"Forever Young"
Rod Stewart, some musicians, and my friend Mike Trujillo...
Background:
I was teaching at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and moonlighting as a nighttime cab driver whenever I could to help make ends meet. Annie was teaching continuing ed computer classes at the university while pregnant with our son Asa in 2001, and started fainting at work. She wasn’t salaried, and had no benefits, so I needed a second job. What seemed at the time to be a “crisis” became a wonderful episode in my life that still resonates with me today. Out of that experience came a book of short stories and poetry called, uninspiringly, Yellow Cab (paperback or ebook available for order at your local bookstore). It was staged as a play in Albuquerque and had 12 sold-out performances. Ann Wilkinson turned it into a play called “Dead Man’s Curve” at Central College in Pella, and it also played in Des Moines.
Even more significantly, in what I later called a “giant yellow confessional,” I entered a different world most people don’t know about to which I still feel like I belong.
I heard on the radio the other day that Rod Stewart was coming to the Iowa State Fair in August, which made me think of the following story, which is very important to me, but I’ve never told it before. I hope you enjoy it.
I jumped on the call to the DoubleTree in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was late July in 2004. As I pulled in under the canopy, four young women in their 20’s or 30’s waved at me and piled into my Yellow cab. Three sat in the back, and one sat next to me. They told me that they wanted to go to the ABQ Journal Pavilion, an outdoor amphitheater south of town where concerts were held, to go listen to country music star Tim McGraw (these were back in the days when newspapers were profitable enough to put their names on concert venues—it’s called the First Financial Credit Union Amphitheater now).
Bingo, I thought. If I remember correctly, it was about a 50-dollar run, which was a lot of money then and still is.
The women talked all of the way about music and artists they knew. The way they talked with each other made me think that they hadn’t known each other long. They talked about music in ways that I didn’t understand and marvelled at. When they started talking about artists they had played for in the past, I was so, so curious about them; I waited for a lull in their conversation to ask for more details about who they were and why they were in town.
They told me their names that I have since forgotten, and that they were part of Rod Stewart’s band who was going to play at the Pavilion in a couple of days. They told me that they wanted to check out the venue, and that they wanted to learn more about Tim McGraw and his music, on the chance they might be on the stage playing with him someday. My main takeaway was that they were there to learn from McGraw.
As we pulled into the entrance to the Pavilion, the woman sitting next to me asked if I would come back and get them, which would be another 50 bucks, which would be great. I told her I would, but only if they would only get into my cab and not get into another if one was available. When another cab driver steals our fare, we call it “waterhauling,” and say we were “waterhauled" if it happens. The worst name one cab driver could call another was “waterhauler.” We considered “waterhaulers” thieves. I was told the term comes from fishermen, who throw out their nets, haul them in, and find no fish. If you find no fish, you are hauling water.
I explained waterhauling to her, and she promised they would wait. I could tell from her face she was telling me the truth, so I gave her my cell number.
Sure enough, a few hours later she called me, and I picked them up. All the way back to the Doubletree, they talked about the concert in analytical ways I didn’t understand and never will.
As the woman who sat beside me on the way there and back was paying me, she asked if I wanted tickets to the Rod Stewart concert, and that if I did, she would leave two tickets for me at the will-call window.
“Sure,” I said.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Mike Trujillo,” I said.
Mike Trujillo was probably my best fellow cab driver friend. I’m not sure why I said his name, but I knew that I couldn’t go to the concert because I had to be driving my cab to make money. And his name just popped into my head. It turns out he wanted to go.
A couple of days after the concert, I saw Mike about three in the morning in the predictable lull that happens after the bars close and before airport runs start. We parked our cars close together where we could talk to each other through our driver’s side windows and still listen to and answer our radios. I asked him if he had enjoyed the concert, and if they were good seats. Mike said something like:
“The concert was fantastic, the seats were in the second row so we could see everything, and I took my ex-wife, and you don’t know this, Bob, but we lost a baby years ago, which is probably part of the reason she’s my ex-wife, and our song ever since the baby died is “Forever Young,” and so when Rod sang it, we held hands and cried so thank you.
And here’s Rod singing “Forever Young,” and if you listen, the words will take on new meaning, maybe.
p.s. If you follow Iowa politics, you will appreciate the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative podcast Iowa Down Ballot with Dave Price, Kathie Obradovich, and Laura Belin. I listen and learn every week.
p.p.s. I’d love to see you at the Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat in September. It’s a life-changing event, and there’s still time to register!
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I’m a proud member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please check out our recent work here. I also publish Cedar Creek Nature Notes, about Violet the Dog and my adventures on our morning walks at Cedar Bluffs Natural Area in Mahaska County, Iowa.
I’m also proud to announce I’m partnering with my friend Nathan Sage, former Democratic candidate for Senate in Iowa, and Spencer Dirks in a new podcast/video hosted on Substack and YouTube called Sage Against the Machine. If you enjoy my political writing, you will enjoy Sage Against the Machine.
And I’m now on TikTok as a member of the Iowa Creator Corp, believe it or not. Here you go.
Thank you Robert, that's a lovely story. And great that you thought of your colleague Mike Trujillo. If you don't need something, it's always good to share it.
Thanks Dr. Bob. Music is very important to me and many others. Now I have to get up and get tissues.
Don't stop, stories are also very important.