Job 14

Summer 1977 - Spring 1978

Rizzuto Brothers - Operators of Yellow Cabs - Taxi Driver

My first year at Mohawk College didn't go so well. I hadn't quite figured out that spending my evenings drinking and smoking dope did not quite fit with the requirements of the program. I was often too hung over to attend classes on a regular basis, preferring instead to hang around the student lounge snoozing in the comfortable couches.

By the time the final semester rolled around I found I had failing marks in Physics Lab, Electricity Lab and Leisure Education. Still, it remained my intention to return to classes in the fall of that year.

By the time August rolled around I found I was running out of my student grant and loan money. I figgured I had better start looking for a summer job to pay for the next year in college.

I went to the student placement office and saw an add for taxi drivers. I decided to give it a try. Like most young people who know diddly about the cab business I had the impression cab drivers made a boatload of cash for doing next to nothing.

I also thought the job would involve meeting interesting people and going to interesting places. Hoo Haw, was I in for a surprise.

The ad said to report to the garage in the rear of 230 Gibson Street in Hamilton. I went down there and met Nino and Tony Rizzuto for the first time.

This turned out to be the kind of job interview that was right down my alley.

Them: "How well do you know Hamilton?"

Me: "Pretty good I guess...."

Them: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

No seriously, they didn't ask me that. They just gave me a form to complete and remit at city hall. Within a few days I was driving a cab.

My first few months of driving cab were quite an eye opener. Having grown up on Hamilton's predominantly middle class west mountain I had no idea of who actually populated the city I grew up in. I finally started to understand what the pejorative term, "low life," actually represented. A few more months on the job and I was talking just like all the other cab drivers I knew at the time. The word "scum" was used a lot.

After about eight months driving cab I started to itch for a change in career. A friend of mine, named Ed, who had recently moved to Edmonton, Alberta wrote to me urging me to go out there. The west was booming and jobs were abundant he told me.

So I quit the cab job and took a train to Edmonton.

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Joe Schlockenblock explains, How find a job and Get off Welfare.

last modified:Monday,June 9, 2008 at 04:21