I’ve been driving for 32 months. What that means is I’ve seen some shit. Not sure I would admit to being proud of this, but I’ve taken people on a variety of trips. Sure, most of them are to home, to work, to a restaurant or the club, to an event, or to a friend’s house. But there have been some places I’ve taken people where it’s kind of obvious what’s going on, and then there’s even some where it’s not so obvious, but I had a pretty good idea what just took place.
Probably 90% of Uber and Lyft Riders in Tulsa are just standard, friendly, appreciative and I guess who you call normal folks doing normal things that just need a ride. Somewhere between 3% and 5% are those ones that make you scratch your head or are ones you don’t talk about. In some cases, these riders feel comfortable and/or anonymous enough to share what their night plans are.
Truth be told, I would put a $20 bill down on the fact that I’ve taken people to do the following: Buy drugs, have extra-marital affair/hook-up, same gender late night rendezvous, all male Meth orgy, a working girl from “John” to “John”, get a consult on an abortion, get an abortion, escape an abusive husband, go to detox, and strippers going to After Hours “events”.
I remember the morning after the first time I took a stripper home. Not my home, but her home. Pretty sure the wife would frown on the first option. But my wife and I almost always do a mid-morning or late morning breakfast on Saturdays when I drive late on Fridays. Well that next morning I told her not to be alarmed by the glitter on the seat because I hadn’t had a chance to vacuum the car yet and one of my last rides was taking a couple of strippers back to their apartment. Her response was admitting she didn’t think she’d ever be okay with me having strippers in my car, but in this case not a big deal. As long as the tips were cash only. Funny, because one of my first thoughts after they tipped was somehow some of my younger “investments” finally had some ROI.
But the flip side of all of those dark things that I may have delivered people to, is there are really neat stories and really inspiring people that I’ve met along the way. And many of them come from the dark parts of town. I often get asked if I have ever been afraid when picking somebody up, or if there are any rides I turned down because of what parts of town they come from. That’s an easy answer. No. Never. And I have never felt unsafe or concerned, and I have been in the sketchiest of neighborhoods in Tulsa. I’ve been in multiple Section 8 apartment complexes and in cul-de-sacs where half the houses had boarded-up windows and gates around their yard and things didn’t look terribly friendly. Ive been in neighborhoods and on streets I have seen on the news for violence and crime. I’ve been there at noon, I’ve been there at 9 p.m. and I’ve been there at 1 a.m. Truth is where you can find violence and crime and poor people, there are always good, ambitious people that understand where they live and what it looks like to outsiders, but they’re doing all they can to improve themselves and their families. They know their “situation” will not define them for life. Actually some of my favorite stories have come from these type of rides.
I remember the first time I received a ride request from North Tulsa. It was winter time, so the sun had already set for the most part and it was around 5:30 if I remember correctly. It was a tough neighborhood and you could tell a struggling one. I pulled up to this house and this younger black girl comes out and as soon as she gets in my car she’s immediately thanking me and very appreciative. She said two other Riders had accepted her request but cancelled before they got to her house and one had even called her to confirm directions. She said “I know people don’t always want to come get me here, so thank you for coming to get me. I was supposed to be at work at 5.” She worked at the Home Depot downtown and said her boss was pretty understandable when she called and told him why she was late. She became what I call a regular. She took my cell phone number and would let me know when she needed a ride to work. She said she was always able to catch a ride home, but not always to work. After I had given her four or five rides, she let me know she was about to buy a car and would be able to drive herself. She was going to find a second job so she could go to college. A good person making the best of her situation and working her ass off to help herself every way she could.
My other favorite story involves a young man I picked up from a high school on the north side. The request actually was under the name of a female but I picked up this kid and a friend of his. They had their book bags and each had a basketball. They were both headed back to the same house and in having a conversation with them, they told me that they had stayed late after basketball practice to get some tutoring. About a week or so later, I received another request to the same school from the same woman’s name and waiting outside was one of the boys. Same book bag and I assume the same basketball. I asked him who the lady was that was paying for his Ubers home. He said it was his guidance counselor and that he had stayed after basketball practice to work on his skills. I gave him a total of nine rides over the course of about three months. We talked about his future and what he wanted to do and how he was doing in school. I shared with him that I was a former teacher and coach, so we talked basketball, strategy, teams, players and just our joy for the game. The first time I asked him about his grades, he said he had a 3.4 grade point average. I complimented him and every time he got in the car, I always asked about his grades. He always said the same thing. “Very good, sir.” He always spoke with such respect, even though I told him he didn’t need to keep calling me “sir”. He was offered and accepted a scholarship to play basketball at a small school out of state. That last time I gave him a ride, as always I asked him about his grades and he said it looked like he was going to end up with a 3.6 GPA. It was a week away from graduation. He was excited because he had promised his mom that he would get achieve a 3.5 GPA. Should have seen the smile on his face when he shared that. Of those nine rides, one time I picked him up on a Saturday late morning, and he was at a little strip mall not far from his apartment complex. He had just left the barber shop. I realized then that we were put into each other’s lives for a very short period of time; I like to call it a season,. I have no idea what kind of impact or influence I had on him, but he reminded me that in bad parts of town there can be good people working their tails off. Young adults who have ambition and abilities. A reminder that people will try to grow out of their circumstances. And that Saturday that I picked him up. He had that same book bag and his basketball.
Uber & Lyft: Everyone Has A Story 