Taxi Tales Part One

The ride from O'Hare into Chigaco takes 30 minutes on a good day. In traffic, you can be looking at an hour. I've done this trip a dozen times, and most times it's a long silent ride, the cabbie focused on the road, or the radio, or the cell phone.

Not last month.
The driver talked my ear off all the way with a great story. He had laminated newspaper pages and 8x10 glossy photos to back it up.

I may have heard his name wrong, but I believe he said it was Edward Calypso. Edward, an imigrant from Haiti, a US citizen, living in this country for 37 years, is a big fan of Bill Clinton. So big, that when his son was born a few years ago, he named him "William Jefferson Bill Clinton Calypso." Actually, "Mathew William Jefferson Bill Clinton Calypso." Mathew was his wife's idea.

A few years later, according to Edward, he picked up a fare at O'Hare, they got to talking, and he realized he was driving David Kendall, attorney for Bill Clinton. Of course, Edward told Kendall about his admiration for Clinton and about his son's name.

This would be a good story at this point, but, as taxi stories go, this one gets a lot better. According to Edward, Kendall let the former President know about this gesture of respect out in Chicago, and when Clinton was heading there for a Jesse Jackson Push Excel meeting, he wanted to meet his namesake. So according to my driver, Clinton made a bunch of phone calls, to Calypso's home, his sister's, his taxi office and finally his cell. When the president got the cabbie on the phone, he let Calypso know that he'd be in Chicago the next day and would love to meet little William Jefferson Bill Clinton Calypso.

When the taxi driver and his son arrived at the secure. fenced area of theO'Hare tarmac the next day, he showed his ID to the Secret Service to gain access, and according to him was told, "You don't need ID. We know who you are and everything about you since you were six."

When Clinton disembarked, he walked over, chatted with Edward, talked with William Jefferson Bill Clinton Calypso, and allowed his personal photographer to snap some keepsake photos. In one I saw, President Clinton and seven year old William Jefferson Bill Clinton Calypso are standing toe-to-toe talking, wearing almost identical blue suits, white shirts and red ties.

As I said, I may not have every detail right, but this story is close. If the taxi queue gods see fit, I'll check out all the details someday on another taxi ride from O'Hare.