etto had the idea. By the time he’d said it twice, it was as good as fact. “There had been a 6OVER screening in Seattle,” that’s how this New England Drive-In Double Feature started. A cookout and movie “sounded like a cool idea.” Little details in an idea became givens. This would be Connecticut. The needs were simple: a projector, a screen, a stereo, and somewhere to sleep. Almost as he asked they were answered, and all the important things were instantly in place. “Within a week, we had 30 cases of PBR and a location.” Vetto shakes his head and laughs when he thinks about it. A few forum posts and a poster and the Drive-In was live. Vetto might ask permission; whether he got it or not didn’t really matter much. “Attendees were already self-organizing,” almost from the word “Go.” Riders scrambled from all over New England, making plans to meet up along the way, catch a little food and drink, and ride some great roads. “Over hundreds of miles and across six states,” they’d come on only one man’s word. . . .
The small packs arrived over the afternoon. The run, a leisurely loop through old yankee farm lands, was the perfect cap to a day of miles: the rising and falling turns of the rural New England roads, the open fields, the stacked stone walls, the hush of speed under canopies of maple and birch—all of it lit by the fading late-afternoon sun, all of it perfect New England hospitality. The riders came back hungry, and Vetto didn’t disappoint. “These dirty Chopper folks sure can be food snobs.” The sun and the gorgonzola burgers gone, the crowd was ready for some oldfashioned two-wheel drive-in spectacle: 6OVER, the Dice Magazine/Michael Schmidt bike builder documentary, with one of the Mad River Motor Company’s psychedelic chopper films as the B-reel opening act. Then, “two seconds in . . . POW . . . no sound.” That wasn’t a problem though. While a team of amateur electricians went to work on the audio wiring, the audience got Hand Puppet Theater. “PHILADELPHIA in 100 words or less.” Legendary. They finally found sound, but it was low and not the best fidelity. Somehow, in this crowd, that made for a better time. So it would be “6OVER sans sound,” but “people talking to one another about bikes while the movie’s playing without any reason to be shushed is really the core of what this is all about anyway.” The bottles were passed and stories shared in a drunken revelry not soon forgotten. Cross-legged in the grass by the edge of the camp spot, his back against a tree as the early cool of the morning lifts, the aftermath of his work littering the grounds around him, Vetto drags on a cigarette, a contemplative hair of the dog. “Another stupid chopper party.” he says with a smile of satisfaction.