THE DJ: I've picked up DJ's before, but this DJ turned out to be a famous DJ. The morning after 9-11 I took him to the airport. He was heading to New York to DJ at Madison Square Garden for the 9-11 benefit with comedian Dave Chapelle. He was tired after working the night before, but he was in a talkative mood. I asked him if COVID had affected his work and he said, "No, I just worked in the red states where governors didn't care about their people." He mentioned a number of rappers he has worked with and also Howard Stern and Opie and Andy. (radio personalities) The most amazing thing he said after seeing the framed picture of the Twin Towers I had in my car was this: "I was there that morning. My studio was next to The World Trade Center, but I left there at 8:30 am., shortly before the first plane hit." He said that a famous DJ had lost his pug that morning in the attack and could not work. He was asked to substitute for him on three shows and then the dog was found. They offered him a job, because they said he was funny. "I owe my radio career to that pug, I call him devil dog." He's been on the radio since then and has been a DJ in a number of foreign countries also. My wife would have really enjoyed driving him and I'm sure she would have had a great conversation with him since she enjoys rap. I checked him out on the internet and he's the real deal.
"THE ATTITUDE ADJUSTER": If I picked out my favorite 25 riders in the 6,000 rides I've given, one of the riders would have been the guy I met in January 2019 who worked at Trader Joe's greeting people at the door. Without a doubt he was one of the most inspiring people I've ever met. When I dropped him off that early morning at a restaurant, he was standing at the locked door and making someone laugh inside because he was flapping his arms like a bird.
This month, I had the pleasure of picking him up again, but he was wearing a mask and sitting in the back and I did not know it was him. As he got in I said, "how are you today?" He said, "Amazing." He told me, "every day I wake up I'm amazing." He said in 1988 in high school he was in a horrible accident and the doctors did not think he would make. His parents kept encouraging him and he kept getting better despite the doctors saying he would need to be put in Assisted Living. He recovered from brain surgery, worked for four years helping researchers help people recovering from serious injuries and also volunteered helping kids recover from injuries. He told me, "you have to talk about what you want, it creates the belief and what you desire." I asked him what he does at Trader Joe's and he said, "I rap there." Still not realizing who he was I said, "you know a couple years ago I picked up a guy who was an attitude adjuster at Trader Joes." He said, "I'm the same person." I was floored and so excited to see him again. He was very happy that I remembered him and some of the story he told me last time. He made my day and I think I made his.
THE SUPER TASTER: Sometimes, it's what the person does for a living that is not just interesting, but it's very unique. The woman who got in my car said she was in research and development for a Spirits company. My first thought was the occult, obviously ridiculous, but her company develops and manufactures alcoholic beverages. My rider, is someone who is able to taste and smell at a greater intensity than the average person. By definition, she has more than 30 taste buds on a small part of her tongue which makes her unique. In the past, she worked for a Pastry Chef using her skills. There may be as many as 25% of the population who could be considered a Super Taster, but they may not know they have that skill. She told me that she likes what she does, but she doesn't like the taste of bananas.
THE BARTENDER/POET: It was one of the longest rides of the month, 48 minutes from North Myrtle to the airport. It started as a discussion about capitalism and the minimum wage, but it changed dramatically during the ride. She was a bartender/server like my wife, but she also loves to write poetry. (she was a nurse in a Nursing home} In the past year she had her book published and I checked it out on Amazon when I got home. She read one of her poems to me in the car and there is a religious connection to her poetry. It was interesting to listen to her.. She enjoyed hearing that I liked to write and was going to check out my blog also. We had no problem talking the entire trip and it was a lot of fun. I'm sure this young woman has a bright future ahead of her.
THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS: No, I'm not really going to say I had a witch in the car. It was a young couple for my last ride of the day and they were from Salem, New Jersey. They had been together for nine years and I told the guy that I wasn't going to ask why he hadn't popped the question yet. I told him a few marriage and relationship stories and we were laughing most of the way to their destination. The girl said that her boyfriend was puzzled when they moved to Salem, because he didn't see anything "witchy." He didn't realize the witch trials were in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, NJ is actually south of the Delaware Memorial bridge which brings you into Delaware. You have to drive north from Salem and then go south to get to Delaware.
THE WELDER: This passenger surprised me throughout the ride. He did not come off as someone who was very successful, but he definitely was. When he told me he sold his large property in upper state New York, I asked, "I guess you did pretty well with that?" His reply was, "I didn't do badly," which was obviously an understatement these days. He plowed snow up there for five years where they can get as much as 140 inches of snow and told me about the challenges you have because the plow freezes. "We once had 54 inches fall in 24 hours and we had to clear off our roof to open the front door." His main career most of his life has been a pipeline welder and he had worked in every state except Maine. "I'm not into politics, but when President Obama canceled the pipeline for 18 months, I lost $400,000. There were many weeks that he worked 100 hours as a welder. He said there are currently a lot of people unemployed after the pipeline was recently canceled. "One year I worked every day except 9 days and there have been years I worked only three months." This is a guy who has had a very interesting life and he made my ride very enjoyable.
REMEMBERING 9-11: I had picked her up before, but on the morning of 9-11, our ride was short. She saw the framed picture I had in the car of the World Trade Center and she told me she was there that day as a 19 year old working for Hyatt Hotels. She wasn't close to where the attack was, but she remained there for 12 hours. She said, "my brother was working in the city too and he stayed with me for about 12 hours before we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to get out of Manhattan." She didn't have a chance to say much more, but it was obviously a difficult memory. When she got out of the car I looked at the clock, it was 9:11 am, the morning of 9-11.
TWO FRIENDS: Sometimes you know for sure that you were meant to pick someone up and these two guys certainly fit the bill. Two weeks after 9-11 I was telling them the DJ story above and they said, "We were both there that morning." They had worked in two of the smaller buildings at the World Trade Center and ran out of their buildings thinking a bomb had gone off. Somehow, with all the people on the street, they bumped into each other. They were two of thousands of people who escaped by water that day. One guy said, "One of my cousins survived after being on the 82nd floor" of one of the towers. He also described a much sadder story: " One of my friends didn't make it. It was his first day back from his wife having a baby that week." It was difficult hearing a first account of that day, but it was something I'll never forget.
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