TAXI TALES

"I wonder what time it is, I'll have to stop talking to myself, is this what happens when you work on your own all day? See I'm still doing it." Baker 7,- - - - Baker 7 listening, the radio spoke . "Eye eye somebody wants to speak to me."

I pick up the mike and key it. "Baker 7 here John, what is it? " "Able I wants to know if you're ready for breakfast.
"Yeah roger that, be about half an hour though, mobile to Penny Lane." Able I -- - he said about half an hour OK,- - - - That's a go that Baker 7- - - Baker 7 you get that- - - -
"Roger that John, thanks."

As I turn into the side street next to the café, there's cabs parked everywhere. Trying to find a parking speck
proves difficult but not impossible. I find a place eventually, lock my cab up and make my way to the café, When I get inside most of the lads are already there.

Tom shouts that there's a seat near him. I make my
way over after ordering my breakfast and grabbing a mug of tea. At the table there's the usual crowd, Pete, Les, another Tom, Gerry and myself.

The chatter was usually about either, sex, work, football or just nonsense. "You're not going to believe this," Gerry said, then carried on talking. "I got this fare yesterday going out to Crosby.

Anyway I was driving down St Johns Road in Crosby, two cars in front of me. You know when you get to that unmanned level crossing, well the red lights started flashing, then the barriers came down.

The first car stopped OK, the second one went smack right into the back of the first one. I just stopped nice and easy, I was sitting there watching what's going on. The two of them were out of their cars screaming at each other. I thought eye, eye, might be a boxing match here.

Just then an old lady with a tiny dog on a lead, might have
been a Yorkie. Anyway it doesn't matter, she went over to the bloke who was driving the first car. Said "she'd seen everything that had happened and if he wanted her to be a witness, she'd be more than happy to oblige." The driver went back to his car, the old lady followed him.

He lent inside to get a pen and a piece of paper . He pushed the pen and paper at her as if he was in a hurry to get back to his argument. The other bloke was still shouting the odds, saying it wasn't his fault. The old lady took the pen and paper and looked a bit flustered at all the shouting. She hooked the dog's lead onto the barrier, leaned over the bonnet of a car to write her name and address.

The train went past and the two drivers were still arguing when the barriers went back up again. The poor little dog gave a sort of strangled yelp, The old lady saw her pet hanging from the top of the barriers and nearly collapsed, screaming for someone—anyone—to get her pet down before it died.

The two car drivers raced forward and tried to pull the barriers back down but the only way they would come down again was if another train was due and that didn't seem likely, The old lady was running around in absolute panic.

The two drivers had been joined by some other people. I couldn't do anything. I was too busy laughing at the whole thing. People were climbing on each others' backs trying to get the poor little thing down from the top of the barrier. They managed to get it down in the end. "Was it dead?" someone asked. No, it didn't look too bad either.