place and we said, "This ain't gonna happen, this is our home and we're not going to allow that to happen." So…what we did is made sure that Shirley retained the name "The Riders Tavern"... Uh…I don't remember when the Riders 3 Tavern, when it actually closed. Or if another friend of mine this commander, Commander Cahill, .Bless his heart he just recently died. He died of a brain aneurism about two months ago. But then it was called "Commander Cahill's". He was a military gentleman from up North in the Seattle area and he came in and called it Commander Cahill's and then was only here for about a year. And then Angelo came in and that was all the proprietors. RB: It's always been a biker bar? DN: Ever since 1981 when I first started coming in here it was a cowboy bar. The owners were actually cowboys, and I felt really welcome because I grew up a cowboy here in Huntsville and everything. But I just started to be a biker throughout the years. They always treated me well here and uh made me want to continue to come. RB: What makes a Biker bar a Biker bar? DN: People. People that ride motorcycles. Right now we don't have as many people come in here like we used to have. In the old Sheer Brothers days, on a day like today right now there'd be 10-15 motorcycles out in front every single day. On Friday nights there'd be 30 and 40. Uhhhhh… motorcycling has changed, the world changed, we all know. The world's not the same and we all know it. But things aren't the same as they used to be. A lot of the people used to come down here and ride out in front or park in front. Bless their souls a lot of them are now passed away and their gone. A lot of the people I ride with now make every year almost, there's transition. There's a gentleman up there on the wall (Pointing to the memorial wall) his name is Fred Heart. Him and his wife died in an accident back in 1991 and to this day we still have a Heart memorial run for them every year on top of Monte Cristo. He was a railroader and he was very well accepted 4 and very good friend of mine and when he died it was devastating to me. I dare say one of my best riding partners. So I made a motorcycle run for that gentleman. So, we just try to keep the ambiance, the attitude, the biker attitude. The right biker attitude it's not a bad attitude. We have very, very, mellow people in here, we rarely have a problem in here it's so ridiculous. And if there is a problem it's usually someone not from here. One of our sayings down here is "We don't call 911. (Laughs) And the Police know that we take care of our own business. We don't call the police we just take care of it internally. That's the way it should be (laughs). RB: I would agree. What's the difference between the motorcyclists, in your opinion and a biker? DN: A motorcyclists is more, should I say an enthusiast, where a biker… OK I'll rephrase that. A motorcyclists a weekend warrior per se, a true biker lives on his motorcycle. It doesn't matter what the weather is doing, you are going to ride that bike whether it's hot whether it’s cold, whether it’s raining. True bikers live for it. Like I say, they're not a weekend warrior. It's like I was saying. They are people who live on their motorcycles year in and year out. A lot of people like myself, riding for thirty, forty years. There's something about a motorcycle like a Harley Davidson especially that gets into your blood. It's like a tattoo. You're so proud to be part of the era, of the lifestyle we live. Ya know. We live a hard life. RB: Do you think it's a different attitude? DN: Uh... (Sigh, pause) Yes. Yeah, some bikers have an attitude some of them are a pain in the ass, some are mean, some you definitely don't want to mess with. People who ride "Honda" are a lot nicer per se (Randy laughing). Ever see a guy with a Tattoo on his 5 arm that said "Honda"? Harley riders have a sense about um, that we are intimidating sometimes especially when we ride in a pack of 10-20 we can be intimidating. You get to know us after an hour or two you you'd be buying us drinks and partying with us all night having a good time ya know what I'm saying? RB: Yeah. DN: Some have a lot of fun and uh, everywhere we go, we ride our motorcycles. (Big roar in bar) RB: Do you belong to a motorcycle group? DN: I belong to A.B.A.T.E. of Utah right now which is American Bikers Against Totalitarian Enactments, which is why they changed it to be more politically correct they call it now; American Bikers Aiming Towards Education. RB: Oh, really. DN: Uhhhhh, I belong to H.O.G. which is Harley Owners Group. You get that by buying a new Harley Davidson. I'm a lifetime member, back in about 1985, and I belong to the U.M.F. RB: U.M.F.? DN: You want me to tell you what that is? RB: Yeah. DN: Well that's the Ugly Mother Fuckers (laughs). RB: Who thought of that name? (Chuckles from Dale and Randy) 6 DN: It's the truth. Actually U.M.F. was started in San Diego California in 1982. And uhhhhh… it's a group of people. We have a slogan back there (pointing to the back wall), There's some things on the wall back there, "Ugly is as Ugly does." One of our other sayings is "We believe in honor, we get "on her" and stay "on her". RB: Yeah, Yeah. (Randy and Dale chuckling) DN: It's not a motorcycle club. It is a men's elite social organization. We are not a motorcycle club. We're just guys that ride Harley Davidson's, put on a U.M.F. patch and have fun. Ya know what I mean? RB: So what do you do together through the association? DN: Well, uh... I was road captain for the first few years in an organization in Ogden. I'm not currently the road captain, but what I do is like every weekend almost we just designed another motorcycle ride and we go out of state. We spend a lot of time up in Idaho; spend a lot of time in Wyoming. Getting of the Wasatch Front has become so popular you can't stand to be there. So we ride up into places like Star Valley, Wyoming, and…We ride to Idaho Falls or West Yellowstone, or whatever. But we're always riding on motorcycles. We're a group of people, we enjoy each other’s company. So a lot of the time we ride out of town and spend an evening and come back the next day. We have a lot of comradery and that. And have a lot of fun. RB: You’re riding group, do you have meetings? DN: We have one meeting a month, a general meeting, and one meeting for officer. And we're pretty casual, kick back guys. We don't mind guys, like I say were not a motorcycle club, and A.B.A.T.E. is the same way. We have one meeting a month. There 7 about to have a big party up the mountain this weekend. It's the June Jamboree, which is the nineteenth anniversary. I was a big part of building that back in the very start. RB: Are you planning on going up there? DN: I probably won't show up until Saturday, go up for one night. I used to sell beer for that thing, I'd go up there and work 20 hours a day. I use to sell beer for that. Back in my younger days. Now days it just beats me up when Monday rolls around. It takes a lot out of me. RB: My understanding is that you have your U.M.F. meetings here at the bar? DN: We have the U.M.F. and the A.B.A.T.E. meetings. I guess because this is the ambiance. This is where people want to come to congregate, because this is our home ya know? PB: I see a lot of memorabilia on the walls. Motorcycle parts, pictures, they probably all tell a story to you. DN: Yeah, uh, back in 1981 like I said when I started coming up here, there was a picture of a gal kinda straddling over a Harley and I thought that was the smallest bikinis I ever saw. But, that was the first thing I even put in here, in 1981. I just wanted to put my spot on the wall. And it's still here. Uhhhhh, people are normally pretty uhhhhh, they protect, they kind of a look out for the bar. We have new people that come in. There always someone comin' in kinda try'n to steal things off the wall but most the time most the stuff that's in here, you're told don't touch the stuff on the wall. It’s part of the bar it’s part of what we are. Ya know? That was the 1st thing I put in here and from then on it continued to grow. I'm in the neon sign business, and you'll see a lot of neon in here... I 8 did the Angelo's neon in the window; I did the one before that said "The Riders Tavern." Back here I made the U.M.F. I made EVO over here; I made the "HOGDEN". Oh—I put a lot of neon in here because it helps the atmosphere here per se. We don't like really bright lights, just little bit of attitude, little bit of atmosphere. The things here on the wall, a lot of it represents motorcycles parties. This is from a ride up in Canada, (pointing to a part on the wall). This is a motorcycle rally up in Sturgis, So. Dakota, (pointing to a sign). Most of these are parties we've ridden out of state to, to participate in. We've done everything. When I started putting things on the wall it was kind of cool because ever body started doing the same thing. When somebody would bring something in we would say “Put it on the wall!” Everybody can kind of help out over the years. But because I've probably been here the longest, I'm sure I've put the most up on the walls. RB: What are these motorcycle parts? What do they represent? DN: Most of them represent broken down motorcycle parts. (Chuckles) Uh... John Forfife and I started that. John Forfife was From California and we kind of clashed when he first came in here, he had the California attitude—I've seen it a thousand times. Californians have this natural attitude. When they come in here, trying to show an attitude to the "Devil" I'm the first one to jump right in they're face. "I don't know who the Hell you think you are or what you think you're doing here coming in our bar." Ya know. We don't tolerate that crap. You can either be our friend or you can turn around and go back to California Like I say, John and I we actually clashed for a while and another gentlemen who is no longer with us, but we got to be pretty good friends over the years. He used to ride and older knuckle head. And uh… Him and I started putting parts on the wall and a lot of them were just worn out parts. We decided to make it kind of look like a garage in 9 this one area here. Because that's what I have in my garage is a lot of my old parts hanging all over, ya know? We wanted to make it look like a biker bar, we tried to make it look somewhat like a museum out of this thing, ya know. One of the reasons why I liked doing this is because the owner of the Brewsky up the street, Hyde Park, their good friend of mine, and Bill and I, he is pretty well to do, and he's got a lot of paraphernalia on the wall. It will be hard to outdo Bill, but I'll do all I can do to make this place look very unique, you know what I'm saying? I got a wall down here that it's a remembrance wall of a lot of our friends that died over the years. When I started building that wall down there (pointing towards the entrance of the bar) back in probably mid '80's maybe even the late '80's. I started losing friends and I decided, you know what we gotta have a way to remember them. So I took pictures of them, put them in a frame, put their obituaries with them, and that wall actually filled up completely so we had to start to put them in a whole different area back there now (pointing towards the back wall). We tried to remember our friends ya know, who we liked people we used to ride with and party with. We just don't want them to go away and be forgotten, ya know what I'm saying? RB: I actually read a few of those. Some of them seem like their pretty young when they passed away. DN: Yeah, Yeah some were young and some of them were "sundowners" they were our friends, we didn't ride with them per se, but they were our friends, ya know. Some people rode with um, I rode with them a couple of times, but I didn't really ride with the Sundowners very much. There a bunch of good people. RB: Are they another local motorcycle group? 10 DN: Yeah, Yeah, they are actually are. The mother chapter is right here in Ogden, Utah. A local rider comes into the bar and says "Hey" to Dale and then to Randy, Dale tells the friend that they're conducting a slight interview. The friend says, "Well he's the man that'll tell ya everything about it." DN: Well not everything, but I've been here quite a while. It's like he was saying things on the wall everybody kind of gets into the Jimmy Dean, (referring to the posters over the bar) and uh.... The Marlin Brando's, Peter Fonda, and things like that. The Elvis Presley is one I hadn't seen before so I bought that and hung it up there. And I got one over here that has Steve McQueen; I don't think anyone can remember that, the one with the motorcycle. RB: Is that the one where he broke out of prison? DN: Yeah, with the fences and everything. RB: The Great Escape. DN: Yeah, there ya go. Yeah there's a lot of stuff on the walls that mean a lot to some of us. RB: When you were young did they portray a kind of attitude or lifestyle that interested you? DN: Mum....A not really, not really because you know those movies, when they did those movies it was back in the 50's when The Wild One was made, but I never saw those movies, I just wanted a Harley '74 when I was a teenager. I just always wanted a Harley. Not that any one individual did. I rode on the back of a Triumph, back then I was about 14-15 years old and back at that time I had only ridden small bikes. I got a picture of me on my red chopper. There's one sign there, there's a picture of me on my '48 panhead, and Dennis Hopper signed this. It said, "Red Devil cool, Dennis Hopper." 11 RB: Nice looking bike. DN: Yea, that's my old 48' RB: It looks like in this bar, I notice a stage, and do you ever have bands? DN: Yeah, the bands we have it set up so the bands can come in the back door and set up, we actually have swap meets in here. People bring in motorcycle parts and things like that. The stage actually separates and lifts apart. And that big door in the front we bring motorcycles. We don't drive um in the bar very often. (A large interruption erupts in the bar, and then quiets down.) Sometimes we have drunk motorcyclists in the backyard. (Chuckles) So, yeah, we have the band, we gotta lot of good things going on around here. (Dale begins a walking tour with Randy.) Come on in here Randy. This wall right here, so that was the original wall coming into this room. This was the bars . That part was not part of the bar when I started coming here. Later on the business just kept on getting bigger and better and bigger and better so they decided to cut those and getting into the lease, over there was vacant for years, years, years and years. They found that old wood floor and they had to do a lot of sanding and polishing that wood floor is really a nice look ya know. I bet that floor over there is 100 years old. RB: I was looking at a plaque across the street that said this building was built in 1919. DN: Huh, that's interesting, that's something I did not know. RB: What kind of stories or events stick out in your mind about this bar, over the years? DN: Maybe the one where a guy with a six shooter over there came emptied it into the wall. RB: You mean he just came in shooting? 12 DN: Yeah he pissed off one of the customers (Dale laughing) and I think he smacked him around the streets and went home and got a gun. And I was sitting right here. And a guy opened that door and went BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. Six rounds, like crazy. I can probably show you about where they pretty much all went, but they've been painted over, a long time ago. That's probably one of those more exciting days. He got chased down and beat the hell out of. (Dale and Randy laughing) Needless to say, somebody shoot somebody else. If you want to beat somebody up, beat them up, but don't back shoot um. But that happened out of this bar one time. Uhhhhh, you know bikers down here anymore—pretty tolerant, but we're not ignorant you know. I mean if you wanna have a gun fight I guess that's what we can do. We all have guns we don't carry them anymore. I use to carry a gun everywhere I went, not anymore. RB: What things have changed over the years? DN: Yeah, Yeah. Most of us have gotten old and mellowed. (Chuckles) Plus you get in a hell of a lot more trouble back in the old days, you could get away with quite a bit more than you can now. RB: Do you see any younger people coming around with that kind of attitude. That young biker attitude that maybe you experienced in the '70's or 80's? DN: Most of the people that are coming out right now are pretty passive, they come in here and most of us been around for a while most of us respectfully and somewhat passive— some come in a little cocky, but not too bad really. The biggest attitude we had was those Californians coming in here. They would come in here and I would tell them all, yeah you come in here, you don't like it here in Utah you go back where you come, we don't need your crap around here. I told them right straight out, I don't need your shit. 13 Most of those mellowed out and we got to be friends with them. Yea, things are a little different in Utah, but we have a good thing going on in Utah, it's a good place to live. RB: Are you worried about the future of this bar? I see a lot of new development across the street and places? DN: I think a lot of us worry about it. We want to keep it financially afloat because the cost of everything else is going up you know. You gotta remember this bar was here since the 70's and that was a vacant field across the street. They moved into our neighborhood we didn't move into theirs. I mean I can understand them wanting to slow us down, I do. Survival's not easy now days on a motorcycle, there are so many cars out there. The traffic is heavy… it’s scary riding motorcycles. People are getting run over on their motorcycles; it's an everyday occurrence. RB: What do you think of the Mayor of Ogden, do you think he would want to keep a place like this? DN: He doesn't want us around. Godfrey really doesn't want us down here. Hey, we don't cause any problems down here. 14