by Rebecca Riley
The Iron Lung, #15, July 1996
August 1995, Friday PM: Just got off work, My flight leaves at 12am. I have some time to kill so I go hang out with my buddies at Zeitgeist. When I arrive everyone thinks I've can cancelled my plans and I've decided to stay in SF' for the weekend. It's an ordinary chaotic Friday night at the bar, but there are missing faces-people I know I'll catch up with in about 12 hours. I worked hard to-day. I've been. training everyday after work for the big race for the past two weeks. I settle into comfort of the memory of going over my bike part by part. Everything is clean.
I rode the fixed gear to the bar so I could put my race/work bike in a box for the flight. Mom called last night and she's going to meet me at the airport. Luckily I don't have to ride to the site of the big race like my friends will, it's a long way. At this moment I know hundreds of messengers are whooping it up and I feel edgy, long ing to be with them.
Toronto. The site of the third annual CMWC. Messengers from everywhere Spandex big shorts, tattoos, crazy beautiful bikes, green hair, purple hair, nose rings, smiles, laughter languages. It's a cornucopia, an endless stream of people meeting people and sharing stories, people sweating, people racing their bikes, messenger style.
In September 1996 this will all happen again. Every city that has messengers has its own messenger style. I've done seven and all have been unique. I've spent time with messengers from all over the globe. Now the world's messengers will have a chance to be a part of the San Francisco scene. For a weekend we'll all be SF messengers
I had planned to move on to Atlanta and then fly back to SF when the worlds happened. Through a series of circumstances I found myself back in SF and a part of the CMWC organizing committee. I watched the mood of the SF messengers grow somber as there was talk of the worlds being held in New York. Everybody was beginning to think it just might not happen in SF, and I myself was also concerned. I was under the impression from my trip to Toronto that SF was going to be a sure thing.
Finally, in February, the word came down that CMWC would be held in SF. I was treated to a total renew of enthusiasm at the first CMWC meeting I went to people were talking to lawyers, getting insurance bids, putting together proposals to shut down parks and streets: I was amazed.
I've been a messenger for four years, and I know that most messengers are industrious and clever but also very individualistic. I wasn't expecting to see a comprehensive game plan organized and set up by all these people I knew. I was blown away.
Bones, a well respected messenger of twelve years was organizing band benefits. He is one of the best hecklers on the wall, and I never expected his dedication. Cate, previously a messenger, now a legal aide, was slogging many hours handling the toughest issues for the committee. Megan was writing much needed press releases, talking to key people all the time for the cause. One by one, piece by piece, people grabbed a part of the project and hammered away at it like it was crucial to their own existence.
One thing that ran through all of our minds as we worked was the passing of our comrade Marcus Cook. It was about a month after SF found out they would host the worlds that the man who had inspired the whole messenger community to action died. I guess we all have a sense of purpose, as the previous cities who hosted the worlds had felt. Ours was now tinged with a mood of melancholy. SF experiences tragic passings of our brothers and sisters. The loss of that important figure serves to galvanize us just that much more as a strong fraternity of messengers, of family.
The CMWC will be ready come September. SF messengers eagerly await the arrival of the fabulous hordes. We want you to come to our glorious party, with guests attending from all over the world. It will be great!
Note: Rebecca worked in Seattle for several months in 1995, on her way around the States working as a messenger in different cities.
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