"The Yellow Ball"

I was about 4 at the time of this story...

It was very early on a Sunday morning in the summer, I was on the stoop with grandpa and he asked if I wanted to go for a walk....We took off and started to walk toward the East River....
( Let me give you a little background on the location of 521..as you walked out the front door, down the stoop and turned right the East River was only a block and half away....) When we reached the waters edge grandpa looked down and said, look as he pointed into the water..he held my hand and I stood on the wooden log, which was the only barrier between the street and the water.....all I saw was a big yellow ball under the water....he kept looking and looking and said, that is a taxi.
I had no idea was a taxi was and I guess I did not ask.....he took my hand and walked very quickly back toward the house....This part I am not sure about...some where he found a phone and called the police...it had to be in a store on Vernon Blvd or maybe it was in Zia Mariette's bar ( yes she owned a bar)...no one we know had a phone and come to think of it, I don't think I know what a phone was either....I remember we walked back to the river and the police asked grandpa questions..I was in awe of this entire thing.... and at some point a vehicle come..( not sure what it was ) but I do remember someone was in the water and tied a rope to the taxi...we had to stand back as they worked to raise the car. When it was on the ground they opened the door, I remember water running out and the policeman said to the crowd that had congregated..."two people"...I saw the woman as they took her out..she was all white or gray then they covered her....I heard later as grandpa related the story to everyone in the neighborhood.....The driver and a woman passenger in the back seat...were lost...as he drove down 8th street, not knowing the area and as there were no lights warning people of the drop... the taxi went over the log and into the water and both drowned...I was so excited that grandpa and me found it...I saw my first cab, my first dead person and I spent the entire morning with grandpa, who was now the celebrity of 8th street..
I guess that was my first brush with notoriety....