|
"Yes, April is a busy time in
our house," Michael Walsh (H63J) told Call Sign
when we visited him and wife Patricia at home. "It was April 1961 when I became engaged to Patricia, passed the Knowledge and got my Bill. That was fifty years ago and here we are in April 2011 marking my fifty years on Dial-a-Cab! I joined ODRTS on 9 April 1961 as Black 7 within a few days of getting my Bill. I paid 2/- (10p) for a rulebook and £2.2.6 (£2.12) for one week’s subscription. I have really not looked back since," he added. "Yes, I knew several of the ‘faces’ that frequented our offices in Pentonville Road back then and also the café across the street, including Alan Lewis (A44) who Call Sign featured in the mag recently and the Chairman at the time, Eli (Trixie) Solomons," said Michael. "I clearly remember dispatcher Johnny Thwaites. He was in the same army regiment as me, the Kings Royal Rifles - he during the war and me while doing my National Service. When he heard we had been in the same outfit, we just became buddies from then on." Continuing his look back, Mike told us that he had been on the Knowledge with an ODRTS dispatcher who said he had heard that a Board member was looking for journeyman… "That’s how I teamed up with Sailor Papier. I was lucky because I had the cab to myself and could work the hours that suited me. I worked Sailor’s cab for two years - mind you, that FX3 was freezing cold in the winter! The heater was pretty useless and you needed to dress up really warm to stop your hands from actually freezing to the steering wheel, while your feet often went numb! There were times when I even wore my pyjamas under my day clothes!" Mike began laughing as the recollections came flooding back. "It was ok in the summer though, because the windshield was hinged from the top and could be opened slightly for ventilation. But in the winter there was too much ventilation - drafts came from everywhere! Oh yes, RLP 239 I remember you well," he mused. In 1963, Michael bought his first new FX4 - 13 FGK - from M&O in Wandsworth Bridge Road. It cost him £1000. He teamed up with another ODRTS driver Norman Schaffer and they were together for many years. Mike sold his last cab in 2006 when he had to go from being an owner on Dial-a-Cab to |
|
|
 a journeyman. "One thing about the old cabs was the mechanical fare meter," he remembered. "Drivers worked on the clock, which meant they earned a percentage of the metered fares based on the number of trips and units recorded by the meter. Unfortunately, if you lowered the ‘flag’ too quickly when engaging the meter, it went right around and registered an additional trip that you hadn’t done and that was 1/9d (10p) you’d lost before even setting off!" "During this half-century on the road and with DaC, I’ve had some strange trips including the gentleman who asked for Buckingham Palace. I hesitated at the gate, as there was a parade in progress that I would have interrupted had I continued across the forecourt. My man was most insistent however and stuck his head out of the cab window. The policeman saluted him as I drove gently past. I set him down at the Mews behind the main building and as I drove out, I learned that he was Equerry to Prince Philip!" In full flow, Michael remembered the time he had actor Jack Hawkins as a passenger and he swore vociferously at a motorist who cut across the cab’s path in Pall Mall. That was a surprise to Mike because it wasn’t quite the eloquence he had been expecting from the wonderfully spoken actor he had seen so often in the movies! "Then on another occasion I was going around the south side of Trafalgar Square, in the days when it was much wider and stopped just over the zebra crossing when other traffic was stationary on the line. I hadn’t seen the pedestrians crossing because of the other |
 traffic. Anyway, two policemen standing at the far kerbside shouted across to me and began walking towards me, when my bowler-hatted passenger admonished the policemen for shouting at me in that manner. They recognised and saluted the man in the back of the cab, apologised to me, and we went on our way undeterred. He did not introduce himself to me and I never did find out who he was, but it was what cab drivers have always referred to as a result!" Mike remembered 1978 with a big smile when he became the first taxi driver to win £1000 in a national lottery. The media made a big story of it and the winnings allowed him to take his family on two holidays that year – that sum of money representing a huge win 30+ years ago. Mike could have gone on all night with his reminiscences, but Call Sign only has 36 pages! "I look back now, recalling when Gower Street and Tottenham Court Road were the first highways to be made one-way streets, when Park Lane was a two-way thoroughfare and not the dual carriageway it is now and all the other changes to this capital city of ours that have evolved over the last 50 years. The changes are enormous and always on-going," he said "but these days I take things a bit easier, working a few days a week as a journeyman on DaC, while spending a lot more time on my beloved golf course!" He pointed towards the shelf full of cups, medals and trophies, which bore testament to Michael’s prowess with a club and ball. But to Call Sign, his most remarkable achievement is his 50 years on Dial-a-Cab – and he’s still here…! © Call Sign Magazine MMX1 |
|
 |
Powered by NetXPosure |
| Copyright 1997-2011 Dial-A-Cab Ltd, All rights reserved. |