Who Is Mom....?

Nobody knows exactly who "Mom" is. Some say she's a former deb called Virginia Van der Veer who mysteriously disappeared with a Hell's Angel on the day of her wedding to Strother Astor-Vanderbilt back in 1967.

Since then she's been to Nice and the isle of Greece where she knocked back champagne on a yacht; she's made like Harlow at Monte Carlo and showed 'em what she got, many, many more times than she can remember. In fact, she has been to herself so often she's bored enough by the experience to enjoy dispensing advice to others from behind the bar of her roadhouse on a blue highway on the outskirts of Tart City.

The roadhouse is, of course, under the protection of the local Hell's Angels chapter whose leader, Mom's ex, still carries a torch for her the size of Texas. She mixes a mean cocktail, though not just for everyone. She knows what you want to drink just by looking at you. She has a couple of kids out there in the world, probably born on her rampages through Europe and the Far East, who drop in now and again, and a few lovers, all traveling men.

Mom isn't one for settling down with just the one guy. She has amassed a good sum of money over the years (jewelery given to her by Arab sheiks, bank robberies committed when she was dating one of America's Most Wanted, good investments made on the advice of a banker she picked up scuba diving). But she is very happy running the roadhouse, with the assistance of her well-trained staff. Hey, you don't grow up a deb without learning how to handle the help.

--Introduction by Lauren Henderson