When I was growing up in the Bronx in the early 1950s, one of my favorite treats was riding in my grandfather’s yellow Checker taxicab when he was off duty. The little round jump seats in the back were just my size, and I found them more fun than the rides at Coney Island.
I had no idea then how hard a taxi driver’s job was — and scary: Drivers never knew whether they’d be robbed or worse by a passenger. Never mind whether they’d get a decent tip, if anything at all. My mother said that during the Depression her family depended on those tips. That has stuck with me.
Though I haven’t lived in — or even near — New York City since graduating from college, I still call it home. Having moved to Maine in 1979 to teach at Bowdoin College, and especially now since retiring from teaching, I’m in New York every few weeks. Returning home never fails to energize me, in countless ways.
One of the ways New York energizes me most is by riding in taxis. Though the jump seats are long gone, being in a yellow cab takes me back to rides in my grandfather’s taxi, a story I tell drivers. They usually ask which part of the Bronx I hail from, and when I say Grand Ave. and Fordham Road (University Heights), they smile and nod knowingly, asking what it was like back then. They then tell me their origin stories, often from Eastern Europe and Africa.
In memory of my grandfather, I always leave a 25% tip. And as I open the door to get out, I tell the driver I know how hard their job is. Then I say with great insistence, “And don’t forget to get good fares!” — meaning passengers who treat them with respect and tip as well as they can. They give hearty thanks.
Which is why I was mortified years ago when an extremely wealthy friend scrounged in his pocket for change to tip our driver. This was before taxis took credit cards, though my friend could have just asked for change that included a reasonable tip from his $20 bill. The driver was rightly insulted and refused the nickel. And so I gave him a large tip and apologized profusely, telling him about my grandfather’s taxi and my respect for taxi drivers.
Having spent the last month in NYC — our annual January visit — I’ve been thinking about the lives of taxi drivers. They tell me the job has gotten harder and harder, and so some fear they won’t be able to bring their family to America — although Donald Trump’s America is not what they bargained for in immigrating here.
In a way, we’re all taxi drivers in life, hoping to get good fares as we navigate each stretch of the road that lies ahead. Though much that happens in life isn’t under our control, we can try to tilt the odds in our favor where possible.
Consider the price of eggs, which continues to soar despite Trump’s campaign promise to reduce the cost of groceries on “Day One.” Those who voted for Trump for just this reason would do well to recall the 1920s song, “Ain’t We Got Fun,” especially these words: “Even if we owe the grocer, Don’t we have fun” and “The rich get rich and the poor get poorer” — or, sometimes alternatively, “the poor get children,” which is especially apt since the repeal of Roe. Those voters might consider steering in a different direction starting with the 2026 midterms.
Meanwhile, those who voted for Kamala Harris must stop lamenting MAGA-driven social, political, and economic regress and, as Michelle Obama put it in her convention speech, “We can’t indulge our anxieties.” Rather, we must “Do something.”
That something entails that we Dems support next-generation leaders who will get us back on the road to bolstering democracy rather than destroying it. Although names for the presidency in 2028 have been suggested in such media outlets as the New York Times and Washington Post, what about our chance to win back the House and Senate in 2026? As a recent USA Today article put it, “Frontrunning Democrats: Old guard is losing support. Who will take over?”
The midterm clock is ticking fast. If we want new drivers who will take us to an America we can recognize and respect, they should turn on their taxi lights as brightly as possible now, so we can start hailing them.
Held is a clinical psychologist and emeritus psychology professor at Bowdoin College.