Description
Cabbie: New York City 1971,1972 True Tales
by N.G. Haiduck
Full-length, paper, short stories
List: $24.99
979-8-88838-436-7
2024
N.G. Haiduck is the recipient of the Jerome Lowell DeJur Award in Creative Writing from The City College of New York, the BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) Award from the Bronx Council on the Arts, and the Janice Farrell Poetry Prize from the National League of American Pen Women. She was a finalist for the Ed and Fay Phillips Prize in Poetry, Hannah Kahn Poetry Foundation. Publications include Flying South, Hanging Loose, Interpoezia Intercultural Magazine, Main Street Rag, The Naugatuck Literary Review, New Verse News, Paterson Literary Review, and The Prairie Home Companion. She is married to clarinetist Neal Haiduck. They live in Burlington, Vermont.
Nancy Haiduck (verified owner) –
I read through this slender volume in one delicious sitting. Turning page after page, I think I never stopped smiling.
I, too, worked as a NYC cabbie in the early 70s, and let me tell you, Ms. Haiduck nails the the heady vibe in the air during that transitional period in the life of the great metropolis: the unique excitement of a bubbling artistic creativity (think “Rent,” Andy Warhol’s Factory, CBGB) in the face of a depressing urban decay.
(The City was then burdened by years of accumulated debt brought on by the relentless shuttering of its once vital factory-driven tax base which nearly culminated in a 1975 declaration of bankruptcy, before over the next few years, the emerging finance industry took off like gangbuster. With the safer and improving urban landscape, the tourist visits to the Big Apple roared back in spades, further solidifying the City’s finances.)
What the reader gets is a unique and charming window into the N.Y.C of the early 70’s as filtered through the eyes of one of the extremely rare female cabbies of the time. Sure, for obvious reasons, I especially enjoyed the taxi focus, but it is the sparkling evocation into the evolving mindset of a young woman of the era that truly made for a riveting read.
My only complaint was that the book wasn’t longer : )
Fred Solomon, AKA Jernigan Pontiac, author of “Hackie”
Nancy Haiduck (verified owner) –
“Every time I’m parked at a red light, I look to my right, someone is smiling at me in the next car. I look to my left, the other driver is staring at me in disbelief…One guy said, ‘For God’s sake, don’t drive like a girl!’ My tips are fantastic.”
What a treat to read this gem of a collection of non-fiction short stories. Nancy was a cab driver in the early 70s in New York City. Petite and young, she had to be strong and resilient to deal not only with the guys at her taxi garage, but with customers and other drivers. These stories are an honest slice of her life, unfiltered, revealing her youth, her vulnerability and determination to succeed in the city. I did not want the stories to end – so please, Nancy – write some more stories.
On a side note – I loved going to the Horn & Hardart when I was a kid in Manhattan; we went to the one either on East 86th St. or on 33rd St. close to B.Altman where my mother used to work!
Noel Ferrer (as posted on Amazon)