The 77-year-old D.C. resident has been driving a cab on local streets for more than 50 years, even while working a day job for 36 years at the old U.S. Soldiers’ Home. After retiring from his federal job, he’s still behind the wheel. You must know the roads back and forth.
You’ve got that right.
A lot of drivers are using GPS devices. What do you think of those?
Well, it’s good for the fellows that have to have it. It would be a total nuisance to me. If I didn’t know the city as good as I do right now, I would have quit a long time ago. This is something I totally love to do.
Why do you love it?
It’s therapy for me. … I like to keep my mind rolling all the time. I don’t want my brain to take a lunch break.
Have you driven anyone famous?
I had a lot of people but I didn’t know their names. I just have a conversation. But I had some professional ball players that played with the [former] Los Angeles Rams. … There was four of them.
Not all at once, right? How would they fit?
All of them got in my cab at one time. Actually I was throwing sparks down the street.
Do you think you’ve been driving longer than anyone else?
I don’t know but I do believe it to be a fact. … There was one guy I met at the cabstand and he said he’d been driving for 47 years. And I said ‘I got you beat. I’ve got you by about four years.'”
How often do you drive?
Out of seven days, maybe five days or seven out of seven. But I don’t work the long hours that I used to, and I definitely don’t do it at night.
How long are you going to keep at it?
I’m going to drive a cab until I can’t do it.
— Kytja Weir
— Kytja Weir
