Under the Cover: Riding with Don and Donna and Dan

I have always loved to drive, and especially to drive fast. The year after earning my license I was driving 100 miles per hour on Steeles up near York University, because there was no one on the roads in those days and there didn’t seem to be cop cars around much. The thrill of speed has always drawn me in. My favourite televised sport is Formula One racing, and I wait breathlessly for that moment when the best drivers take the nervy brilliance of a chance to pass and take the lead. It was partially speed that drew me to Clyde Barrow, the fastest man in the southern US in 1934, driving the car that could outrace police cars with ease. When I told a car-savvy friend that I was writing about the Barrow Gang, he knew immediately what car Clyde drove and proceeded to find out where we could go and see one in pristine condition. One hot summer afternoon we drove west from Kingston to Don Elliott’s garage on Hwy 2 and went riding in a 1934 flathead Ford V8. It had an engine smooth as silk, and Don whipped us round the back roads at blistering speed. The front seat is narrow: I knocked knees with Don as he took the corners; the back seat is wide, a soft springy sofa. I tried out both spots, thinking of Bonnie in the back seat with her Remington typewriter, Clyde in the front, shotgun strapped upside his leg, driving barefoot hour after dusty hour. I’ve always admired a car with running boards, and these were the best. I thought of gang members hanging on after the Eastham Prison break when Clyde drove with eight in the car, two stuffed in the trunk alone. 

The next year I managed another great ride: Dan Aykroyd took me for a drive in his 1932 Pierce Arrow, built in Buffalo, the model J. Edgar Hoover might have been chauffeured in as he plotted his war on organized crime. Dan’s car felt like a living room on wheels; it even features bud jars on the walls and a hood ornament known as “The Archer” which is in fact a radiator cap, but just looks like art to me. The car could easily have fit a handful of people lounging on the back seats.  It’s also prone to breakdowns: Dan joked that the car was designed for a mechanic-in-residence to live on the roof.I watched Dan and his wife Donna Dixon cruising through eastern Ontario, me in the backseat wishing that everyone who’d ever done me wrong were standing on the side of the road watching me pass by. I felt like I’d hit the jackpot, something Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker did not often feel except when they too were driving, able for a little while to feel fine, invincible, and free.* * *Thanks to Carolyn for sharing her story and photos with us, as well as Alayna at Brick Books for helping us connect! Carolyn’s new book, Careen, is narrative poetry about Bonnie and Clyde and the Barrow gang.