At this time several adventurous souls were beginning to venture out on the public roads on their two-wheeled machines. One of these brave souls was a young man named Lee Simerly "Happy Jack", Papa Jack's father. Happy Jack would get several of his friends and acquaintances together and do some serious riding through the mountains and towns of Tennessee. As this group of daring young men grew they took on the name of the "Gypsies" and formed a club with Happy Jack being its first President Thus, the GYPSY MOTORCYCLE CLUB was born. As the group grew larger and rode a greater number of miles the people from the towns around began to refer to them as the "Sour Pickles Of Society" not understanding these daring and fun loving group of bikers. When Papa Jack first saw the character pickle riding a motorcycle, he knew the pickle patch had been born and to this day is proudly worn on the back of all Gypsies. Then in 1948, some 16 years later Happy Jack's brother Chuck took over as President and remained so until Papa Jack became President in 1960. Jack Simerly, now known as Papa Jack, moved to Aransas Pass, Texas where the club became known as an outlaw group. Because of this notoriety the club was disbanded in 1964. In 1966 Papa Jack and brother Jim "Hap" Simerly decided to reorganize the Gypsy Motorcycle Club with the main aim in mind to build a better image of bikers in the public eye. It began by first chartering the club with the American Motorcycle Association (1968) ,and changing the once worn levi cutoff jacket worn by that daring group of young men, to the Riverboat Gamblers Vest that is still worn today. Estella Simerly, Papa Jack and Hap's Mother was heard to say that this vest would influence the Gypsy members to be as "good as gold". The Aransas Pass Chapter, now known as the Corpus Christi Chapter and still referred to this day as our "Mother Chapter" was chartered with AMA in 1968 and carried Charter #4 upon joining Texas Motorcycle Roadriders Association (TMRA) in 1972. However to safeguard that charter # from ever being lost, International now holds it. In 1973, some 41 years later, the Gypsy Motorcycle Club became National and International by forming chapters in not only Texas, but Oklahoma, Mexico, Tennessee and the first chapter in Germany in 1983. Since then we have crossed the state lines with chapters also in New Mexico and Louisana. Up until this time the Gypsies had known only one leader, Papa Jack. But the club was growing so large now and covered so much territory that Papa Jack found it necessary to have his own personnel offi~ers. This group of officers became the International Chapter and were designated to wear "Black Rockers". At a meeting in the early 1980"s on the beach, Papa Jack changed the black rockers to red rockers in an effort to more easily distinguish his International Chapter. The Red Rockers made up Papa Jack's chapter and answered only to him, and this still holds true today with the Chairman of the Board/International President. Their positions are appointed and not elected offices. As we walked along the dirt road at a rally, Papa Jack stopped and pulled a worn out old wallet from his back pocket. Fumbling thru the clouded plastic picture holder, he pulled out a faded black and white picture and handed it to me. It was of a young woman, quite attractive, I thought, standing next to a motorcycle, only like the ones I"ve seen in antique motorcycle magazines. I stared at the picture, then looked up, He said "The woman you see there is my Mother, I rode on the back of that motorcycle in her belly on the way to the hospital, and I rode in her arms on the way home".
-He truly was born a Gypsy .. There's more to the story, but this is how we came to be. Papa Jack once said "you have a choice being a Gypsy, but I was born a Gypsy". Some of us firmly believe this to be true, but we also believe some of us were born to BE a Gypsy. We are proud of our history and try our hardest to live up to the legacy left behind by those who paved the way for us.
