Harley Shop

We grew up around a real Harley shop

One still owned by a Mom and a Pop

Bikes, parts, and not a whole lot more

Didn’t look like a big department store

Not just a Harley shop at this little location

Open seven days a week, also a service station

Closed every night somewhere about ten

Bikes to be fixed, it would be much later then

Where was the shop with a mechanic who cares?

Go through that door and down those rickety stairs

There was old Raymond at his cluttered work bench

As good at ridin’ as he was at turnin’ a wrench

Raymond also pumped gas and was the salesman too

Of which, corporate today would take a dim view

Martha upstairs, Harleys her number one thought

Damn, she’d run Jap bikes clean off of her lot

Smitty, the owner, still worked at a factory all day

I guess just sellin’ Harleys didn’t bring in enough pay

It’s much different today and it will never be the same

Dealers so big that they don’t even remember your name

That was the place where I bought my first Harley

A place where we were all just a big happy family

I know it’s in vain but, I find myself trying to reason

What happened to dealers like Smitty’s Harley Davidson?

© 2006 Jerry Sawinski / Biker Jer