The iconic opening scene of the 1978 movie Grease, a musical play, first performed in Chicago in 1971, and which later scored 3,388 performances on Broadway, starting in 1972. Though it's officially called, Summer Nights," a lot of us think of this song as "Summer Lovin'" because of the repeating lyrics. John Travolta and Olivia Newton John starred in the movie. She just died a couple of days ago, at age 73.
In the beginning (1988 or 1989), there was the HBP apartment. S&M Bicycles owner Chris Moeller, and about three other guys, rented an apartment on Huntington Street, near Adams, in Huntington Beach, California. I think it was Chris, Dave Clymer, John Paul Rogers, and either Alan Foster or Bill Grad living there to start. Four riders and two bedrooms equals no privacy, cheap rent, and a ten minute ride to the beach. Not a bad set-up for young pro racers always needing money to get to the next weekend's race.
The HBP crew stepped things up in 1989 or 1990, and rented a four bedroom house, on Iroquois Street in Westminster, the city just inland of Huntington Beach. They soon dubbed themselves the Pros Of Westminster, or P.O.W's, for short. No disrespect was meant to actual military P.O.W.'s. The name came up, and it stuck. It was the first hardcore BMX house, and it became legendary in BMX worldwide in the 1990's. You can see the house in this clip of Dave Clymer in 1990 and 1991, first the backyard with the jumps, and later the front yard, with a glimpse of the front of the house at 1:15.
The P.O.W.'s were mostly pro racers, and the number of actual residents of the House ranged from 8 to 12 guys, sharing the four bedrooms, which kept rent down to about $90 to $120 a month, plus a share of utilities. Renting a normal room in a house then cost $350-$400, so living there saved residents a lot of money.
The best known residents of the POW House were Dave Clymer, Chris Moeller, Alan Foster, John Paul Rogers, Todd Lyons, John Salamne, Lawan Cunningham, Jason Lonergan, and Brian Foster. All together, I think there were 22 "official" house members, including myself, over the 4-5 year span of The House. Pretty much every traveling BMXer that came through SoCal in that era spent a night or two on the floor or couches. Any rider who spent a night there, and had a full page photo in a BMX magazine, could put it up on the living room wall. There were 147 full page photos of different BMX riders in the living room, not counting house residents, the last time I counted them.
There were so many good riders living at the POW House in those days, that BMX magazine editors and photographers would just show up at times, with three or four different articles to shoot pics for. Whichever guys were least hungover that morning got photos taken for the magazines.
It was the long recession of the early 1990's, BMX, as an industry "died" in 1989. There was hardly any money in the sport for even the best riders. We could all make at least 8 different meals out of a packet of ramen. Street riding and dirt jumping were evolving into their own genre's, and the whole idea of BMX riders making their own videos was just getting going. The POW House was dirty, crazy, stupid, awesome, and hated by "Miss Iroquois," the neighbor across the street. We were a bunch of young, single, BMX guys with drinking problems, or a bunch of drinkers with a BMX problem. It sort of depended on what day you showed up. Suave, sophisticated, clean cut, and respectable, we were not.
Into this house of mayhem, the current residents and former residents would gather each night, in the living room, in the early evening. We were looking for really cheap places to go party, drink, and try to meet women. On one of those nights, I was sitting on one of the four couches when "Summer Nights" from Grease came on the TV, and the volume was set pretty loud. For Genreration X kids like us, the movie Grease was etched in our brains, though none of us would ever admit it.
Within the first few bars of "Summer Nights," two or three guys started humming along. Now I'm talking guys in BMX T-shirts, thrashed shorts, with billy goat 90's goatees, and holding Mickey's bigmouth beers. We were the polar opposite of Broadway musical fans. But within 30 seconds, every single one of us was singing along with this song. Guys sang the Greasers parts, other guys sang the girls parts, in bad falsetto. We were all dancing around, acting it out, like it was the most normal thing in the world. This song was such an ingrained part of growing up as a 70's 80's kid, that we just all rolled with it, singing like a bunch of idiots, and loving every minute of it. It was seriously one of the craziest, funniest moments I remember of the POW House.
Then the song ended, and we were back to being 10 or 12 dirtbag BMX guys, deciding whether to go to see T.S.O.L., Clawhammer, All, or whatever the punk show of the night was, or to a bar with cheap pitchers of beer. As soon as the song ended, I just sat there looking at everyone, thinking, "did that just happen? Yeah. it happened. That's how big Grease, and Olivia Newton John and John Travolta were to our generation. Even punkers sang along to "Summer Nights," if no one was watching. Another random night at the P.O.W. House. "Lawan, hurry up! We gotta get there before 10 or pay full price!"
Rest in Peace Olivia Newton John.
For those looking for a little BMX nostalgia, or who have never heard of the P.O.W. House, here's the P.O.W. video that never got made, in the form of a blog post. "You are (Fo)R(G)otten."
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