EXPORT, Pennsylvania — After logging several thousand miles driving along the back roads of the United States — most of them numbered U.S. highways and state roads, but also some dirt roads that I wasn’t quite sure were even supposed to be actual roads — I pulled up to a Sheetz gas station. Once again, I was to fill up a tank that had been depleted many times over in those two weeks. Both parenthood and the nature of my job taught me to always go home with a full tank of gas.
At 85, Ed Murphey is the oldest member of the Universal Riders Club of Pittsburgh. The retired insurance salesman says he has been riding a Harley since he was 15 years old.
(Salena Zito)
There, to the right of everyone filling up at that station, was a posse of men, women, and motorcycles, all of them enjoying Sheetz breakfast offerings, coffee, bottles of water, and each other's company. There was so much laughter coming from the group that you couldn’t help but want to know its story.
Or join them — which many people did, at least to say hello.
They were part of a local motorcycle group, the Universal Riders Club of Pittsburgh, and the first thing the president of the club, Dano Olszewski, did when I started chatting with them was press a pin of an angel on a motorcycle in the palm of my hand.
“She will keep you safe on your travels,” Olszewski said.
Mon Valley native Tom Colonna explained that they take day and weekend rides throughout the mid-Atlantic and near the Midwest. Today, they were heading to Johnstown and its Flood Museum. "We’ll have lunch there," he said. "We just enjoy the road, the people we meet along the way and each other, the camaraderie is the heart of the club. Which is funny, because none of us are joiners," he added, to laughter.
Colonna explained there are over 100 members to the club, with at least 30 of them or so joining each Saturday and Sunday for scheduled trips that typically encompass 300 miles a weekend. It is a season that goes from April through the end of October.
Most but not all of the club members are over the age of 50. Eddie Murphey, however, holds the distinction of being the oldest at 85. Everyone in the club said that makes him the boss.
“I have been riding since I was 14 or 15 years old, so for over 70 years,” said Murphey, who is from Pittsburgh's Spring Hill neighborhood. The retired life insurance salesman said the relationships and friendships he has formed with the group, with people who had never met each other prior to joining, have become priceless: “There isn’t anyone in this group who wouldn’t help you out at a moment's notice."
At 85, he said that getting out and being part of something other than himself is important: “A lot of my friends aren’t here anymore, so I hooked up with these guys about four years ago, and it has been a lifesaver."
The group meets without fail at different designated Sheetz gas stations throughout the area for weekend rides. Colonna said both motorcycle clubs and gas stations get a bad rap — the former for their outlaw past, and the latter for their reputation as merely necessary locations for bathroom pit stops and fill-up joints.
Gas stations have a sense of community about them, like the old general stores in small towns. Colonna said he thinks of this one as not just a place to fill up, but also a place where you can strike up a conversation across the pumps, run into an old friend, or grab something good to eat — something Sheetz is known for.
Just down the road half a mile is a hidden gem in a Marathon gas station, which has just about the best Greek food you can find in Western Pennsylvania. In fact, throughout the country, I’ve found some of the best homemade food, in particular breakfasts and burgers, is available in nondescript gas stations.
As I begin to write about my trip across the country, I have chosen a cultural story rather than a political one. That's because Americans are still two very distinct things in their communities: joiners and gatherers. These attributes contribute to our having a purpose greater than ourselves and showing up when friends and strangers are in need.
It is a story rarely told on social media or cable news, but it is truly who we still are.
As Murphey explained it, we thrive on a sense of belonging, even if we spend most of our life not joining. “It gives us not just a sense of purpose but also a sense of support," he said. "It doesn’t have to be a bike club — it could be anything that fulfills that need, like volunteering.”
As the group waited for everyone to finish their coffees and fresh-made breakfast sandwiches, people walked over from their pumps to admire their bikes or exchange small talk. This little slice of America is a slice we don’t talk about or celebrate enough.
The same goes for your local gas station. There is plenty of allure to the nostalgia of the old general stores with the two gas pumps out front, household necessities stacked on the shelves, and someone from the family making sandwiches inside, everyone in the community coming and going and chatting with each other. But few realize that in places like Sheetz, they are still doing just that.
To those in the fast lane, often in cities where they Uber rather than drive their own car and interact mostly on social media rather than in person, this is just a different world. They hardly experience social interactions like this one, let alone understand the people who have them.
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