Cabbie: New York City 1971,1972 True Tales by N.G.

I was a young woman, 20-something, and new to New York City, a small town girl from Ohio, living in a two-room apartment on the Lower East Side (the rent was $100 a month) and attending Brooklyn College, which was tuition free in those days. A classmate always had money in his pocket because he was driving a yellow taxi cab. A lot of college guys were driving cabs in those days, but very few women. He persuaded me to try it. This was in 1971.

At the same time, my best friend from Brooklyn College had moved to Missoula, Montana (she wanted to leave her childhood home, as I had done). During my cab driving days, I wrote her long letters on my IBM selectric typewriter describing my adventures. Turns out she saved my letters! Many years later, she visited me in New York and presented me with the letters. By then I was teaching at The City College of New York, having earned an M.Ed. from Baruch College and an M.F.A. in poetry from City.

After retirement, I pulled out those letters and confronted my young self-and New York City in the early 1970s. Cabbie tells the story of those days, and how I became more savvy about making money driving a cab, about dealing with difficult customers, my boss (the dispatcher), and unwanted, but sometimes tempting, male suitors, and about planning for a future. N.G. Haiduck