Cab driving back in the day at the airport

The late Tom Rhones

Has anyone seen this man? His name is Pirate alias Tom (the real pirate!)Rhodes. He’s our primary second shift dispatcher at United Cab. If you have ever downed a beer at the TINY TAP in Hyde Park, you must know him.

I don’t know if his nick name has anything to do with tomorrows Gasparilla festival or what. I guess I was thinking of that when I saw him. He must have been trying to get in a couple of fares at the airport before he came to work. Funny, he told me he never works the airport?

I don’t work out here a lot but I do when I’m looking for a BIG SCORE! When you work the streets you can get bogged down in all the peripheral stuff that goes with it-No shows, little old ladies, now shows, grocery stores, now shows and GNOMES. That means people that “Got No Money!” But at the airport that all changes. You are either going somewhere or your not. Today the fares had places to go. The cash register kept ringing all day. My hands got dirty from counting all that grubby money. Talk about real pirates. Have you seen our meter rates lately? Holy shit! We should be wearing mask and holding a sword. But that's what the Public Transportation Comminsion allows us to charge.

In between rides in holding I ran into “Sam.” Sam is from Iran. I have known the man for 10 years. Talk about a renaissance man, this guy has been a professor and airline pilot and can speak 7 languages. On 9-11-01 I was wondering where he was. I knew he had flown for Iran Air and combined with the fact that Muhammad Atta had received a hack license from the Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commission, I was concerned. For some reason when I did catch up with him he was laughing because he knew I would think he was involved. I must stress not laughing at what had happened, only about our personal relationship. Sam began to talk or I should say lecture. It is easy for him to digress into heavy subjects - such as the Second Punic Wars effect on 18^th century economics.

Well, the line was moving fast. We were soon on our way. This time of year should be a gravy train.

After seeing Pirate, I could not help but think how busy tomorrow will be. Hey if anyone reads this blog and you need a cab call 253-2424 and ask for #497. I’ll come and get you or peal you off the pavement.

Speaking of the pavement. I know tomorrow there will be Pirates throwing trinkets to drunk girls who are showing their tits for 10 cent beads. And there will be about 500,000 people convening on the place. But when I think of Bayshore I think of the image to the left. It's the quit and subtle beauty of it that makes it "Bayshore Beautiful."