Taxi stories......

1

It was my first day of driving a taxi and I was very nervous, to say the least. I stood at Sheraton hotel taxi stand and was hoping that nobody would come to my cab. What if I don’t know the address, what if they are in a hurry and I get lost? What if they find out that it was my first day of driving a taxi? My heart was pounding. I wished to disappear behind the steering wheel. But it was too late; there was no going back. It was my turn and the four passengers got in my cab.

“Hi”. I just uttered out of my mouth.

“Heeello, we would like to go to Hyatt hotel”.

They are three men and a woman, Ohhh…Germans, no doubt, I think. The accent is obvious.

“Weisst er auch wohin er fahren muss?” the woman asks the men in German, wondering “if he knows where to drive?”

It’s my time, I have the better cards in my hand, get almost too excited about it, aim for the deepest impact and say: “ Natuelich weiss ich wohin ich fahre!” An outcry. Followed by a open mouth, I watch and enjoy. She is shocked that I say “of course I know where to drive”!

The men are not easily moved, hold their position, but there too surprise and barely closed open mouths. “Wow! A dark haired cab driver in America who speaks German!” I think they must think. They were attending a convention of a sort in our small big city and they spoke German! You can imagine how relived I was after finding out that my very first costumers in my new American job were Germans.

I speak German, and am not bad it even though I am neither German nor German looking.

My anxiety has transformed to relief, the tension is gone.

You ask how that’s possible, but I have to plead for your patience then you will certainly find out later all about it. For now, it’s sufficient to say that my knowledge of German saved my day, my first day at my new American job. Later, far more than proficiency in German was required to do my job of driving a cab and my passengers to their destination. I knew from that first day that this job will be interesting, that there were waiting many more open mouths, including my own, for me.