Ask a New Yorker: What’s your name and what do you do? Well, I guess
it’s pretty obvious what you do, but could you tell us anyway?
Brandon: I’m Brandon, and I drive a horse drawn carriage through Central
Park.
Ask a New Yorker: How long have you been doing this?
Brandon: 25 years.
Ask a New Yorker: That’s serious amount of….wow. So you’ve
seen plenty of changes here in the city.
Brandon: Yes I have. Mostly good. I have to say NYC since 1981 has improved
dramatically as a place to live and do business. And I can thank both the Giuliani
and Bloomberg administrations. I have tremendous admiration for Michael Bloomberg,
particularly on a point that I discovered recently, he is the eighth most generous
citizen in the United States.
Ask a New Yorker: And your business is seasonal?
Brandon: The summer months you have a more even flow each day. During the Fall
in tends to polarize, in other words weekends become stronger and the middle
of the week dips a bit.
Ask a New Yorker: What’s your horse’s name?
Brandon: Alex.
Ask a New Yorker: How long have you had Alex?
Brandon: Alex I bought July
Ask a New Yorker: What’s the term hansom carriage all about?
Brandon: Hansom cab is a misnomer slapped on by poor quality journalism. Hansom,
Mr. J.A. Hansom, who was a London based manufacture of carriages. What he created
was what you would call a Sherlock Holmes type cab were you would have two wheels
and the driver would be sitting up a brig behind the passenger. None of these
here that you see are Hansom cabs. These are vis- a- vis carriages from France,
face to face.
Ask a New Yorker: How many wedding proposals have you witnessed?
Brandon: I’d say in approximately 25 years I’ve done 32 –
33 thousand rides. How many proposals? I have no idea. None. I can’t think
of another job where I can sit on my butt all day, bullshit, and make a reasonable
amount of money. Unless I was a politician or a lawyer. And law school looks
a little difficult once they start pulling the skeletons out of my closet. No
one’s electing me for anything.
Ask a New Yorker: Ever been mugged or held up?
Brandon: I think people in the western world, generally, have their thinking
processes shaped by movies. They’re shaped by the television screen. It’s
very Orwellian. It’s very 1984. It only takes repetitive episodes of NYP
Blue or Law and Order. The number of tourist that will get into the carriage
and say, ‘Where do they keep the bodies in the park?’ And I’ll
say, ‘Lady that was on Law and Order” and they’ll go,”
Well that was based on reality isn’t it?’ And I’ll say that
there is a disclaimer at the end of every show that says it’s not based
on reality. Statistically there is very little crime in Central Park.
Ask a New Yorker: What kind of horse is Alex?
Brandon: A Percheron. A French breed of horse that was bred in the middle ages
for the Hundred Years War for the fight against England. The English bred the
Shire. The reason they bred the Shire, it’s a little like a Clydesdale,
it was used for Mid-evil combat. You wanted a horse that was placid and kept
going forward despite the noise of battle and would not rear. The Shire was
brought by the English for that purpose; it was the forerunner of the tank.
They became of course redundant with gun powder . And you wanted one that could
carry the armor. And the Percheron was bred by the French to counteract the
English.
Ask a New Yorker: You’re quite the historian. What are you reading now?
Brandon: What an interesting question! I’m reading a book on, what it
was like to be a navel seaman in Nelson’s navy in the beginning of the
19th century.
Ask a New Yorker: Are you married?
Brandon: Was. My status is ‘deliriously divorced’…because
I like the alliteration.
Ask a New Yorker: So these are the rates for a ride?
Brandon: Since 1988.
Ask a New Yorker: Why has there not been an increase?
Brandon: Because I think every time you approach the city of New York they
want to see further restrictions on how you earn your money. It doesn’t
take a genius to see that everything in New York city has gone up in price in
the last 18 years. It really isn’t a question I can answer. Personally
I think it should be slotted in such a way that there’s an automatic increase.
This is truly one of the great bargains in the city. $34 dollars between 4 people
is not a lot of money…A much better deal than an 11 minute $115 helicopter
ride.
Ask a New Yorker: Let’s end with the ‘stupidest questions’
tourists ask?
Brandon: Good question….”O.K ladies and gentleman, over on the
left hand side we have a view the Dakota Building where John Lennon used to
lived.” Tourist: “So you mean he doesn’t live there any more?”
Here’s another….”On the left hand side here we have a nice
statue of William Shakespeare, on the literary walk here we also have Robert
Burns, Walter Scott “…Tourist: “Is that were they buried Shakespeare?”
My favorite, which always comes from Californians and Floridians, is: “Are
these rocks real?”, or “How many pigeons are there in Central Park?”
Ask a New Yorker: Brandon, thanks for your time. Giddy up!
