Transcript for the Piece Audio version of StoryCorps: Hyman Bloom and Andrew Vollo

HB: My first shift I must have made forty dollars after ten hours. I said 'What am I doing in this business?' But, you talk to people, you get out. You are not stuck behind an office desk, and it's an easy job. One street goes uptown, one goes downtown. Even streets go East. Odd streets go West. You don't have to be brilliant. And my wife says I'm a simpleton, so it's perfect for me.

And you get people in the cab, they want to talk. I have routines I pull on them. They laugh. And when I have mixed couples, I don't know why it is, the women want to here all the filthy jokes. But otherwise, they'll tell me problems. 'He has a son... what do I do?' I tell them, if I could answer those problems, I wouldn't be driving a cab, which is true.

AV: If you could do something differently in your life, what would you do?

HB: I think I would do the same thing. Got a wife I love. Wife that loves me, kid. Why look for trouble? You think you're going to make more money? Money's not everything. My father told me something a long time ago. He said, 'If you always have one dollar in your pocket, and you don't owe anybody any money, you're a rich man.' And, uh, I don't take things seriously. That's what keeps me healthy, I think. My father died at sixty; every little thing bothered him. He could speak six languages; he could play a banjo; he could add in his head. I'm lucky I speak English. But, uh, my mother was very simple, nothing bothered her. She used to say, 'Hymie, be a dummy. You'll never get an ulcer. Dummy's don't worry about anything. That's what I am, a dummy.

AV: Well, thank you for doing this interview with me.

HB: Oh, ok, sir, my pleasure. I expect to have a free meal out of this, you know. Nothing for nothing.

AV: You got it, you got it.