Off Topic -- Dave The Cabbie

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I posted this to the longislandmusicscene list the other day, and got such

a strong reaction to it that I decided to post it to some of the other

lists I belong to also.

The original post was made this past Thursday, Sept. 13. My wife

had gone into the hospital and been operated on in uptown Manhattan on

Monday, the day before the attacks took place. Thankfully, I was able to

take her home today -- she is doing very well.

This is a true story.

Rich H.

I was lucky enough to be able to get into the city yesterday via Long

Island Railroad. I

took a cab uptown to 's hospital, and she's doing great after her

operation -- so well, in fact, that assuming I can get my car into the

city, I'm taking her home today.

Early in the day, as the cab was going uptown, I was watching New Yorkers

go about their business, and thinking what a resiliant bunch we are. I was

also touched to meet on the train some of the young men coming into the

city ready to be part of the rescue.

After I was finished visiting , I left the hospital, and hailed a cab

downtown.

We drove around the corner, and started heading downtown, when all of a

sudden, I noticed that there was no meter. There was a sticker up on the

back, in cab-ese, that said something about a flat fee that I didn't

understand.

I started thinking that I was about to be scammed (or that the driver was

going to TRY to scam me, anyway -- I had already determined that I didn't

care what he asked for, he wasn't getting anything more than the cab I had

taken uptown had charged, plus the night differential).

" What happened to your meter? " I asked.

" There is no meter, " he explained to me. " There's no charge. Not a cent. "

I couldn't believe it. " No charge? "

" I've been driving people back and forth for the last few days, " he said.

" Yesterday, I drove a bunch of rescue workers downtown. For all I know,

some of them aren't even alive anymore. How can I charge people money? I

can't. "

He continued " The police and firemen are risking their lives. Yeah, it's

their job, they're getting paid for it, but still. And so are the other

rescue workers. This is what I do. I'm a cab driver. This is my small

way of helping. "

" Lots of people have bad images of what a yellow cab driver is. This is my

way of trying to change that. "

We introduced ourselves to one another, His name is Dave. Dave is just

one of a number of people I've seen finding ways to extend little (and

sometimes big) kindnesses to one another.

We saw the worst of humanity in the bombing itself -- people who let

themselves get so blinded by hatred, political causes, religious beliefs,

or whatever, that they would bring pain to thousands of innocent people

they'd never met, and end their own lives in the process, just to hurt

someone they consider an enemy.

But I've also seen the best of us in a thousand different ways, big and

small, over the last few days -- some of it from fellow listmembers.

Anyway, I used what would have been my cab fare to spread some happiness to

someone else, and I promised Dave that I would spread the good word about a

yellow cab driver I had met to everyone I could. SO this post is my way of

keeping my word to him.

I'm off to the city to pick up now. Stay safe, everybody!

Rich H.

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LIMC website: http://www.limc.org <http://www.limc.org>

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