Taxi Obituary: Dennis Eugene Roberts---COVID19 & The Loss Of A Seattle Taxi Industry Icon

Eulogy of sorts

All of us at Puget Sound Dispatch (Seattle Yellow Cab) are still processing the loss of Dennis Roberts on April 09, 2020 to the novel coronavirus COVID19 pandemic.  One could accurately say Dennis was both a fixture and representative of what is best at Yellow Cab and what we are daily attempting to do: transporting passengers in a cheerful, efficient manner.  Dennis was also typical of a certain type of cabbie, his position comparable to the French Foreign Legion, where once recruited, your past identity forgotten, your old self completely absorbed into your new position as a taxi soldier sent off to the cultural battlefields.  I say this because currently, though knowing Dennis over twenty years, his past for the most part remains a mystery, at least to me.  But it is the known Dennis we are both mourning and celebrating, our friend now taking "bells" somewhere in the celestial heights, delivering singing angels to their lofty choir stalls perched next to Jehovah's Heavenly Gates.  Dennis liked to sing, last year on the train station regaling me with the old Johnny Horton C&W hit, "North to Alaska" but why that particular song I can't remember, Dennis having good reasons for everything he did.


Dennis Roberts   May/18/1946-April/09/2020

As alluded to, I don't know where he was born and what previous occupations he might have plied but as long as I knew him I believed the rumor that he participated in late 1950s horror films though in what role I never bothered to ask.  I am told he also made an appearance in the "Northern Exposure" television series, but again, how and why I don't know.  But what I can tell you for sure was Dennis's yearly fund raising efforts for Seattle's Children Hospital, covering his cab with "donation ballon tags" signed with the donor's name, each year all the local cabbies providing funds for his favorite charity.

Dennis also dressed as Santa Claus, and during Seattle's annual "Sea Fair Days" took on the guise of a seafaring pirate.  Though in reality, Dennis was the last cabbie requiring a costume, his normal, everyday appearance unforgettable: a squat, somewhat rotund body topped by a perennially smiling face festooned by white sideburns and almost waist length greying hair.  Along with baggy trousers and an equally comfortable blue jacket, Dennis could never be mistaken for anyone other than Dennis. Yes, our departed friend was unique, some might say eccentric but if there was a sincerer cabbie, I don't know him, Dennis the personification of 1960s idealism made manifest.

So Dennis, a fond farewell but where ever you might be, keep on singing, be it "North to Heaven" or some other such song.  So long and goodbye.

Admitting I Might Be incredibly Foolish---The Realities Of Driving Cab Amidst the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic & Taxi Doggerel: "58 Coffins"

I admit, when belled into a hospital ER during these "COVID-19" days, it's with a severe apprehension and shudder, finally understanding full well that the next passenger could be contagious, and "why-the-hell-am-I-doing-this?" comes to mind.  Yes, it's a good question, and in part it's due to a slow comprehension of how dangerous this virus is, and that it kills, having killed over 170 thousand worldwide per this morning's current figures.

What bothers me personally is my slower than normal reaction to real danger because usually I'm quick in ascertaining when something is wrong.  That I have been dumb is disappointing, and even worse, my stupidity potentially fatal, because at this moment I have no idea whether I am contagion free or not.

Yes, I am now wearing my mask, and yes, disinfecting parts of the cab but truly how effective these preventatives are is complete guesswork, a kind of gamble with my life and the life of others.  To say this is disconcerting is a great understatement not fully expressing a dilemma I have inserted myself, a diorama not located in a museum but one in constant motion around me.   But be it as it may, I am here until I leave for New Mexico on the afternoon of April 29th, visiting my adobe house on the high desert prairie.   Perhaps by the time I return on May 13th, the situation will be clearer but do I believe that?  I don't.

More or Less Current Worldwide COVID-19 Death Tolls

Underlining my concerns are the grim statistics stating just how many people are dying from the virus.  The following is a selective sampling illustrating how wide spread the pandemic is, affecting all countries and all corners of our planet.  Most of these figures date from today but a few are from yesterday, Sunday 04/19/20

USA---41,155    Belgium---5,453    Spain---20,852     Italy---23,660     UK---16,060

France---19,728      Iran---5,209    Turkey---2,017   Egypt---239      Algeria---375

Holland---3,100      Costa Rica---5      Saint Maarten---10    China----4,632      Brazil---2,372

Switzerland---1,368   Mexico---686    Canada---1,587   Moldava---67   Bukina Faso---36

Washington State deaths total 620.  Two local bus drivers have succumbed to the virus.  And very shocking, I have just found out that my friend, longtime cabbie Dennis Roberts, is dead, his cab still sitting in front of his home. RIP Dennis.  More on his passing when I have the details.

Taxi Coronavirus Doggerel 

As I have been pointing out, clearly the situation is dire, but I was inspired to write this nonsense piece with the Saturday news that Jacksonville, Florida opened its beaches to the public, defying commonsense.  The person responsible, Mayor Curry, GOP., this on the day 58 Floridians died from COVID-19.


                                                              58 Coffins


                              Hey Mommy, look! 58 coffins are floating out to sea

                              in celebration of Florida's state-rights Democracy,

                             Yes, the very same day Jacksonville's  Mayor Curry

                             announced the city's beaches were free to roam,

                             tragedy overtook Florida's local cemeteries and funeral

                             homes,

                             58 more Floridians declared COVID-19 dead,

                             and given that sad reality,

                             there is truly nothing more necessary to be

                             said!


Special Postscript 04/21/2020----The passing of Dennis Eugene Roberts YC 464

It is with great sadness that I have to announce that longtime Seattle cabbie died April 9th from COVID-19.  Dennis might be the first such taxi fatality in the country.  Next week I plan a more extensive obituary once I know more details. 

The Supreme Irony Of Taxi Designated As An Essential Service---We The Newly Anointed

Yes, if you can believe it, because I still can't, that it is indeed true in the State of Washington, taxis are now considered essential to the well-being and health of the overall community, my disbelief stemming from my long years of harassment and targeting by local police and government, exemplified most recently by discovering I cannot park my taxi legally anywhere upon the streets in the City of Bellevue.  Having referenced this in earlier posts, my court date is now rescheduled for July 31th, 2020, finding myself looking forward to the Mayor of Bellevue and other city officials explaining to the judge why taxis are accorded this especial criminal category---cabbies somehow a shameful blot staining Bellevue's streets and byways, requiring a general segregation from normal and usual liberties.

Given this background, and the reality of receiving dozens of moving violations by local-area police over the years, I can only smile when acknowledging a recognition previously denied me and my fellow taxi ruffians.  Now, very suddenly, we hold importance, obtaining a status parallel to doctors and nurses making us frontline warriors, our lives and the threat of contracting the coronavirus secondary to all other duties, societal expectations excluding all other personal considerations. Again, I find this transformation breathtaking, elevating the dalit (untouchable) to the brahmin something even Lord Krishna couldn't contemplate, short-circuiting the karmic/reincarnate cycle---the cockroach now instantaneously a soaring eagle.

Yes, that new ranking, along with the very real prospect, percentage-wise, of being exposed to the novel coronavirus, makes working out here upon the street surreal, a progressive, active hallucination of negative consequences dancing upon sidewalks and roadways, the next passenger, the next moment potentially leading to debilitation and death.  But yes, despite that chilling reality, dialysis and cancer patients still requiring their vital, life sustaining treatments, for once making us cabbies a recognizable resource for the greater societal good, providing necessary transport upon and over the viral byways.

"Stay Home, Limit Travel, Save Lives"---Stay-In-Place Order Extended Until May 4th, 2020

The message in the title can be seen on 1-5 electronic reader boards in the greater Seattle-area.  Are local citizens heeding this suggestion, along with Governor Jay Inslee's order to stay in your home and read a good book?  The answer, like most questions addressing human behavior, is yes and no, depending greatly upon time and place.  The Renton Walmart and the Seattle 4th Avenue South CostCo remain crowded with shoppers, with Walmart, for one, finally issuing entrance requirement in an attempt to slow down the maddened, undisciplined mobs packing the aisles.  Seattle's streets and sidewalks themselves are fairly uninhabited, with shops and restaurants remaining closed.  It's on the freeway where you see the people flying down the road in larger numbers---unrestrained 70-80 mph banshees telling you "the hell with the coronavirus! I will do whatever I want regardless of conditions and common sense,"--- reader board warnings mere scenery to crazed minds.

At least here in the State of Washington, there is a theoretical attempt at moderating behavior, while in the States of Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota, their GOP governors have so far refused to issue official statewide "Stay-at-Home" orders.  Like everywhere, response to the virus is mixed, many still not realizing we are in the beginning stages of a new worldwide plague.  Last week I wrote the death toll was over thirty thousand.  It has now surpassed fifty thousand, the pandemic reaching all corners of the earth.  One scary development is the very real possibility that the virus is spread simply by the breath, a sneeze or cough not required to send the virus out of an infected person's lungs.  The wearing of masks are now suggested for everyone though the president says he won't be wearing one.

Here in Seattle, the mayor announced they will not, for the time being, be issuing parking tickets. Too late, as I saw three days ago in the Ballard neighborhood for a row of at least twelve parked cars, all having newly written parking tickets proudly placed upon the windshield. Hopefully all will be dismissed but since this is Seattle, I wouldn't depend upon it, punishment Seattle's unofficial motto, the wagging of the finger saying "you should have known better!"

The 78 Cents "Big Tipper" & Other Taxi Vignettes

While America and the world confronts the coronavirus, and with the current standing death toll 30,000 and counting, taxi amazingly remains the same, unaltered save for a steep decline in business, cab passengers remaining easily recognizable--the sane, the insane and the vast majority of everyone else fitting individual categories of the good, the bad and the indifferent.  I say this because many appear disconnected from the pervasive reality created by this pandemic, their corporeal or sentient parameters a small self-contained envelope protecting from the most urgent considerations, creating a false immunity from consequentiality.  Frustrating to have in the cab, it does once again accurately describes the taxi experience when a complete stranger enters and says, "Hello, this is who I am." As I keep saying, I meet everybody, and I mean everyone beneath our human beaming sun.

78 cents

What was her name, was it Mark as dispatch said, or Josephine, though never knowing for sure but Psychotic would be apt and appropriate.  Picking her up at Cascade Hall, a CPC psychiatric halfway house, she repeated, as she did over the telephone, that she was a big tipper.  Deranged from the beginning, she asked if I was going to rape her, this and other inappropriate behavior and comments prompting me to warn her that "I didn't want to involve the staff."  This stopped her for a a minute but being out of control it continued, along with saying I was getting a "big tip."  Finally after arriving back, she was two dollars short of the actual fare, then dipped into her pocket and and carefully counted out my "big tip": seventy-eight cents.

Big Time Social Security

Another RT, this time a huge mother and daughter team living at a Northgate hotel.  They were there due to a apartment building renovation,  the landlord putting them up in this nice  hotel for the past three months.  They needed to cash their SS checks and get takeout somewhere.  I enjoyed their banter back and forth, obviously comfortable with the easy insult.   Due to a bank quarantine, we used the drive-through teller, with a resulting confusion and mixup until told to park in front of the bank, where upon an exhausted employee came out and gave the good ladies their money.  From there we proceeded to a Jack-in-the-Box, further confusing the order taker, and finally, getting everything straight, made it back to the hotel.  The fare was $37.00 and I-couldn't-believe-it, along came a $23.00 tip.  "We'll gonna each pay 30-30," said Mom.  Why they did I don't know what but thank goodness for confusion.

Last Night the Big Liar

I hate it when I know better but, dumbbell me, not checking if he really had a credit card for what would be a $70.00 fare.  But halfway to Kirkland, and more stories than I could stomach, the "HopeLink has a credit card" line got me screaming "You are a liar!" and pulling off east-bound 520 onto Bellevue Way, I would have tossed him out at the grocery store just up the road but he kept lying and, having enough, I made it clear the ride was over.  It cost time and the bridge toll twice over.  I was ready to kill but of course the fool living to see another day.

This afternoon it was "I am 116."

Maybe he is or maybe he isn't, saying he was born in 1903 and joined the US Marine in 1933 and fought in WW II, the Korean War and in South Vietnam.  He was convincing enough and looked in his late 70s, early 80s.  If he was 116 he was truly a remarkable human specimen.  It was also important to tell me he the end of a Royal Italian bloodline, having outlived everybody.  But hell, he could say anything he wanted because I got $87.00 dollars to get him home.   And besides, I came upon a gas station with $2.39.9 regular. That also made me happy.  But it ain't like West Texas, where the couple I took to the airport this morning said they filled up their rental car for $1.42 per gallon.  Wow! is all I can say!

And there you have it, thirty thousand plus dead along with tens of thousands more 'round the world fighting for their literal breath but LIFE IN AMERICA rolls on, oblivious, in part, to the end.

The Short And Bitter: Business-wise, The Coronavirus Outbreak Is A Hard Hitter

My taxi buddy Rick, who once owned Red Top Taxi, said it best by saying "In 40 years, I have never seen it like this!"  And in my almost 33 off & on years, neither have I.  Even our standby accounts, Hopelink and MV First Transit, are way down.  It is great that Hopelink has generously added an additional $10.00 per trip but it also seems that Hopelink related no-shows are more frequent, adding pain to misery.  Yellow (PSD) cut the single-owner dispatch fee in half, making it $90.00 from the usual $180.00. I am told that Orange Taxi cut their monthly dispatch rate by 300.00.

A good/bad example of what it's like is today's waiting for an account time-call in Zone 155, home to Children's Hospital, historically the source of many good fares, including many to Eastern Washington.  There I am patiently waiting for the time-call, number one to go when the cab in front of me called a no-show, meaning his time-call blew up in this face, and wouldn't you damn well know it, getting mine.  I haven't had a fare since, which is why I am quickly writing all this instead of trying to squeeze money out of nothing whatsoever.

I have been told that us taxis are considered an essential service and will not be shut down if and when the governor called for a mandatory limiting of movement in and around the state.  France is now requiring written permission to move about.  The first day, 4000 violators in Paris paid a 35 euro fine.  The second day the fine went up to 135 euros per violation.  As I said last week, all we can hope is that this passes quickly but that might be very wishful thinking.

As everyone appears to be now saying, stay safe and stay healthy.  And if you have a God that you believe in, you might want to invoke the "higher spirits" as folks did in 14th Century Europe when confronting the "Black Death" or bubonic plague,  giving us the tradition of saying "God Bless You" when someone squeezes.  Back then, viruses and bacteria were unknown, bad things like disease thought to be caused by "evil spirits, demons and such" having taken hold of body and soul.  The Roman Catholic Church, amongst others, still officially believes in "devil possession" and their ability to be cast out.  I personally think that many of our politicians are "possessed " and should be cast out of office.  Now that would be a true blessing.  Why the mere thought nearly make me feel religious, or something like that!

The COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus And Human Behavior

As the coronavirus narrative dominates the nation, along with diminishing taxi business, I thought, as a certified "cabbie psychiatrist," I might add my considerable "professional" experience to the conversation.  As having noted over the years, I am completely daily immersed in the human dialogue comprising what we know as American Civilization in this early part of the 21st Century, the Pleistocene Era Happisburgh footprints bringing us up to this moment, though our American Neanderthal relatives of 35,000 years ago might disagree, cudgel in hairy hands, ready to bash away any remaining rationality from our prehistoric brain.

Yes, there is no denying that with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are facing an ancient yet modern puzzle knowing what to do when humanity is faced with a relentless and unpredictable disease.  My San Francisco buddy Jake wrote me that, in a worse-case scenario, the CDC estimates that between 160-214 million Americans could become infected, with 200,000 to 1.7 million dying.  With a current USA population of 331,002,651, CDC figures display the possibility of many dire days ahead.  Jake also sent me a translation of an Italian doctor describing what he has been seeing since the coronavirus hit Italy like an exploding bomb, the good doctor issuing a compassionate message warning against complacency, making it clear the situation, as he reads it, is beyond serious.

My concern here in Seattle is panic and overreaction, something I abhor and detest but I realize that my reaction in itself might not be wholly helpful toward combating this viral pathogen residing amongst us.  Commonsense plus caution is probably the best way forward but what that truly means, even I write it, I can't exactly say because this illness appears to compose new, unfamiliar rules baffling even the most experienced virologist, this virus, as the saying goes, "is a brand new ball game," thus making it a particularly dangerous disease.

And yes, people across the nation are panicking, buying out local grocery stores of everything imaginable while deciding to stay close to home, which is probably a good plan in the short term.  For us cabbies, clearly the next month at least will mean an extreme drop in business.  Hopefully most of us will be able to both remain healthy and survive the coming economic storm, advising everyone to remain calm even when the alternative is tempting.

Take lots of vitamin C and zinc and eat well, doing all you can enhancing your immunity.  Sleep and dream well, taking the time to let this living nightmare pass, because it will, all of us doing the best we can not to become an unintended causality to this new disease engulfing our precious time and space and breath.  Cooperate and live, is what I believe all of must do though it might it is advised not to shake hands, virus transmission at this moment our most grievous concern.