Heh, a thick skull accounts for my "large" hat size. It's proven useful over the years, like the teflon jacket. 😀
I learned to drive in the Bronx, yeah back when the dinosaurs still roamed the earth. Just as scary a place then as now, I suspect, and I'll drive there any time. Or cycle there too.
Wish I could make it there for the ride! Have a great time! Be safe! Have fun!
G
PS: ALWAYS wear a helmet when riding. And not some el cheapo piece of junk. A good quality helmet protects you better, is more comfortable, and keep your head cooler. My helmet was about a hundred and thirty bucks, good quality stuff if not the ultra fancy/light/whatever. I've only needed it once, but that once was well worth the price...!
Godfrey,
Back in the late 70's I was a NYC cab driver one summer. I remember being lost one night in the Bronx, and it seemed like the road to hell.
I was a pretty crazy and angry guy back then, and I remember this one night this guy wanted me to take to Yonkers. At some remote place in the Bronx at a light he decides to exit my cab to stiff me for the fare.
I too got out and ripped a pole out of the ground as a weapon. I got ready to swing with the pole cocked ready to strike, I extended my left hand, and I asked, "Do you want to pay me?"
I let him go without a beating after he paid me.
Another time in Madhattan this guy gets into my cab on the Upper Eastside and says, "Take me to the Bronx," somehow I know that this guy is going to rob me, and I already know that pretty much it will be gladiator mode when we get there.
I start heading uptown and eastward to get on the FDR, but this un-nerves the guy. Pullover he says, and I say, "The meter says $2.25."
At this point, it does not matter if I was getting robbed of all the money I had or the $2.25. He gave me $3.00, and before he left he said, "I was going to rob you, but you seemed too cool."
Like many angry people I had problems with depression back then. People forget that in High School we were getting ready to possibly get killed, maimed or butcher in the Vietnam War. Then the 1974 happened when we had double digit inflation and double digit unemployment. When I graduated High School in 1976 I couldn't even get a job for minimum wage.
I don't think the Bronx today is as bad as in the 70's, yet it remains the poorest borough, and a lot of stuff happens there. Today it seems what I should be afraid of most is the random violence that comes from nowhere that can happen anywhere.
The important lessons I learned was about my aggression, and how to control it in a positive manner. I had to stop being a cab driver after that one summer because I was getting too aggressive.
Another road to hell I experienced was driving through Washington D.C. at a time where Ronald Ray-Gun was President. I was driving from Los Alamos to New York. In Los Alamos I was working on a "Star Wars" project: a Neutral Partical Beam Space Based Weapon to shoot down Intercontinential Ballistic Missles.
I could see the White House, but a bon fire was in sight on a street corner with a group of people huddled around trying to stay warm. Reminded me of the destitution I saw in the Bronx of people just trying to survive. I found seeing this so close to the White House a disgrace. Pretty much people being abandoned.
Cal
