Seattle Culture
Tales of a Cabbie
Writer explores the underbelly of an industry
By Rob Smith July 8, 2024
![Seattle Magazine cover July 1969-16-9-2000x1125 (1)-min Cover of a vintage "seattle" magazine featuring a woman in a tropical shirt and fez, smoking a cigar, with headlines about shriners and Tales of a Cabbie.](https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai2/q_lossy+ret_img+to_webp/staging.seattlemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Seattle-Magazine-cover-July-1969-16-9-2000x1125-1-min.jpg)
This article originally appeared in the May/June 2024 issue of Seattle magazine.
With the rise of ridesharing companies such as Uber and Lyft, it’s never been easier to have a side hustle.
Seattle magazine’s July 1969 issue featured a first-person essay by writer Gordon Bowker who, from 5 p.m. until 3 a.m. five days a week, drove a cab. The story is rife with descriptions of long-forgotten icons of the city (the Blue Mouse, the Music Box, the Wee Piper) as well as some of the more interesting characters in search of a ride past midnight.
“Being a writer and being a cab driver are not so different, except that fewer writers get knocked over at night,” Bowker observed. In another passage, he expressed a common concern shared by cab drivers for decades: Would a drunk vomit in the back seat?
“The realtor comes to as we leave the freeway. I can smell stomach acid and stale bourbon. He is drooling profusely,” Bowker writes. “His suit is stained with booze and tomato sauce.” Some things never change.