I walked out of my office last night headed towards the train station and, as per usual, there was a row of cabs waiting for passengers. I noticed that someone that had left just in front of me had gotten into one of the cabs lined up. But it wasn’t the first cab and apparently this is some sort of cab etiquette faux pas.
A brief lesson from Cabbie Etiquette School: deodorant optional, ongoing cell phone conversation required, and damnit, passengers must get in the first lined up cab.The first in line cabbie popped out of the cab as he saw what happened and ran to the cab behind him screaming at the driver. “You stole my passenger! How dare you? Give me my passenger!”
I don’t think much of this as I continue my walk to the train station. Then I approach another line of cabs and I watch another cabbie pop out of his cab and make a beeline for the cab parked in front of him. This guy is pissed. He is loudly using words that my mother doesn’t like [but are George Carlin approved] and he is pounding on the cab’s driver side window with his fists clearly questioning the species of that cabbie’s mommy.
This cabbie isn’t big, maybe 5’6, portly (but not grossly obese), and he is definitely getting his money’s worth out of this tantrum. As this is all going on, another guy and I are standing waiting for the light to change just observing the humor.
Then the ‘victim’ cab driver gets out of his cab.
When you see a man that is taller than seven feet get out of a cab and he is glaring down at a pesky little prig losing his mind, the only thing you can do is just start to laugh. Convulsions of laughter. That’s exactly what the two of us watching this exchange did. I didn’t stick around to see how the third cabbie that joined the fray refereed the fracas, but in just witnessing this, my night had been made.
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