Paper Chase

Paper Chase
Originally uploaded by Richard Gugins

This is a receipt for almost twenty thousand dollars in student loan money. Back in 1982 I was a cab driver right up until Mr. Fuddle duddle ended economic prosperity in western Canada with his National Energy Program. Overnight the money dried up and it simply was not possible to make a living on the streets any more. So I went back to school, university to be precise, the only place other than the taxi that I had ever felt comfortable. Neither the university campus nor taxiland have much to do with reality. They both exist on the fringes of our society.

I spent three years getting a four year degree. Then, when it was all over and I was about to graduate, a whirlwind, tsnami, whatever you want to call her, swept back into my life and tipped everything downside up. Certain women can do that to all of us. For every man there's one woman he is simply helpless in front of. Like a deer in the headlights we're trapped. The summer of '85 was like that. In the end I left the campus and went back to taxiland, my other comfort zone.

So what was the paper chase all about? Just to prove I could I guess. Not to my friends or even my family so much as myself. After six years in the taxi I came back and got a degree. Okay, it wasn't the one I started out to get back in '71 but it was a degree never-the-less. What did it mean? Not one damned thing. That's right, nothing. By October of 1985 I was back driving and while the economy had picked up a bit, things did not improve much until the '88 winter games. Still, taxiland had welcomed me back just as it always did and for several more years I was comfortable there.