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why he had such a shitty job
Tuesday, December 3 2002
Today I picked up some scaffolding from a rental place out on 9W heading north towards Saugerties. It was a cold day like all the others of late and I felt a little sorry for the guy whose job it was to load stuff into my truck. He was an older man, maybe in his 50s or 60s, and I wondered how a guy his age could be stuck in such an apparently backbreaking job, especially in a geographic zone subject to harsh weather. Most of my sympathy for the guy disintegrated as I helped him load the stuff. He was completely unfriendly and unpleasant, treating me the way my father used to when he wanted me to do work and didn't think I was willing. Perhaps his poor interpersonal skills had something to do with why he had such a shitty job.
Back at the house, Darren helped me move the scaffolding into the house while some older gentleman from Lowes measured the attic rooms for carpet. After he was gone, Gretchen told Louis, Darren and me about the conversation she'd had with the carpet guy some time before when he'd first arrived. On learning that Gretchen hailed from Brooklyn, he said that he too had moved from Brooklyn back in the 70s after busing started. Gretchen was amazed that anyone would volunteer something so idiotically racist, but she was content to let the matter drop by changing the subject to the business of carpet measuring. But no, the carpet guy kept going with his tale of how forced busing had made him flee the City. Forced to respond to this subject, Gretchen asked, "So you're saying you moved away from Brooklyn because you didn't want your kids to go to school with black kids?" Yes, that was right. Gretchen rolled her eyes and thought, "Okay then, can you just measure the damn carpet?"
Some time later I took Gretchen to the Kingston bus station so she could spend another lucrative day doing organizational work for various disorganized ladies in Manhattan.
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