Passengers remember a New York of decades past

A woman of her mid 30’s and a guy in his mid to late 40’s. They were both telling of their New Yorker status, despite going from one hotel to another. The woman recalls sitting on the steps of a church we passed, “everyday, when she was a kid.” Than the guy pulls out a big trump card by dishing out this wallop of a tale:

Tale 1-
“I was mugged once at St. Patrick’s.” St. Patrick’s he said. That’s the church that all the tourists go to, the most famous cathedral in New York City.

“No it was in the church,” he said in response to the obvious question setting up the answer.

He said he was confronted by a man who said he was possessed by the devil, he needed to tell him something and so they went in to the corner, where the man then punched him in the head and took off. The guard came running up to him saying, “Come on let’s go get him.” And he was like, “Are kidding me, I’m on the floor here.”

“So you what did he take?” She asked

“Oh he took nothing.”

Tale 2-
Then just before we arrive at our destination, he invites me into this one, and tells me an even more incredible story. “You know what, you’re gonna like this one.” He told me.

A while back he took this cab ride that he’ll never forget in New York. He remembered that the driver was driving ridiculously crazy, missing babies, dogs, women and children, the thing. He points out a few of these near misses, and was rather frightened at first. The cab driver as he drove, banged his hands on the dashboard continuously, and he thought this driver might be high on cocaine. Eventually after so many near misses between the driver and all of New York, he grew comfortable and figured the driver knew what he was doing.

Then as the driver was going through Times Square, he came right up to the scene of a car accident with the police already there. And wham, he trapped the officer between the taxi and the car already pulled over. The cop pulled out his gun and aimed it at him, the passenger, and demanded he open the glove compartment and hand the registration information over. The cop then demanded the driver’s wallet, and after he took all of the driver’s cash, he let him go.

“When did this happen?” I asked

“That’s a good question,” he replied, “I think it was in 93’”

I reply, “wow that’s kinda recent, I guess the city was still a little skeezy back then.”

Then he recalls, “Oh wait, I think it was in 86’.”

“Oh,” I say, “Those were the cocaine years.”

“Oh yeah definitely,” the girl confirms.