Howard Ehrlichman writes book about years of driving a Yellow Cab in Pittsburgh

You’ve hailed a cab. No. 125 pulls up.

In his book “Not a Bad Trip: A Pittsburgh Cab Story,” the driver will take you on some of the thousands of trips he has made throughout his career.

Howard “Howie” Ehrlichman of Wilkins slid behind the wheel of a Checker Cab for Pittsburgh Yellow Cab in the summer of 1977. He chauffeured passengers from actress Stockard Channing to everyone’s neighbor, Fred Rogers.

“People think cab drivers are idiots but we aren’t,” he said. “We are the smartest people. We are like bartenders and hairdressers — people tell us stories. I want to erase the unfair, negative perceptions and stereotypes often ascribed to cab drivers.”

Courtesy of Howard “Howie” Ehrlichman

Howard “Howie” Ehrlichman of Wilkins poses with several copies of his book “Not a Bad Trip: A Pittsburgh Cab Story.”

First stop

Ehrlichman initially drove a cab to offset college expenses at Penn State. On his first night, the two-way radio dispatcher gave him the “OK” for a pickup at the former high-end Poli’s restaurant in Squirrel Hill. He had never dined at the popular restaurant but knew of it from living nearby in East Liberty, Squirrel Hill and Greenfield.

“Now, I’m rolling there for a cab trip; this is kind of cool!” Ehrlichman wrote in the opening chapter.

He took the couple to Pittsburgh’s North Side, South Side and then to a public housing project. The male companion got out. Ehrlichman continued driving the female down the street.

She left and told him she would be right back.

Ehrlichman went to look for her and found himself in an intense situation. He called Signal Four — the call for help — and police showed up.

He never got his fare, but that didn’t dissuade him. As he left the cab garage that night, he noticed all the yellow cars lined up along the chain-link fence.

“Just like successful writers, cab drivers need to be a good reader of their environment,” Ehrlichman said. “They need to know about traffic and their surroundings. Is this a safe situation? Cab driving has always been a risky enterprise. It is not a profession for everyone. A cab driver needs to be able to read people. Even after that first night, one thing I knew for sure was I wanted to get back in a cab again. Being in the cab was an adventure.”

Second stop

Another pick-up at Poli’s in spring 1979 included three men and a woman. Channing, who played Rizzo in “Grease,” was in the back seat. She informed Ehrlichman they were in Pittsburgh for a film with fish and basketball.

“The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh” came out later that year.

“I told her how much I loved that movie (‘Grease’), adding that she was my favorite character,” Ehrlichman wrote.

He never found out who the men were, although he suspected they were basketball players because they were tall.

Third stop

In the early 1980s, Ehrlichman found himself on the picket line. He joined strikers to create a jitney service to provide rides in personal cars. Ehrlichman used his 1980 Toyota Corolla and leased a friend’s 1973 AMC Matador.

One jitney customer was Rogers.

“Mr. Rogers was just as he was on television, truly a nice guy,” Ehrlichman said.

Fourth stop

On a sunny day in July 2014, Ehrlichman took a trip to The Promised Land — the name cab drivers give the airport. A California passenger wanted to go to Beaver Falls cemetery to visit the graves of his grandparents and his father’s siblings. There were three weathered tombstones. One was baby Elizabeth — she had lived for just one day.

The passenger handed Ehrlichman $200 and said “thank you.”

“I promised to share this story, as it was rewarding for me as well; far beyond the $200,” Ehrlichman wrote. “I recalled those … graves. Elizabeth was granted only a single day a century ago. It was likely not a good day at all. How lucky we all are for every single day.”

Fifth stop

Ehrlichman wrote about a trip for four young people in September 2013 from Shadyside to Pittsburgh’s South Side. Two of the passengers attempted to bring drinks into the cab.

“Open containers ain’t cool in the cab,” Ehrlichman wrote, adding that they asked him how long he’s been driving a cab and about the craziest thing that happened to him.

He thought he had seen so much it could probably fill a book. They told him he better write it and that they’d buy that book. The fare was $10.65. They gave him $20.

“Check your local bookstores in a few years, I’ll promise to dedicate a chapter to you guys!” Ehrlichman wrote, which he did.

Final thoughts

In between driving a cab, he operated The Green Grocer, a fresh produce store in Squirrel Hill, and was a bus operator and supervisor for Port Authority of Allegheny County (now Pittsburgh Regional Transit). He watched yellow cabs disappear as the company rebranded in 2016 to app-based zTrip Taxi.

Ride-sharing impacted the business. You just don’t see that many cabs around anymore, Ehrlichman said. His goal is for the reader to learn more about Pittsburgh after reading the book than they had any idea of beforehand.

“This book grabs you,” said Francine Costello, who with her husband Tom co-owns Word Association Publishers in Tarentum, which published the book. “Howie is such a good storyteller, savvy and intelligent. He knows the area. I imagine it was truly not a bad trip when you rode in Howie’s cab.”

Ehrlichman will give a presentation at 7:30 p.m. on March 12 for the Squirrel Hill Historical Society at the Church of the Redeemer, 5700 Forbes Ave., Squirrel Hill. The event will be available on YouTube from the Squirrel Hill Historical Society in a few weeks. Details are available at squirrelhillhistory.org

The book is $18.95 and available from Completely Booked in Murrysville, Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and from the publisher at wordassociation.com.