Originally published in the S.F. Examiner
on September 5, 2019.
People are strange, but tourists are stranger. Visitors tend to show up in San Francisco with all sorts of crazy notions.
Like the other night, while taking two guys from SFO to the Aloft hotel in Millbrae, one asks the other, “Do you think those trees are real?”
“Maybe,” he responds.
I’m not exactly sure why they’d assume the copse of poplars next to the 101 south on-ramp were fake, but don’t correct them. After all, they’re not talking to me.
I’m just the cab driver. What do I know?
Even though questioning the validity of timber is definitely odd, it’s more peculiar that passengers will wonder aloud about the unknown world and not include me in the conversation.
They can tell from our initial greeting that I’m American and speak the language. So what gives? Are they just talking to hear themselves talk? Do they really want to know the answers to their questions? Perhaps they’re shy. Or maybe I really am chopped liver…
Read the rest here.
[photo by Trevor Johnson]
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