Taxi Vignettes

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Thanks to a heads-up from one of my flickr buddies, I heard that there would be a press conference at San José City Hall regarding the San José 2007 Grand Prix. Since my taxi is wrapped with an ad for the race I figured I should attend.

Not knowing that it was by invitation, I found the doors to the City Hall Rotunda locked. If you remember, I don't let locked doors stop me. I knocked on one of the side doors until a woman opened it just a crack. She said, "Yes?" I told her that I was a Yellow cab driver and could I come in? What she said next floored me, "Are you Joann?"

I am the only woman driving a wrapped billboard for the race, so I guess I shouldn't have been all that surprised that she guessed who I was. She gave me a press kit and I took a place behind the guys with the really big cameras.

After reading a post on Cabhack Confessions* I thought back to a customer who liked to ride with Yellow Cab. I would try my best not to pick him up. I even heard that other drivers would suggest that he might prefer another cab company.

One afternoon he pulled a fast one. He was at a bar on the other side of town and I was the unlucky driver that got the call.

This guy was in a wheelchair and he was so plastered he couldn't turn his wheels. He asked if I could push him to the cab. Taxi drivers are instructed to give assistance to the handicapped, but I knew his game. I guess he had forgotten that we had been though this 'poor guy can't turn the wheels trick' when the cab driver is a woman routine. He would lean back so far so that his head would rest on the woman's chest.

I stood as far behind the chair as possible and I bent over with my head down. I managed to get the old f_rt home with my body untouched, but getting paid was not as easy. He would open his wallet, look at the money inside, and then close it back up.

After what should have been an easy call, taking up no more than 15-minutes, I found myself driving away a good 40-minutes later with only a $10 bill in my pocket. Reaffirming what all cabbies know: Drunks were put on earth to louse up our lives.

* Post on Cabhack Confessions

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Below and in the Archives are vintage vignettes.