The memories of that "tool" that her father made a living off of, and how she and her siblings "chipped in" to help get more business for her father, using what they had…translated…
My friend invited me to his place to eat that day, because it was a storefront residence, the parking spots are hard to find, so I'd called a cab. And, as I got into the cab, out of habit, I'd, looked around to see if the car was, clean enough, and, the memories of helping my father cleaned up his cab surfaced to my mind.
In the earlier years, the pays for the servicemen is not enough, my father who'd wanted to make more money filed for early retirement, used the retirement pension, took out the loans, bought a cab to make a living, thought that he would take care of the family of seven then. And yet, it wasn't, as wonderful as he'd imagined it, the cabs are rented out by a company, and he'd had to pay the car loans every month, taking the amount for gas out, because my father was getting older, the company hired another younger man to take the shifts, and he'd demanded not a cent less of pay, and what was left, was only enough for food for all of us. To help my parents with the household economics, I'd started part-timing in high school, to help make our ends meet.
In that era when the cabs weren't equipped with the air-conditioning yet, it surely wasn't wonderful in the heat of the summertime, riding in a cab, and if the cab is not clean enough, then, the customers wouldn't want to ride again. To help the clients have a good impression, or for them to remember my father's license plate, my younger brothers and I would always, wash the cab early in the morn on Sundays, to finish cleaning by nine, so my father could start working.
her father's cab...photo from online
My younger brother in middle school and my youngest brother in the elementary years, were in charge of the exterior, I, in charge of the interior. I'd once heard my younger brother told my youngest brother, "we have it easy, cleaning the exterior, older sister is doing the interior, especially the top, the handles, she'd needed to lift her head up all this time, that's, what's, trying." I was so moved as I'd heard him. But, compared to my father, who basically sat inside an oven, driving the customers around, I had it, easy, because we only washed his cab once every week.
After several year, no matter what season, the three of us siblings, "worked hard cleaning the cars", and helped our father get more customers, and this, was the only thing we can, do. After I was married, I'd moved out from my parents' home, two years later, I'd given birth to my eldest at Tri-Service General, was about to get discharged from the hospital, there was no freeway then, the distance was too far, from across the county lines, my father who wasn't feeling well, insisted on giving us a lift to Zhongli, where we'd rented a, stay; that was the only time I'd ever ridden my own family's cab, and the final time I'd, seen it too.
Because there was nothing to be made, in the end, the cab was, sold back to the cab company. A little over two years after that, my father was, gone. And, my connections with the cab, starting and ending, marked, that unforgettable time in my, younger, years.
And so, this is, what the cab meant to you, it wasn't, just a livelihood for your family, but also, it'd carried that depth of memories to you, because you'd worked hard, to make your father's cab look clean, so people would want to ride in it, and bringing more business to provide for your family.
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