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Another memorable moment in LA...
I took a cab to the airport, and was pretty much on the phone the whole way there, chatting away. We get to the airport, and I had the cab driver some cash. He turns around to me and says, "Hold on one moment, miss."
He pulls out this book, and I think to myself "If he tells me that Jesus is the way then I'm outta here!" But he opens up the book, which is actually a picture album, to an old photo of a handsome young man. He points to it, and says "This is your taxi driver." I nod my head, and say "Oh, wow!"
But the show isn't over. He turns the page to a pic the same young man in a uniform. "This is me, in 1960, in Red Square." His Russian accent is pretty heavy, but I get the gist of what he's saying. The picture across is him, as a young man on the beach in swimming trunks, with a familiar looking beautiful woman. "And look here! I was on the beach with Sophia Loren!" Well I'll be, it IS Sophia Loren embracing him on the beach! "You lucky man!" I say. He nods and smiles. Then a picture of him with a bride (who wasn't Sophia), "Here is my wedding day, with my beautiful wife." And then the pics of the kids, two little toddlers in the park. "These are my twins, they both just graduated college! One graduated in Chemistry, the other in Business." "Oh, you must be so proud of them," I say. "Yes, yes, they are good kids!" Then to a picture of a young man. "This is my oldest, he has a family of his own now." Then the last picture a picture of his whole family, with the grownup kids and everything. "This was taken 4 years ago. This is my family!" "What a beautiful family," I exclaim. Because really, it was. It was a pretty good looking family!
And then he says, "I just wanted to share it with you. To show you that I am more than just your cab driver." I thank him, give him my cash, he goes around to take my suitcase out of the trunk and he wishes me goodbye. I say "have a nice rest of the day", but I had the biggest urge to hug him goodbye. I mean, we SHARED something in the cab. He was more than just my cab driver! *wink* Gotta love LA!
Posted by Yano at June 27, 2003 10:19 AMhow awesome is that, Yano!!! there are nice people in this world who will share a little piece of their sunshine with perfect strangers.
Posted by: Kathy on June 27, 2003 01:45 PMAwe.
see it's worth it to give someone 15 mins of your time, because you learn something. Unless they are coming at you with a weapon at hand. in that case, I would run.
Sweet story
Posted by: Mona on June 27, 2003 03:48 PMAwww. That was such a nice story. :)
Posted by: lisa on June 27, 2003 05:21 PMDid he watch Oprah today by any chance? It was all about people all have stories behind them. It is nice to know the real stories behind people instead of just guessing them (which is fun though).
Posted by: Amy on June 27, 2003 10:31 PMwow, i'd never expect that from a cabbie! he sounds sweet, it's not everyday pple talk to strangers like that
Posted by: Leesa on June 28, 2003 01:21 AMwow, that was quite the cab ride. very nice!!!
Posted by: butta on June 28, 2003 02:58 PMSeems your flight home was better than mine, I got to evactuate the airport and wait forever to get home. But, way cool cab driver :)
Posted by: raven on June 28, 2003 11:46 PM
