by Jess McCuan

photos by Rebecca D’Angelo

Western North Carolinians aren’t exactly in the habit of taking cabs. At least not like New Yorkers are, or even Chicagoans or folks who live in Washington, D.C. But there are several cab companies here, and they employ a handful of women drivers whose on-the-job experiences seem as bizarre and wide-ranging as any big-city driver’s. Dana Gabaree, who works the night shift at Checker Cab in Hendersonville, says an Australian couple once regaled her with tales of the kangaroos living in their backyard. Felicia Dorsey, at Your Cab II in Asheville, says one woman didn’t want a ride at all—she wanted Dorsey to go to the drive-up window at McDonald’s and fetch her a #2 combo. Pam McCall, who owns City Cab in Brevard, says a passenger once offered her a line of cocaine as a tip. 

Pam McCall, 51, City Cab, Brevard

In April, McCall bought City Cab from her parents, who had owned the business for 21 years. Since many of her clients are elderly people whom she and her family have known for years, McCall has learned their habits. “We have one woman who goes every Thursday between noon and 1 to have her hair done. If she doesn’t call me, I call her,” she says. Most clients also don’t mind if McCall stops along the way to pick up her grandchildren from school.  

She does get the occasional oddball request—to swing by a liquor store, for example, which she’s not allowed to do by law—or to help someone who’s stranded without any money. One morning she saw a man lying by the side of a major road. She got out and the man asked her to help him up, but she knew better and called the police. 

McCall feels particularly gratified if she can help a passenger talk through a problem. A few years ago, a woman who was getting a ride to Asheville noticed McCall’s gospel CD in the car. “I asked her if she’d like to listen to it, and she started crying. She said, ‘Will you pray with me? I’d like to straighten out my life.’” They prayed in the car, and McCall says the woman kept in touch and now goes to church in Brevard. Driving a cab “doesn’t pay a whole lot,” she says, “but the people you meet are great.”

Felicia Dorsey, 35, Your Cab II, Asheville

Your Cab II is a family-owned operation just off Patton Avenue in Asheville, and Dorsey’s mom and dad, Georgia and Tracey Jefferson, have both driven cabs. Dorsey, a mother of four who also sells insurance, has been driving cabs since 2002, and she always finds it interesting. She picks up clients from the Grove Park Inn and has a ready list of recommendations for downtown restaurants and bars. She’s intrigued to see the before-and-after transformation when someone is dressed up for, say, a fancy New Year’s Eve party and then gets a ride home again afterwards. She’s heard lewd stories and relationship confessions and, occasionally, really good jokes. One older male passenger is always telling Dorsey he’d take her out for a whiskey if he was just 20 years younger. “The older people are sweet,” she says. “Every now and then somebody will call who’s off the hook or drunk, but I don’t ever feel unsafe.”

Dana Gabaree, 45, Checker Cab, Hendersonville

If you fight in Dana Gabaree’s cab,    she will make you sing. Normally, her radio is tuned to Kiss Country, 99.9 FM. But she will turn the dial to whatever it takes to break up a fight. “If they get rowdy, I tell them, ‘No fighting in the cab.’ If couples get into a fight, they have to sing. That’s the policy,” she says. (The song “Sweet Home Alabama” does the trick every time, whether anyone’s fighting or not.) Gabaree, who worked as a manager at a KFC in Burlington, Vermont, moved to Hendersonville to care for her ailing grandmother and started driving a cab five years ago. Now, Gabaree and her husband have an 18-year-old son, a 13-year-old daughter and an eight-month-old grandson at home. She drives the cab from 5pm to 5am and likes spending days with her family, though she sometimes gets very little sleep—two-hour naps in the mornings and afternoons. “I’m used to the hard work,” she says. “I’ve always worked hard.” 

When calls are slow in the wee hours, she hangs out at Norm’s, a gas station, convenience store and laundromat on Spartanburg Highway, where she likes chatting with a third-shift employee, Sean, who brings in classic country CDs. Pleasant chatter is the key to making people feel comfortable in your cab, Gabaree says. “I always say, ‘Hey, how you doing today,’ or ‘Thanks, have a great night.’ I never let them get in without saying anything between point a and point b.”