Conversations with Cabbies

Normally a conversation with a cab driver goes something like this: "Um I'm going to the Woodlands near the American school. Do you know Woodgrove Ave?" "Yes yes. Go by BKE or PIE?" "From here? PIE. Thanks. Are you having a good day?" "Yes. Fine" and that's that. You listen to some bad eighties rock or the news in Chinese and then the ride is over. But every now and then you get a driver who talks your ear off about the most fascinating things, dropping little nuggets of wisdom or simply describing an interesting life story.

Once I spent the half hour drive to the airport talking about food-- our favorite things to eat and where to go to get them. Another airport drive was spent listening to a lengthy monologue about why Singapore has so many trees and ended with him telling me to be careful on my trip to Indonesia and to be sure not to get mugged.

Some drivers have inquired about my life, where I work and about my family. When we get around to this they generally ask what my parents think about me living so far away and agree that I'm too young to get married.

Every now and then I get to here a life history. Like the guy who has been driving cabs for just over two years and before that had been charge of inventory at a grocery store chain for decades. That is, until a larger chain bought them out and he was out of a job. And that's when he became a cab driver.

The other day I had a driver who's only been driving taxis for nine months. He retired from his engineering job of 40 years(!), spent a few years traveling, and then decided that sitting around the house doing nothing wasn't cutting it. Apparently his wife agreed. So he started driving cabs. He told me about all the job offers that he's gotten from people riding with him, but that if he wanted to be an engineer again, he would go back to his old company.


One time, the simple question of "Are you having a good day?" got me an emphatic explanation about how we need to take each day as it comes. The driver had been cheated out of a fare the day prior and that day had been inspired by his niece to be thankful for every day that we have and to treat it as a clean slate.



So many times we treat cab drivers like the people next to us on the train--strangers with strange lives, of which we aren't a part of. But we are a part of their lives, and they a small part of ours. There is hardly a better venue to share stories, bits and pieces of who we are, and to bless or be blessed by a complete stranger.