IN ENGLAND NOW

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20049, 22 September 1939, Page 2

IN ENGLAND NOW

TAXIS AND BLACK-OUTS LONDON DIFFICULTIES SELDOM GET LOST' Some interesting and amusing aspects of the difficulties of taxi-dnveis setting about London under tne present black-out regulations are given in a recent 8.8. C. broadcas, cn titled “In England Now.” .They illustrate the cheerful acceptance of the conditions bv the drivers, and thei happy sense of the humour of many things. “Well, the war’s only been on a few days, as you might say, but already i* has made quite a difference in oui Wes ” raid one driver. “We London taxi-drivers got our first shock rig at the start last Friday week We turned up at our garages as usualbut a lot of us discovered that oui cabs were gone. They had been taken by the Auxiliary Fire Service, who wanted them for towing pumps. "But what has happened to us is nothing to what has happened to London. It's all right in the day, but after dark you wouldn’t recognise 1.. Any way, there’s one thing If we can’t recognise it, it’s almost a deac certainty the Germans wont be able to.

"I kid myself I know my way about a Fit, but do you know? I was driving down Whitehall from Charing Cross at 9 o’clock last night, and it was so black and I was also so busy looking out for pedestrians that I didn’t know I had got to Scot and Yard till I heard Big Ben sti iking over my head.

“Mind you, it was extra blacic las, night. There was no moon and no stars On a night like that the only wav you can tell exactly Where you are is to count the number ot traffic lights you pass. That tells you how many cross roads you have come over, and you can calculate from them the name of the next terminus.

Working By Instinct

“Of course it is not so bad for us taxi-drivers. We have been over tne ground so often that this feeling our way has got to be second nature wi,h us You sort of know where you are by instinct. It's very seldom we get completely lost even in a tog. Us wonderful what you can do when you have to.

“If anyone had described to me before the war what a black-out in London really meant I would have said that it was impossible to carry on but, you know, when it comes to the pinch we all manage somehow. You get used to it, and you even start to take it for granted. Of course, you have to go a bit slower and be a bit more careful, but that is all.

“Mind you, I would rather be driving than, walking. 1 have been earning my living as a driver, and feel more confident on wheels than on my feet. When I'm a pedestrian, I feel so helpless and so unprotected, and I’m very careful about using crossings.

“The chief trouble from the taxidrivers’ point of view is finding peoples’ houses in the dark. It always was difficult, but now if you step outside the right door it is almost a miracle. Some passengers get out and walk the last few yards, but old and infirm people can’t be expected to do that. We have to find their door for them. IsVj Painted Numbers

“Sonic public-spirited citizens have painted white numbers on their gates, in, some cases a couple of feet high. We are very grateful to them. If you had one-half along the side of a street like that, you could calculate the other numbers..

“Some people have little metal numbers screwed on their gates. You have to get out and feel those with your fingers. That’s an art which will probably come easier with practice. At the moment I am adept at feeling numbers like 11 and 17.. They are such nice, straight lines, but I am not so good at the round ones like the 89's and the 65’s.

"But I haven't told you the one really shocking thing that has happened to us taxi-drivers. We are actually letting women come and eat in our shelters. It is a fact —women in a cab shelter. They'll be having women members in the Athencum next. They are not women, taxidrivers. There aren’t any. They are A.R.P. workers on night duty. There are not many cafes open at night, so we are letting them eat in our shelters.

“Anyway, it will give them a change tasting real cooking for once —man’s cooking, chops, steaks and beau'.iful Irish stew. But I will say this for them, they don't turn up their noses. They say it's good. "Well, that’s how things are going with taxi-drivers. We can’t say we actually prefer driving in a blackout, but we arc getting used to it. Sometimes it is worrying, and sometimes it is rather a lark. A lot depends on how you feel, and how your passengers feel, too. The only thing that annoys us is when we hear someone calling for a taxi. We stop and look about, but we can’t find anyone.

“But that would annoy anybody wouldn’t it.”