This is, unlike most of our stories, true. The other night I took a taxi home, and I met Willie, a 64 year old driver and owner of his own car, in a pretty new fleet called Top Cab. Willie hails from South Carolina, and still has the friendly trace of that regionalism. He told me about growing up with segregation, when he would not have been allowed to walk several paces behind me. Since I am from Jersey City, we shared the same feeling upon arrival in Boston, “man, where did all these white people come from?!” We talked about how horribly things are going in this country, with all the young people getting sent to their death under false pretenses, and how a nation that had rid itself of slavery and segregation, might recover from these barbaric times. He said that people down south don’t even know how they are voting themselves further into poverty and loss. How he expects to be driving until he drops, with social security drying up, and billions spent on warfare. Willie moved to the South End of Boston when it was a slum, 43 years ago. He is lucky that he can still afford to live in what is now a fancy address, but I think it is because he rents. He said that “men better wake up,, because it’s the women who know what’s going on, and are going to take control.” He also declared it impossible that Condoleeza could be black, though he has relatives who knew her. He called me Angel in his warm breezy drawl. Business is not so great, times being what they are. For those of you who live in Boston, you taxi riding drunks the lot of ya, please call Top Cab. 617.266.4800. They’re good people.