The End of G.A.B.B.

G.A.B.B. 7 in 1998 was the last time we did it. What started as a fun thing to do for a few fellow co-workers had turned into a chore. What was one day a year turned into 4 different days for the four different start times. There was all the arranging for t-shirts and breakfast, finding someone to ferry in the goodies and other people’s clothing, arranging to borrow bikes for people who didn’t have one of their own, etc. so I was looking for an excuse to stop doing it when the perfect one dropped in my lap.

Willie worked in the back of the plant and on a slightly earlier start and end time because of his job, so at quitting time for him, the rest of the plant was still hard at work. Maybe someone took exception to Willie rolling his bicycle through the plant on his way home and complained to HR. Or maybe it was an office person from up front complained about Donna and my bicycles parked in our respective cubicles, we never got the full story, but in the fall of 1998 a bike rack was placed outside near the entrance and bicycles were no longer allowed in the building. Having had my fair share of bicycles stolen from racks in my lifetime I refused to ride to work and take a chance on it happening again.

When I informed HR in the spring of 1999 that I wouldn’t be doing the ride that year because their rack wasn’t big enough to hold the 12-15 bicycles of the riders and I didn’t want to have to round up that many bicycle locks, they offered an exception for the event. I declined the offer.