Word: vespa
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...high-pitched horns. Many dozens of motor scooters in burgundies, grays and greens line the parking lot, displaying favored ornaments--a Tinky Winky doll hanging from one, a picture of Rocky and Bullwinkle's Natasha from another. Ahhh, the smell of exhaust fumes from tiny tailpipes. Welcome to the Vespa Club of America's annual rally, which recently drew nearly 300 motor scooterists from all over the U.S. for four days of partying, prizes and an obstacle course that required nimble riders to navigate around tires, duck under a limbo line and even bite a cherry off a swing...
Part of it is pure nostalgia. At the height of scooter mania in the 1950s, the sleek, steel-framed bikes were symbols of romantic escapism. Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn putted through Rome on a Vespa in Roman Holiday; it was a favorite toy of Hollywood's elite, including Gary Cooper and Jayne Mansfield. In 1960s England, while big, grease-sputtering Harleys were ridden by leather-clad Rockers, elegant Vespas were the signature of their archrivals--and regular rumble opponents--the fashionable Mods...
...many of these clubs for free--it's good for the atmosphere. Piper Ferguson, a promoter at Hollywood's Cafe Bleu, says that on some nights as many as 100 twentysomethings--sporting shiny sharkskin suits, pointy Beatles boots and tattoos--line up their bikes in the club lot. But Vespa fanatics include businessmen, middle-aged women and just regular guys. Hairstylist Robert Winslow, 29, moved from a roomy loft in New York City's tony TriBeCa to a dingier but more spacious Brooklyn apartment without a kitchen, strictly to accommodate his vintage bikes. "I'm obsessive," he says. "My place...
...Pope unexpectedly called in to the program, catching everyone by surprise, including his own spokesman, who was among the guests on the show. "I would like to thank all those taking part for everything that they have said and done," the Pope told the show's shocked host, Bruno Vespa. Visibly moved and more than a little flummoxed, Vespa took a moment to collect himself before finally murmuring, "Even journalists have a soul every so often." Sometimes it just takes a little papal intervention to prove...
...scooter I own was given to me by a friend of mine, about four years ago, who was returning to Europe and could not afford shipping costs. It is a 1978 Vespa Piaggio, 100cc motor, Evergreen in colour, on which I have never had an accident and for which, as far as I can tell, I have never received shit (the odd envious snigger aside...