The first “Slaughterhouse Run” was held at a campground in Tinley Park, IL, August 4-6 1995. It was organized by Kristen and Moe of the Second to Last Scooter Club. The first year attracted 100+ attendees, but maybe about 30 scooters… pretty much all you could get back then was a vintage scooter. People came for the DJs, who were shut down at 10pm for being “too loud” (nevermind that Jimmy Buffet was playing across the street). About half of the scooters broke down before we got back to the city. It was an amazing event.

The second year was worse… and better. Huge storms pounded Chicagoland the entire week before, so our campsite (in the western suburbs) was washed away. Attendance could be counted on your hands and feet, but we had a great time, and made many friends for life.

Things ran more smoothly as the scene grew and more people got involved. Second to Last S.C. continued to plan the rally through the first ten years. Slaughtershouse 3, 4, and 5 were held in the city, growing a bit each year, including a sold-out show at Metro for Scootzilla in 1998. They’re all a bit of a blur now. This was all five years before facebook, flickr, and YouTube. Most people found out about rallies through word of mouth, postcards, and fliers. We all had film cameras. But people from across North America found us, and we found them, and went to their rallies.

We returned to the countryside for SH6 and 7, at a biker bar in Morris, IL, called E.J. Karz. These two rallies were epic, with huge turnouts and too much hi-jinx to go into here, SH6 was featured in a hilarious segment on Wild Chicago. We drank the bar dry, and met the Devil’s Diciples (Maaaax Middleton!).

After a few more great Second-to-Last-run city rallies, a new team took over in 2005 for SH 11. Rather than a specific club sponsoring it, most years it was a combination of several individuals, notably Dawn, Kathy, and Jon, and various clubs, including the Magnificent 7 S.C., Los Corazones Negros, Mayday S.C., and Heck’s Angels.

Again, each of these rallies offered fantastic stories and memories with old and new friends. At least this era is somewhat-better documented in the scoot.net photo galleries. And somewhere around here, we got our official rally theme song.

Each year offered a different theme, with a homecoming dance, a scavenger hunt, inflatable sumo wrestling, lightsaber jousting outside the Hideout, piñatas, bull-riding with a famous hair-band drummer, and a lot of pork, served pretty much any way you can name.

After a decade in the city, we did another couple camping rallies for our 20th anniversary and 21st year, this time near Starved Rock, and with most of us a bit older and wiser.

After a few more years in the city, including some hypercompetitive bowling at 24 and 25, the pandemic hit. While it was a terrible couple years in most respects, we re-jiggied Slaughterhouse to be entirely outdoors, meeting up in parking lots to ride safely in a big group. Those two rallies weren’t quite up to the usual standard, but for a lot of people, they were still highlights of two crumby years.

Since then, we got right back on track with a huge poker run for SH28, followed by “29 Heures d’Abattoir.” a diabolical 29-hour-straight gauntlet of events, rides, and competitions with each scooter and rider racking up points over the whole weekend. Both years attracted over 200 scooterists.

2024’s thirtieth anniversary was amazing, with more than 250 scooterists, an epic Friday night concert, and tons of mementos to celebrate the occasion.

Which brings us to Slaughterhouse 31… The longstanding coalition of organizers has united under the Vespa Club of Chicago banner, and we’re incorporating Vespa Midwest Days, which started last year in St. Louis. We’re expecting about 350 scooterists, and even bigger and better events than last year. Will you be there? Don’t you dare miss it!