Friday, April 11, 2008

My First Shift (totally Alberta)

I started to drive a taxi in 2005. My first shift was unbelievable, here you go. So I was the grave yard driver in the resort town of Banff. It's a great little city that's filled with transients and Asian tourists. The largest fare you can have in Banff was approximately 8.40$. There was lots of business there though and the company I worked for racked in a killing ever evening. We worked under a different system in Banff, we were dispatched directly over the CB radio. This made for a totally different style of taxi driving. I felt safer in Banff because we always had direct contact with the dispatcher and all the other taxis could heard your voice when you had to ask a question. So on my first night I was sent to the Best Western, I picked up a gritty looking son of a bitch there. He gets in, it's like 1am and as I ask him where we're going nervously,(it was my first night) he pointed out his 100 000$ speed boat. He was a rich oil rigger foremen visiting Banff from Fort Mac. Can you guys guess what he asked me to do for him.?Fort Mac people. That's right! He showed me a huge sum of cash and asked me to find him a hooker and some blow. There is no street walking in Banff, it's a prestigious national park in the Rockies if you want a whore up there you gotta order out (from a different city). He insisted we drive around forever looking for this street walker, I did stop at a club so he could purchase the cocaine. He came back holding a bag filled with white powder. He asked if he could snort some, I told him to keep whatever he was doing to himself. It was my first night I had a rig pig in the back snorting blow while I was circling the tiny community of Banff looking for a hooker that I knew did not exist. The radio was going crazy, dispatch wanted to know what I was doing. I told them I was just cruising talking with my fare, which was true, the rigger told me he had a wife and he cheated on her all the time. Men with money cheat lots, that's one thing I learned driving Taxi but women never notice as long as their wearing an expensive wedding ring. Nevermind. I never did find that guy a Hooker but he did snort a massive amount of coke in the back seat. He must have had a lot cause after he left there was at least 3 grams spilled all over the back seat, I hate coke and didn't mind blowing it outside the car. The Rig Pig worked up a 150$ fare in the tiny town of Banff with me on my first night ever driving a taxi, he paid me the 150$ and and tipped me another 150$ I looked at my earnings and knew what I was going to be doing for the next little while.

6 comments:

Bharat said...

excuse my exceptionally slow brain today.. but what was that? :)

Bum Atom said...

my first night behind the wheel. a description, and actually the sex trade is very high class in Banff, big money and business like for the CEOS and royalty and the fucking rolling stones, Banff was a scary place but i loved it. I got lots of stories from there

Elise said...

I want to hear more stories about Banff. xx

Anonymous said...

man, a lot of your people do coke huh? like, at least in every entry, SOMEONE did coke in the back of your car haha

Sigourney said...

Sounds like my kind of place, not that I'm a hooker or anything. Just obsessed by the filthy scene.

Jeff said...

Another side to living, how many different ways can people lead their lives? this guy, a stereotype; but at the same time a unique person who had circumstances shape him into who he was then. When we understand each other more will this story become deeper or will we continue to segregate ourselves to the point that we lose cohesion and the classifications become hostile.