Transcript for the Piece Audio version of StoryCorps: Jerry Tierstein

JT: A lady puts a cat in my cab. And it was rush-hour.

And then says, ‘Oh, I forgot my, uh, portfolio, I got to go up and get it. So just drive the cat around for a block or so and come around.’

Well, she slammed the door and she left. Now, I’m sitting here with the cat in the backseat. So, I say: Ok, freak it, I’ll drive around the block. What am I gonna do? So, as I reach the first corner there’s a light. Somebody’s running over to the cab.

I says, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, you can't get in I got somebody.’

‘I don’t see anybody in there.’

So he opens the door and he goes: “Ooooh!”

And he jumps back and he goes, “Why didn’t you tell me you got a cat in here?’

I says: ‘I said I got somebody, you know. He ain’t human so I don’t know what to say.’

Then I go to the next corner. A lady’s ready to jump in. She opens the door and screams and jumps back. Finally, thank god, I pull up in front of the building, the lady runs down.

I say, 'Lady, you don’t know, people are jumping in the car. You’re killing me here, you know. They think there’s no one in here but I got this stupid cat in the backseat.’

‘Don’t call my cat stupid.’

You know. ‘Ok, ok.’

AV: What would you do differently if you had to do your life over again?

JT: What would I do differently? I don’t think I could have done any better than a cab driver. One thing that I always remembered: If you’re gonna to do something, whatever it is in life, I don’t care if you’re mopping floors, do it well. So, if I was mopping a floor, I’d be the best damn mopper you’d ever see. That floor would shine. You could eat off it. And being I’m a cab driver, I want to be the best in the business. And I think I am one of the best in the business, because I, I really do the job the way it should be done, the old fashioned way.