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Source: Detroit Free PressSept.迷你倉 08--Oneita Jackson up and quit her job more than a year ago.The 44-year-old Detroiter left the Free Press to drive a cab.She says the newspaper, where she worked for 11 years as a copy editor and columnist, was her first dream job.And now, she says, she's living another.QUESTION: You've been driving a cab for a year now. How's it going?ANSWER: (Laughs.) I should not be having this much fun.It's fun?Yes, I'm having a ball.Tell me what's fun.I'll tell you what's fun, but you know what's funny? What's funny is your style of asking questions. I was researching you. I was reading your clips. You are hilarious.Why?'Cause you're snarky, and I don't think you mean to be snarky. ...What's fun about driving a cab? Making money on my way to run errands. Making money hanging out. Making money running my mouth, telling people my story. ... Doing what I love to do.So, you getting rich or what?Well, I wouldn't say rich ... yet. Because there's a rhythm and a style of driving and it took me a while to figure it out. Like cab drivers who are smarter than I am, 'cause I'm not that bright, drive on a schedule. I don't. I just exist and live and drive. For example, I worked at a newspaper for 11 years in gray walls. Now I'm free, and I don't even know how I did it for 11 years. Now I'm free! And I just -- I exist!Does that mean you're always on? Isn't there some stress in the back of your mind that any minute you might have to go pick somebody up?No. I am always on, but I'm always off, too. I can be on or off. ... If somebody called me right now to go around the corner, it depends on who it is. If it's someone who's going around the corner who might need a ride to the airport later, "See ya, Jim." But if it's one of the cousins, "Sorry, I can't take you." ...You mentioned you quit a good-paying newspaper job ... in a business that you like. So why quit that job to drive a cab?I was a columnist, too.Let me ask you this: Why are you driving a cab?No, no, no. Those are two different questions.I know. I erased the first one.But I'm putting the first one back. Why did I quit? Because I wasn't having fun anymore at the newspaper. ... I always wanted to drive a cab. Not always from childhood, but when I lived in D.C. in the 1990s, I had this really cool cab driver who would pick me up every day and take me to the baby-sitter. ... And I began to talk to him every day. ... And there's one thing: I'm a people person. And I knew I could do it. Me make money being me? Driving a cab? I could do it. But they were killing cab drivers in the 1990s. And ...They're still killing cab drivers today.Yeah. Four in about six months that I've been driving. ...How do you stay safe while you're driving in the city?How do I stay safe? My friends make my phone ring. ...So you don't pick people up on the street?I do. But I pay at自存倉ention. You know, I pay attention to my feeling in my gut. Usually, I work in what is considered -- air quote -- a safe environment. So the Free Press calls me for airport runs. The Westin calls me. Or cab buddies. I work out of hotels, mostly. ...Tell me your favorite stories. ...I do a tour. It's one hour, $100, and you buy me lunch. And I do that tour a lot.Of the city?Yes, yes, yes. And I do those tours a lot for people. Because I'm interested in people who are interested in Detroit. So they come here and I always ask, "Have you been here before?" And it's like, "Oh, you can't leave the city without seeing this," and then I do my sales pitch, because I'm a salesperson, right? ...So I'm frequently eating with people. One of my cab buddies saw me out with a French woman that I was about to take to the airport. Because I was hungry, and she wanted to see something. I said we have a Whole Foods, and that's news in Detroit. And so she wanted to eat at the airport. I'm like, "Airport? No, we're going to Whole Foods."So, I'm dining with this woman at Whole Foods, and my cab buddy comes up and he's like, "What are you doing?" And I said, "I'm eating with my fare. And then I'm taking her to the airport." ... It's not even a story, but the way I do my job amazes other cab drivers who have been doing this for ...I was going to ask you what other cabbies think about you.They think I am crazy. They think I'm a nut. ...What's the biggest tip you ever got?A hundred bucks. ... What I did for this Mexican couple. ... I took them to Somerset (Mall). We dined, then they wanted me to come back. No English. No English. She spoke Spanish. He didn't speak much English. ... He was able to communicate, "Auto show. Tickets. You tickets. I tip."So the charity preview this year was sold out. ... I immediately go into concierge mode. ... I said, "Look. If you all want me to get tickets" -- and I'm speaking in Spanish to the woman -- "then I'm gonna have to be on the phone." So, I'm calling all over town. Obviously, I end up getting the tickets. ...Are you going to do this permanently?Oh, no, no, no. I'm a writer. All I want to do is sit at home and write and drive a cab on the weekends, OK? I want a big cab with a big "O," like around my neck (shows "O" necklace). A big cab with a Big O on the side. I'll work Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And I'm going to sit at home and write Sunday and Mon -- no! I'm going to watch football on Sundays. ...And you're doing this, in part, to write a book?No, no, no. Not to write a book. This is my second dream. This is what's crucial. ... Let's say I became a janitor. I would still write a book.OK, so what's the proper way to put it?I'm living my second dream.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Detroit Free Press Visit the Detroit Free Press at .freep.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉新蒲崗