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Show John harring ton Making a living in Park City, or: Conversations in a cab. The cab driver finished loading the bags in the back of the airport limo and told the four paying riders to get in. The sleek, six door wagon sped away from the curb headed for Park City. The driver, a woman, was thinking about calling it a day upon arrival and catching a few late afternoon runs on the three pins. Then, the tourist woman sitting behind her broke the driver's train of thought. "So, why are you a cab driver, dearie?" the lady asked. "Need to eat," came the driver's reply. "Been doing it long?" the tourist woman continued. "First year," the driver said. The tourist woman's husband chimed in. "We're from Cleveland," he said, "and this will be our first time skiing." The cabbie turned the tables. "Why are you going to ski?" she asked the couple. "We had some friends who tried it and they said it was a great way to get outside in the winter," the tourist woman replied. She turned to the other two people in the limo and asked them, "Don't you think?" "What?" asked one of the two men who had not been listening to the conversation. "Don't you think skiing is a good way to get outside in the winter?" the tourist woman asked him. "Fine, fine," the man said, his friend nodding approval. The cab was on the freeway and acrid fumes from the North Salt Lake refineries fouled the air with the smell of rotten eggs. "Just like Linden, New Jersey," said one of the men in the back seat. "Oh, are you from New Jersey?" the man from Cleveland asked. "Yes," both men said, "we're trauma surgeons in the emergency unit of a Newark Hospital!' one doctor told him. "We're here for the seminar on treating massive knife and gunshot wounds and thought we'd get in a few runs between meetings." "We used to live in New Jersey," the tourist woman confided to the cabbie while the three men talked crime rates. "Oh?" said the driver. "Yes, that's right, in Saddle Brook, before Bob's company transferred him to Ohio." The cab was on the way into Parley's Canyon, the smog behind obscured Salt Lake City from view. The cabbie was happy to be driving out of the muck. "We'll be getting out of the smog now," she told the passengers. "What smog?" asked the guy from Cleveland, who was a sales rep for a chemical plant. "It's been pretty bad lately," the cabbie said. "Listen, honey, my company puts out more stuff in one day than you have here all year. This is paradise," the chemical rep said. The doctors were telling the tourist woman about the results of a gang fight they worked on the night before and how it almost cost them making their flight. "That's terrible," the woman tourist said, as the limo rolled down Parley's to the Park City exit off 1-80. The driver pointed out ParkWest on the way into the city, I drove on and pulled into the Holiday Inn. The bags were unloaded, the trip was paid for, the cabbie told the people to have a good week and to call if they needed a ride back to the airport. She turned, took a look at the mountain, glanced at her 1 watch, remembered the conversation on the way up and went out and bought a beer. |