|
Driving
Around Ronnie Dee
(c) Copyright 2026 by Ronnie Dee
|
|
I used to drive fast, or at least as fast as I could in the cars I owned, all of the time. I once had my license revoked for six months and had to take a driving test all over again, which was a real pain in the ass, but I didn't learn easily, so I was also arrested for going 70 mph down Chestnut Street by a sneaky motorcycle cop. At this time I was driving a black, fastback 1950 Chevy with white sidewalls and red rims; a neat looking car. It only had a six cylinder engine, but it was kept in tip-top running shape by a friend of mine who worked as a full-time mechanic and ran a garage at home in his spare time. It was not so good as a drag racer, but ran pretty good on the street.
There is a road in Louisville which made for a great race track, named as it ran from east to west - Algonquin Parkway, and as it veered northward it became Southwestern Parkway. It was about a 2 1/2 mile run beginning at 35th Street and ending up at Broadway and Shawnee Park. It was about a mile to the first turn, a sweeping right and a 1/2 mile run to the left turn with a short chute to the second right turn and then a straight mile to the finish. It was a four lane road, ostensibly with two lanes going each way. However, in recent maps it appears to be a four lane road that morphs into a three lane.
Anyway, I was out with my buddy Dan one late night/early morning and decided to take a practice run. I took off at 35th and roared down the way. The right hand sweep was no problem, nor was the sharper left turn, but by the time I started into the second right, I was going pretty fast and found the car being swept by centrifugal force further and further to the left, easing more and more toward the oncoming lanes until we were all the way over in the far left, oncoming lane. I never slowed down although I was brushing the shoulder, close to a lot of trees, but I held steady and could feel it starting to come around. We completed the turn and slid back over into the proper lane. It was normally a fairly busy road, but due to the late hour, fortunately, it was devoid of traffic. No oncoming traffic, no police. Dan didn't bat an eye.
Whew, got away with another one. How many more do I have? Several, it turned out.
It seems that for some reason there was a thing for a while where guys were throwing beer bottles at each other when passing them on the street. You never knew when the oncoming car would launch a missile at you while passing. This was before AC in cars, so we naturally had the windows down.
One night we were tooling around and there was something suspicious about an approaching automobile and Bud said, "Hey, this might be our guy."
So I waited until we were almost even and I slipped out of the passenger window and rifled a bottle right through the open driver's window of the other car. As soon as I let it go, I knew it was a mistake. It was an unmarked police car.
Bud instantly shot forward and I could see the other car turning around. They were quickly in hot pursuit and Bud did some high speed zig zagging for a few blocks and we were able to make a stop in an apartment house parking lot. We fled the car and skulked our way home, about four blocks away.
The following evening we conferred, and decided to take the risk and we went back to retrieve the car. We were very anxious when we neared the apartment. We envisioned a company of police officers waiting to pounce on us as soon as we touched the door handles, but to our immense relief, no one was there.
We had not intentionally thrown the bottle at the police. We weren't that crazy, but intent wouldn't have mattered to them if we had been caught and that is understandable. But that did end the bottle throwing wars.
Perhaps the most frightened I have ever been while driving a car was when Bob the cop and I went to see some friends of his who owned a farm in Missouri, near Kansas City.
He owned a Volkswagon Bug and on the way there I was driving as it turned dark and started to rain. It was coming down pretty good when I came up behind a semi truck. I decided to pass him, so I drifted into the outside lane and tried to pull up even with the truck. I got halfway and suddenly couldn't see anything but the side trailer lights, some big tires and water, very close to the passenger side window. Pulling back and dropping in behind him was not an option. I wanted to get past him so I hit the floor with the peddle and we inched closer to the front. I forgot I was driving a car without any of that instant punch and we just kept going and going. I was thinking, "Please God, keep this road going straight for a while until I can pass this guy."
I'm sure the driver was having fun, but I wasn't. Finally, after about twenty miles, we edged in front. I could see! I finally got clear of the truck and vowed never to pass a semi in the rain in this vehicle again. Bob slept through the entire episode.
Another night Dan and I were tooling around and cruising through a drive-in restaurant when a police car pulled up behind me. As I drove out into the street he turned on the flashers, but got caught and held up for a second by a couple of cars. That was enough for me, as I was armed that night and I took off and flew down an alley, turning off my lights as we sped on. It was a dark night, I was driving the black Chevy and I figured if I didn't hit the brakes, the cops couldn't find me. It was crazy dangerous, I know, but I sure as Hell didn't want to get caught with a gun. I never thought about throwing it out of the window, I just sped on with no lights. We approached 21st Street and the car bounced as I came out of the alley and literally flew across the street into the next alley. A few blocks later there was no trace of the police, so I turned on the lights and continued on.
At that time 21st Street was a busy street and people walked up and down the sidewalks all the time. It was several years after that before I had the slightest thought about what could have happened, but I get cold chills even today when I hear or read about some horrible incident involving a reckless driver and I think, "I must have been insane because that could so easily have been me."
Dan was a born troublemaker and rather impulsive. He got married when he was seventeen and one night, barely a few weeks after the honeymoon, I dropped in to visit the happy couple. They began arguing and he kicked the TV, which was sitting on a wheeled cart, and sent it speeding into the wall. His wife retaliated by throwing the dishes out of the second floor window, and not to be topped, he ran downstairs and jumped into their car and rammed it into a tree. Like I say, impulsive.
He was the guy who kept trying to get me to rob a service station when I had my gun. It was food for thought, but I didn't do it. He got into a tremendous disagreement with his father in their kitchen one night which turned into a wrestling match while I sat at the table eating Cheetos. Later that night, at about 1:00 am, I tried to wake him up by knocking at his window and his parents called the police. I saw them pulling up at the curb and I went straight out the back after scaling a six foot fence. When I felt safe enough, I pondered that. I am not by nature a fence scaler, but I was that night.
One day, for some reason, we went out to the Fort Knox, Otter Creek area and somehow we ended up prematurely setting off a huge bonfire. We didn't know it was for the Boy Scout Jamboree that weekend. As we sped away from the scene, a sheriff's car was coming fast, heading at us. We zoomed by him and headed home.
I arrived just as my grandmother was saying goodbye to the sheriff. He somehow got my license plate number and called my home. He was upset, and so was she, but she reported that she had talked him out of arresting me. Thanks again mom. The blasted Boy Scouts again.
On another occasion Bud and I tried to be good samaritans. We were driving around one night and saw this guy beating up on a woman. We stopped and confronted the man. The next thing we knew, the woman started kicking and cursing at us. So we said, "The Hell with this," and we took off. I had heard of that happening before, I mean, what can you do?