by Beatrice Elpern
On April 18, 1912, my father, Albert Zuflacht, was 20 years old and working at Gimbels department store on 33rd Street in New York City.
He was approached that day, and asked if he knew how to operate an electric car.
He answered honestly. “No.”
“Well,” they said, “you will learn.”
And he did.
That very day, he drove the electric car, filled with blankets from the store on 33rd Street, to Pier 54 in Manhattan. The Hudson River pier at Little West 12th Street was where survivors of the Titanic disaster would be brought by the Carpathia that evening, three days after the “unsinkable” ship sunk on its maiden voyage.
I often wonder if learning to drive that day led to my father’s career choice.
My father became one of the first taxicab drivers in New York City. It was he and several other drivers who successfully lobbied for taxicab insurance in the city. And when the bill was passed, he became president of the first taxicab insurance company in this country: The 20th Century Taxicab Insurance Company.
That company eventually went bankrupt in the Great Depression, but he remained in the taxicab insurance business for the rest of his working years.
There was a time when every cab driver in New York City knew the name Albert Zuflacht.
Author Bio: Betty Zuflacht Elpern resides in Bronxville, N.Y. only six miles from where she grew up in the Bronx. Her memories tie us to a time our young readers can only marvel at. You may email her at BZE.