This story is a true story—an encounter you won’t forget! It was told to me by my dad, Zack Griffin, who was a great storyteller. He had some great stories to tell folks during his 98 years on Earth! In 1933, Zack, Ellen, and Archie Zack, Jr. lived in an apartment in Pampa, Texas. My grand entrance to the family didn’t come until 1936.
Wellsir, Dad was a “driller” for the Magnolia Oil Company…the company with a flying red horse logo. He punched holes in the ground, looking for what was called “black gold!” He had a crew of five men.
Magnolia was drilling for oil all over the Panhandle, and on this particular day in August, his drill site was south of town. It was just off the dirt road to Bowers City. Most of the roads during that time were dirt! It was very hot and dry. Dad would laugh and say, “It was so hot you could fry an egg on the hood…but don’t do it because you will ruin the paint job on your car!”
They had just finished their shift of eight hours. The next crew, which was the “graveyard” crew, had arrived. The crew showered, changed into street clothes, got into the big 1932 Pontiac 4-door sedan, and took off to the country store a little further down the road. These stores were oases of general merchandise, food, and soft drinks and usually had one or two pumps out front for gasoline. Lordy, lordy, after eight hours in a sun-drenched day of sweltering heat, the crew looked forward to ice-cold soda waters.
One of those popular drinks was invented in 1888. It was made from the cocaine plant. The syrup was distributed like a medicine, mixed with carbonated water, but by 1932, it had become a bottled drink and was the number one drink in the USA. It was called “Coca-Cola!” In 1903, cocaine was removed, leaving caffeine as the sole stimulant ingredient and all medicinal claims were dropped. [ Now, back to our story…
We were sitting around a picnic table on the side of the store, enjoying our drinks and watching a cloud of dust from another car coming down that dirt road. This 1933 Ford V-8 pulled up to the gas pumps, and that cloud of dust followed it… You could see a man and a woman sitting in the front seat. The young man wore a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up and a tan fedora hat pushed back off his forehead. Getting out of the driver’s side of the car, he stood there stretching and looking around. Then, the passenger door slowly opened, with a female foot pushing it!
Then the woman’s leg came up, and a submachine gun was resting on her right leg! As Clyde pumps gas into the Ford, using the leaver, Bonnie gets out of the car with the gun still resting on her hip, walks over to Dad and the crew, and says, “Howdy boys, it’s one of those hot days in Texas, isn’t it?” All six of the men answered in unison, “Yes, mam’, it sure is.” Clyde has finished pumping gas and is heading into the store. Bonnie says, “Clyde, honey, get me one of those Cokes.” She then walks back to the car, where her door is still open, and she turns and sits down and rests the machine gun on her lap.
Five minutes later, Clyde comes out holding two large paper sacks full of groceries and places them in the back seat. He then hands the Coke to Bonnie, and as he walks around the car to the driver’s side, he says to us, “Boys, the drinks are on me,” pointing toward the store! He then gets in the Ford, and they leave in a cloud of dust with Bonnie’s arm waving out her window.
That’s when Jake comes running out and is waving a $10.00 bill… Hey, can you believe it? That was Bonnie and Clyde! Look what he gave me!” proudly showing us the bill. He said to give you fellows another cold drink. On him and Bonnie.”
(My research states that due to the “Great Depression,” the Barrow gang…especially with a woman involved, was mixed with a romantic view of the couple as “Robinhood” folk heroes.)
Wellsir, it was nine months later that Retired Texas Ranger Frank Hamar and 16 other lawmen ambushed them on a country dirt road just outside Sailas, Louisiana, on May 23, 1934. Shortly thereafter, a Dallas paperboy said that Bonnie and Clyde would be considered the Public Enemy #1, over gangsters Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, Al Capone, or Baby Face Nelson…When asked why he chose them, he said, “We sold 500,000 newspapers that day!”
Bonnie was 19, and Clyde was 20 when they met. They immediately fell in love, and their six years together certainly showed that!
I close by saying the Barrow gang staged far more robberies of mom-and-pop gas stations and grocery stores than bank heists. Often, the loot amounted to only $5.00 to $10.00! Looking back now, I’m just glad the Good Lord had Bonnie and Clyde in a good mood that day in 1933!
Ahhh, yes, those were the days…
