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Lifelong Delawarean Jim Fagg, better known to many locals as Taxi Driver, is a gruff, out-spoken man with a distinctive voice and a heart of gold.
Fagg got his nickname when he began an ongoing dialogue with WGMD radio host Dan Gaffney more than a decade ago.
”I used to drive all night long,” said Fagg. “Then in the morning Dan would be talking about something, and it would irritate me, so I’d call and we’d argue. He started calling me Taxi Driver.”
Although not everyone agrees with what this Lewes resident has to say, there is no doubt he speaks his mind. “I’ll wear my ‘Welcome to America. Please speak English’ T-shirt to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) on purpose because I like to get reactions,” he laughed. “People perceive things so differently. I love that.”
Although constantly willing to speak his mind, Fagg said being outspoken can be a two-headed snake. ”Everywhere I go people know my voice.”
Fagg, 41, was born in Wilmington and lived back and forth between there and Dewey Beach, until he moved to Rehoboth Beach with his wife, Carrie, when he was 18 years old. Fagg had a series of jobs from landscaping to working in a gas station until he started his own business, Atlantic Lockouts, in 1999.
“When I first started my business I had a problem with hoping someone would lock their keys in their car so I could make a living,” he said. Then a friend told him he was looking at it the wrong way. He should be hoping that after they get locked out, they find his number. “Perception is a great thing,” he said.
Aside from his business, Fagg spends a great deal of time individually and as a Lions Club member getting himself involved with his community. “If I want to bitch about what’s going on in my neighborhood, I have to be involved with what’s going on in my neighborhood. I am constantly out there.”
Fagg said for most of his life he has volunteered with charities and organized community events. “I just find myself in it. My wife just looks at me and shakes her head.” For instance, Fagg said, he never planned to organize two toy drives this past Christmas. “Well, I never planned on but one, but something came up….”
Fagg helped organize a toy drive for the kids of the National Guard in Milford. He wrapped and delivered presents to families with the help from Rehoboth Pharmacy, Atlantic Cellular, the Indian River Power Plant, Post 28 Ladies Auxiliary and WGMD.
“That’s why I love Sussex County, because they give,” said Fagg. “I’ve been surrounded by these kind of people all my life and just bombarded with good things. Even when it was bad it was pretty darn good.”
Fagg credits the Rehoboth Lions Club for many of his charitable actions. “Very knowledgeable, smart people are in the Lions Club. They know what works, and I’ve been blessed by being invited in.”
In addition to “spontaneous” toy drives, Fagg recently helped set up a fund for a Bill’s Sport Fishing employee recovering from a heart attack, volunteered with the Special Olympics and once every year he buys pizza for the students at Rehoboth Elementary School, his alma mater. “You know it takes $25 to buy that entire school ice cream? It really is the little things you do that count.”
Fagg has dressed as Santa Claus for Christmas parties at the Stockley Center, a facility for people with mental and physical disabilities. “I don’t know how I got roped into that one, but I was a little heavier back then,” Fagg laughed.
Whether it is volunteering to park cars at Coast Day, serving breakfast at Lions Club pancake breakfasts, ringing the bell for Salvation Army or assisting stranded drivers, Fagg is always ready to help.
“In the summertime, if I see someone broken down on Route 1, I’ll stop, give him ice water,” said Fagg, who carries two coolers of water in his truck during the summer months. “I’ll call a tow-truck and drop him off down at Bob Evans where it’s cooler.”
A self-proclaimed humanitarian, Fagg said, “That’s the other side of ‘lower, slower Delaware,’ we’re more laid back and we care more about our community.”
Fagg is a resident who truly does appreciate everything about his community from the local niches to new businesses, the people and the environment. “When I wake up in the morning I want to know what’s going on in Rehoboth, I don’t want to know what happened in Ocean City, I don’t care what happened in Washington, D.C.” Fagg knows his neighbors and wants to take care of the people he knows.
“We get a sunset and a sunrise, we’re so lucky. What do they pay for in New York for a view?”
Growing up Fagg never missed a summer at his family’s home in Dewey Beach and always considered this area his home. “I tell my 10 year-old son, ‘Don’t be deceived about people. We live in a nice place.’”
Fagg runs his business the way he runs his life - never making plans and always ready to help. “Yesterday for instance, a little old lady over at St. George’s Church calls me, says she only has four dollars.” The woman, who locked herself out of her car, was lucky to catch Fagg as he was driving nearby. “I said to her, ‘Have you ever heard of a 15 percent senior discount? Well I usually give a $15 one,’ besides,” added Fagg, “I hadn’t done my good deed for the day.”
Fagg, a man who talks a mile a minute is both modest and proud. He cannot run out of things to say about his community. “I’m a very proud Delawarean. I love my state. Have you ever seen the first star on the flag? That’s me.” Nor can he run out of things to say about his family. “My kids always had a mom and a dad and we’re a minority. We’re very fortunate. My wife and I - we’re soul mates, we were just that lucky.” But he can forget to mention he won Man of the Year from WGMD. Had he not insisted, mid-interview at Dunkin- Donuts, to buy a cup of coffee for someone he recognized, that recent recognition would have gone untold.
“I’m no different than that guy over there,” Fagg said, gesturing across the room, “But I’m proud of my life and I wouldn’t change a thing if I could.”
He says he’s no superman (though he does have a superman sticker on the front of his truck because “there ain’t nobody who can unlock cars better than me.”) but he also claims to be “as local as it gets. I serve put all my money back in my community, I serve my community.”
Fagg said he doesn’t like to make plans because the future doesn’t matter as much as the present. “You can’t take it with you when you go, it’s what you leave behind that matters,” said Fagg. “I’ve never seen a hearse with a trunk.”
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