“That’ll be three dollars and fifteen cents,” declared the hack driver, as he swung the taxi meter’s red metal flag to the ‘stop’ position. Gregg Hoskins rummaged through his wallet and found a five dollar bill. “Here you go. Just give me a buck.” The taxi driver readily agreed, “Deal.” He reached into his shirt pocket and removed a wad of paper money. He took inventory of the wad’s denominations and then turned to face his passenger apologetically, yet hopeful. “Sorry Mack, I’m a little short on singles. Can I give you four quarters?” “As long as they have ‘In God we trust’ on ‘em. Sure, hand ‘em over.” “Done and done!” The driver counted-out four quarters and handed them to his passenger. “Here ya go, Buddy. Have a nice day.” Gregg stepped out of the taxi on the northwest corner of Fourteenth Street and Ninth Avenue in West Chelsea. Although the neighborhood is called ‘West Chelsea,’ to native New Yorkers, it’s really the ‘meatpacking district’ on Manhattan’s West Side… a rather popular location with the Kojak second-unit film crew. Gregg slammed the door of the old Checker cab as he waved to the driver saying, “Thanks, Pal.” He stood for a moment on the corner of Fourteenth and Ninth, just taking in ‘the sights’ as it were. On the opposite side of Ninth and just a skosh uptown stood the Old Homestead restaurant, which had existed there for donkey’s years. Any idiot could find the place because of its landmark statute which stood like a bovine Colossus of Rhodes over the restaurant.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 22:57:32 +0000
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