Taxi Tales

Her stories are pieces and parts of lives in the passing parade of humanity she met while driving taxi from 1990 to 2002 in Southern California.

Joyce was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, January 12, 1942, shortly after Pearl Harbor Day. Her father, Daniel Bernard and mother, Grace (Fabiano), were the type of Americans described in Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation." They put God, country and family first. Dan enlisted into the Navy at the age of 30. There were three children at home. Joan 8 years old, Janice 6 years old and Joyce 2 years old.

In 1951, Joyce was nine years old when the family journeyed for ten days across country to relocate in Southern California, by 1952 they bought their home in Downey, California, where they lived until Daniel passed away in 1994 and Grace in 2001.

Joyce returned in 1979 to college as a business major. While employed in a communication department of an education center, she took the opportunity to learn typesetting. She got a job in advertising for a few years, won an award with PWFI (Professional Women in Food Industry) in Los Angeles and free-lanced as a typesetter for a local West Los Angeles newspaper and Road and Track magazine. She took a permanent job as a proofreader-editor at McGraw Hill over five construction magazines. In 1990, the company upgraded to PC computers and she found she had no current marketable skills.

While looking for a job she had a lively conversation with a cabdriver and decided to try driving for a short time, until she got a real job. After a successful five hundred dollar night in town, the decision to drive a cab seemed a good idea. While working as a cabdriver she started a love-hate relationship with passengers in Southern California. Joyce no longer worked in the safe environment she had taken for granted. She was out in the real world.

Unencumbered by responsibilities to anyone but herself, Joyce began an adventure beyond her wildest dreams or nightmares. Her stories are pieces and parts of lives in the passing parade of humanity she encountered driving a taxi from 1990 thru 2002.

In 2002, Joyce was told at a California eye clinic that her sight would not improve, surgery would put her at risk of serious infection. Blinded in one eye by scar tissue, she retired to Palestine, Texas near her son and granddaughters. Her son told her there were many eye doctors in Palestine. Dr. Shiller, at Eye Professionals, has successfully performed two cataract surgeries and referred Joyce to Dr. Bochow, at the Cataract Center in Tyler, Texas. Dr. Bochow successfully removed the scar tissue.

Joyce started writing her adventures with the encouragement of the Palestine Writers critique group and new friends. Her book, TAXI TALES, was accepted by Publish America and on the market by April 2005. She has self-published a short history of the war years for the grandchildren on Daniel and Grace Bernard. That book is called "For You, Darling." Daniel wrote many letters in verse while in the hold of a destroyer in battle zones. He was unable to save the letters he received, but the small book will reflect how this young couple were typical of that "Greatest Generation."

To this date, career changes are: daughter, wife, mother, college student, co-worker, editor, grandmother, taxi driver, writer and whatever else God has planned. Joyce is not afraid of change.

There are no secrets in a taxi. Each ride is like a book without a jacket; Joyce drove the dangerous, diabolical, and devious, mixed with the confused, courteous, and kind. And unlike a book that can be put aside, the ride isn't finished until the meter is turned off.

Driving a taxi is comparable to holding the remote to a TV; the difference is that real people in real situations can't be turned off. The stories are appealing, appalling, and amazing, and about passengers encountered anytime and anywhere. Movies, books, and TV programs do not tell all; the action is going on every minute of every day. When drivers meet, they often start conversations with, "You won't believe this, but ..." or, "We should write a book about ..." And now you have it, a cross-section of life of a cabdriver.

At mid-life, pursuing quick cash, Joyce Ibrahim left an office for the unpredictable and unfamiliar life of a cabdriver. She loved/hated her lifestyle for more than a decade and retired to Texas to write. In addition to taxi Life, Taxi Tales was published in the spring of 2005.

A fun read for anybody who has been in a taxi....

This book is a great read. I read it on a flight from Long Beach to Boston, MA and it held my attention the whole trip.

Taxi Tales is a fascinating collection of short stories.....this book is a great look at a way of life most of us know little about. I recommend it.

Enjoyed it from start to finish.