The bright, almost seven-year-old girl had been in my car maybe five minutes, when she asked her dad, "Why do all the drivers talk so much?"
Talking to the young Jamaican guy about the picture of the Super Bowl ring in my car, he said, "What does the KC stand for?" Me; "Kansas City." Him: "It doesn't stand for witchcraft?" (Another rider told me the initials have to do with voodoo)
The two women had close to ten shopping bags from the outlet mall when I picked them up. I said, "What did you get me?" One woman replied immediately, " A speedo." She paused and said, "Do you know what that is?"
Male: "My 16-year-old daughter just told me that she has a boyfriend. She didn't want to tell me because she was afraid I would scare him. I just wanted to talk to him about guns and graveyards."
She: "Here in Charleston, if you spit on the street, it floods."
Male: "I'm an animal lover. I've had a pet tarantula, lizard, rats and others. Rats are very smart, you can call for them and they just jump into your lap. I have roommates now, so I only have cats."
Full-time he is a consultant to legal firms, but his passion is a blog and podcast called "Ghost N' Grub." He is a Lead Investigator of the paranormal in restaurants and bars. He said, "Most spirits are grumpy, because they are not happy where they are."
Male: "My real name is River. My mom named me after a soap opera actor she liked. My last name is Mann, so I'm River Mann. Maybe I'll name my kids Spider and Bat?"
The father of the groom said to me after I brought him to the beach wedding, "I'll give you $100 to go back and get my wife and her child. I'm worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the money doesn't really matter."(1 mile away)
Married for 55 years, I asked the couple from Tennessee, "What's the secret of a successful marriage?" He replied immediately, "Yes, dear." His wife said, "Doing things together."
The female McDonald's manager told me, "Customers are blind" and "Customers are 98% wrong." I suggested they would make great April Fool's Day signs for the store. Getting out she said, "Believe me." I replied, "I do-you're my customer."
After a very entertaining and fun ride, he told me, "You can blow sunshine up our butt anytime. I would have said ass, but I thought I was on Cash Cab."
"My sister loves to eat uncooked pasta. She does it unconsciously at first."
After the optometrist of forty years said, "Not everyone needs glasses" I felt pretty good without them at 62. I asked him, "How many people in their 70's and 80's don't need glasses?" He replied, "None."
After staying in Morgantown, West Virginia for a short time, a college town, the woman from Australia said, "I think they are known for burning couches."
Air force guy: "I jumped out of a plane and my chute didn't open, but I landed and rolled as I was taught. I was sore, but okay. 12 years later a doctor found that I had a healed vertebrae fracture which had to have come from my fall."
She: "My name is Sharmilia, which is a Hawaiian name. My great, great, great, great, great, grandmother and I are the only two people with this name, which means beautiful flower. She lived to be 119 years old, the oldest Hawaiian to have ever lived."
She works at the supermarket Lowes deli and said, "We normally do $12,000 in a day, but on July 4th we did $84,000. We have a "Chicken bar" and when we bring out the rotisserie chickens three times a day, one us will come out and do a chicken dance with music and we turn around and shake our butt."
She: "I was named Kennedi three weeks after I was born. I was originally Jordan which is now my middle name. My mom was upset because there seemed to be too many people named Jordan."
Woman who lives in China, "I find it interesting that people here move from the city to the country, because we move from the country to the city for better education and access to resources."
The woman in finance was talking about all the demands employees are making and said, "I think some people have gotten soft since the pandemic."
He told me: "My parents met when my Mom at the age of 21, picked up two male hitchhikers who had been drinking. They hit it off immediately."
He said, "I'm a server at Nacho Hippo. One guy had been drinking a lot and handed me the bill and said, "I can't read it, put in the tip you want." I put it $50 on a $300 bill and he said, "That's not enough." I said I'd take $100 and I did."
She said, "I collect Japanese coins. They have a whole in the middle of the coin, because a long time ago they used to put a string in their money and wear it around their neck."
The male college student had transferred to The College of Charleston only three weeks ago and discussing the number of women there he said, "If I had a daughter I wouldn't let her go here."
The retired, female cop from New York, was wearing a shirt that said, "If you pinch me, I'm going to punch you." She said, "My co-workers made that for me, because I used to say it at work all the time."
The female bartender told me, "My hobby is cooking. It started as a joke, but I'm cooking one dish from 50 different Asian countries." (She included Taiwan and the Soviet Union)
I asked the couple who were dating, "What kind of work do you do?" She replied, "We're both drug dealers-pharmacists."
The Pastor said, "The world needs more kindness."
The couple was married 36 years and I asked, "What's the secret to a successful marriage and he said, "Tolerance," and she agreed and said, "You have to give your spouse a break sometime."
Recovering alcoholic who is now a bartender, "I have a lot more fun sober now and I remember it the next day."
Woman: "My mom gave me my middle name first, Molina, from her favorite video game and then she found the name Heaven, because it sounded well together, so I'm Heaven Molina."
The older man said, "I'm juggling 2 or 3 women and it's a bit of a mess."
The woman from Chicago said, "Laughter is food for the soul."
Female nurse: "I met my husband in the hospital, he was my patient. He was in a terrible diving accident which left him a paraplegic We're married and building a house and he has said that he's glad the accident happened."
She said, "My friend here is Susie and she drives me where I need to go, she's "Suber."
He said, "You are one of the nicest Uber drivers we've ever had." Me: "One of the nicest? Him: "You even made the rain stop!" I said, "My business name is, The Sunshine Man."
The 21-year-old girl when asked about her 27-year-old sister, she said simply, "She sucks."
I asked the three guys from Malaysia, "How do you stay looking so young?" He replied, "We eat a lot of rice and drink a lot of water."
He was disappointed he didn't have any foreign currency on him from his country and then said, "Have you seen a $2 bill? My aunt gave this to me for good luck when I came here." (My dad used to work for The Federal Reserve Bank and personally would give out $2 bills for years)
He said, "A friend of mine had an idea when he was drunk at a bar to start a dumpster rental business. We started the business and he's not involved anymore, but it was a great idea."
Young guy, "I collect Pittsburgh Steeler Super Bowl rings. They only are worth $100 each, but they look real."
She told me, "My friend Mira was a miracle. When her mom gave birth her baby was stillborn, but they didn't know that there was another baby behind that one. That's why she's named Mira."
He said about his girlfriend sitting next to him, "She thinks everything I say is funny, she's the only one."
Young man, "I was fired from Wal-Mart when I missed four days having COVID since I had called out two previous days. We had several people working without masks on and they had COVID then."
Truck driver: "When I was in Kansas City I saw two signs for free houses to get people to live out there."(?)
I mentioned that the husband laughed a lot and the wife only sometimes, she said, "He laughs for me."
The female corrections officer told me, "It's not for me to decide someone's guilt."
Looking at all the money I have displayed in my car, the six-year old said, "Is all that money real?"
Young man, "I like to travel and I want to live in all of the states. I already have the east coast up north done."
Pastor: "I found some of the churches more aloof than up north, but people are more aloof up north than down here."
The woman from the north said, "Down here, it's just too slow."
When the young Chicago Bears fan said he had never watched Gale Sayers highlights(The Hall of Fame running back) and he had never seen "Brian's Song", (One of the best sports movies of all-time), he said, "I must be the most disappointing rider of the day."
Woman from New Hampshire: "It's a little weird walking down the street and saying hi to each other here."
Red Sox Fan: "I have a large framed newspaper from when they won in 2004 and it says, "FINALLY."
."We got lucky getting a long ride home from Myrtle Beach to Charleston. The driver said he wanted to free his mind and think. We gave him some advice."
The woman said, "When I get my car back I'm just going to Billie Eiilish my way to work every day."
Taking him to the hospital, he told me, "I may have broken my elbow. I dived into a pool at my bachelor party and it wasn't deep enough and I put my arm up to protect my head."
After a morning of rain, it was a great afternoon. I asked the local woman, "How about this great weather this afternoon?" She said, "It sucks.(The humidity) I wish it would have stayed cloudy."
The woman in finance was talking about all the demands employees are making and said, "I think some people have gotten soft since the pandemic."
SOME SHORT STORIES
He was a corrections officer for thirty years in Tennessee and knew James Earl Ray who was serving 99 years for killing Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. (He confessed and three days later said he was set-up) He said, "No one in the prison thought he was guilty. The other inmates could have killed him at anytime, but they only cut him up so he could go to the hospital. He wrote a book about being innocent and he autographed a copy for me. I was offered $500 for the book, but turned it down." (The King family was also convinced of his innocence)
I said to the three women, "I see you're going to Barefoot Landing." She: "We're going to a concert." Me: "Who's performing." The woman in the back said, "I am." Longtime country singer, Lorrie Morgan, told me, "I've been on the road for 45 years." I asked her who her two favorite singers were and she said, "Keith Whitley,(her late husband) and Tammy Wynette."
He bought a $60,000 Audi electric vehicle and drove it $12,000 in almost a year and a half. Three days before he was going to sell it for a nice profit, a big red light came on saying, "Exit the car. Do not park near a building." The dealership told me to let it cool down and drive it to the dealership, it might explode. They couldn't give me a loaner, (None available), could not get the parts, and finally got the parts in pieces to fix it, but didn't have the tools. It's been four months and I'm going to get it now."
Husband: "My wife has had some really bad luck the past few years. She was in our garage and a bat flew into her head, fell on her arm and gave her rabies. The treatment caused her liver and kidney to fail and had to be removed. Another time we were out on a boat and we hit a wave hard and her back broke. Another time she backed into the open dishwasher and fell and needed her hip replaced."
The army for 18 years loves to do dangerous things and once jumped out of a plane 1,200 feet up when his parachute did not work. "I pulled the secondary chute, but it was so late it just protected me some when I hit the ground. I got up and got my stuff and walked to my troop. They saw I was cut and bleeding on my face and got me to the hospital where they told me I broke my spine."
She said, "At the beginning of the war in Ukraine I had an Uber driver here(Charleston), who was from Ukraine and spoke no English at all. He had signs up all over his car explaining that he was earning money to send home to his family. I did tip him to help out."
He rents cars regularly, but this experience was incredible. "I rented an Acura from Avis out of the DC. airport, but it was an unusual car with tinted windows all around it. I had all the information to pick it up and when I went to the gate I scanned the info on my phone and left. When I had to change my plans, Avis could not find my reservation, there was no record I had a car. Two days later I went back to where I got it and parked it and left and never got charged. We think it might have been a car that was repossessed, but it wasn't in their system somehow."
Woman: "I went to Fenway Park for the first time and we went into Jerry Remy's(former Red Sox player) hot dog place to eat some hot dogs. As we were eating, suddenly, my husband jumped up and ran over to this guy and got his autograph. I couldn't understand it and asked him, "Why did you get the autograph of a guy selling hot dogs? It was Jerry Remy."
SOME EXTRA RIDER COMMENTS
Male: "In Nigeria I worked for the US. government as a Program Manager in propaganda, promoting the US. way of life there."
She said, "I don't like being given orders by anyone."
Woman: "My hair has five colors, but I' about to change it to just orange and black for Halloween."
The military couple said, "We enjoyed living in Italy and Germany the most, the culture and the ability to travel."
She: "I used to work at ESPN in the college sports section. It was fun, but I didn't see a future. We used to joke the best part of working there was being able to say you worked there."
Man from Jordan: "We have everything you could want for a country, mountains, ocean, snow. We're small, we just have less of it."
She said, "I work for Stanford University in countries around the world. I teach students how to improve their resources in their country."
Guy from England, "The people are friendlier here than at home."
She told me, "My middle name is really Sunshine." She fit perfectly in my orange car.
From New York she said, "When I first came down here I would go into a gas station and people would ask how my day is going. Up north, people don't even look at you."
Me: "How was your night working?" Him: "It was a long, sweaty night."
Him: "We're going to go to Iceland and Italy on our honeymoon."
Talking about watching small children with the tv on I mentioned Sesame Street teaching how to count and she said, "It was The Count, counting."
The mother from New York, a new Market Commons homeowner, was experiencing her first Uber ride with her future daughter in law who she said, "Has a heart of gold." Getting out of the car, the younger woman said to me enthusiastically, "I love you."
The guy recognized me from the beginning of the year and told his friend before I picked him up, "This guy is F'N cool." (Obviously drinking) The guy said to me, "You're solid, good people." (He's right, but still drinking)
"I love your collection of bills."
The three guys from Malaysia said, "This is the most interesting Uber ride we've had."
She said, "You have a great personality."
Young woman from New York: "I can't wait to read your book."
