A NATION OF CAB DRIVERS

I remember years ago when I met this girl at a club in Adams Morgan. Pretty face, smoking body, inviting personality, well read and funny too! We talked, danced, drank, talked and drank some more. I was so in to her I didn't want the night to be over, but after the last call I suggested that we go to the after hours underground club called The Bunker. I have written about this club on this blog before, it's a place where all the bartenders, waiters, hookers, strippers, hustlers, all the shady characters and even some cops go and visit to address their thirst and socialize. I really impressed her, she couldn't believe that a well oiled illegal operation existed stone throw away from the Capitol building that even some law enforcement individuals frequented. Armina was more impressed that every creep in that shit hole was chest bumping and high fiving me! I was like, if you only she knew that most of these misfits did time some prison in America. We had a great time until pretty much sunrise and agreed to meet up in a few days with Armina.

I was never shy to tell people that I was a proud DC cab driver even though my class of work is just one notch up from a garbage-man of a socioeconomic scale. Driving a cab in DC was lucrative back in the days, most cabbies weren't rich but they owned their own homes, went on vacations and sent their kids to college and some moved on in to other small businesses. These days I hear some DC cabbies are looking for food from a garbage cans, thanks to Uber! On our date the obvious question of "What do you do?" came up, and for the first time ever I was so unease to tell and talk about my pathetic profession. We were having dinner at the Spaghetti Gardens when the word 'cabdriver" came out of my mouth, Armina threw up all over my shirt and left! From time to time I ran in to her for years and we pretend we never met and knew each-other.

Fast forward fourteen years, I was having drinks with friends and it was time to go home and one of  my friends offered me a ride with his Uber request since I live on the way. My friend said "I think we have a chic driver called Armina!" How could I forget that name but not in a million years I thought it would be the same Armina from a decade and a half ago. When he showed me the picture of the driver on the app, there she was the same old Armina, middle aged and a little chubbier.

I didn't say 'Hey, you remember me bitch?" but it just made me think, how Uber successfully changed Americans in to cabdrivers and how the profession of cab driving that most of the American society looked down on, turned out to be a cool side gig? I really wanted to throw up on her ass but I didn't drink enough to do so.

Please don't forget the homeless,

Mad Cabbie.