What Billy Durant Told Me Last Week

Well, almost. Last week we bundled the little dog in the car and took off on a road trip to Detroit and Flint. Wanted to rub shoulders with Billy Durant; I heard there was a life sized statue of him, on the ground and not on a pedestal. We tracked him down, him and Dallas Dort.

I wanted to shake hands with Billy Durant but it was bitterly cold, so he kept his hands in his pockets, apologizing, of course. Always was a gentleman. Dallas Dort was not happy that I focused all my attention on The Man. He just stood there, arms folded the whole time, staring at the old factory.

When I realized that, I put my arms around both gentlemen. To no avail. Oh well, can’t win ’em all, I guess 🙂

The statues stand outside Factory One, the factory Billy and Dallas had to buy when William Paterson betrayed them. (You can find the story of that drama in Comeback! of course.) General Motors restored the factory and now uses it as an archive for stuff from that era, as well as an event center. Who knows? Maybe we’ll have the launch party for the book there one day. 🙂 Here’s a shot of the two of them looking over the factory on the banks of the Flint River.

The red circle shows the statues. The building on the right is the old company headquarters, also preserved as a museum.

Inside Factory One they have the three Billy Durant breakthrough vehicles on display. First up the Famous Blue Ribbon Cart, which started it all:

Next, the first Buick:

And finally, the first car Billy got going to mount his famous comeback: the large, expensive and ultimately unsuccessful car Louis Chevrolet designed:

Next time we go there, we hope the weather is a little nicer. Scenes like these abounded in the ice rain:

As for publication progress, you know, that small detail: we’ve cleared the first hoop. There is some agent interest. Hopefully that leads to representation and publication. Wish Billy was here to talk to them… 🙂