Moderate Living

It’s been 4 years since 2020. We all know what that year was but for me, the events of that year led to circumstances in Kingston, New York that I still have a hard time wrapping my head around today.

Everytime this date comes around, I reflect on it. This was the day where I was economically VIOLATED. I can’t even call it getting ripped off, I was completely run amuck, bamboozled, etc.

I was working in the mountains of upstate New York at the time. The weather was absolutely scorching, even 1100ft above sea level. I was landscaping and doing work on roofs getting beat up from the sun – just absolute mayhem for my clothes. At the worst possible time, the washing machine I was using there broke and I already had a pile of clothes accumulating. It was at a point where handwashing it was no longer an option and anyone qualified to fix a washing machine was on vacation for the Independence Day holiday.

Trudging down the mountains was such a bear in and of itself given my schedule and I had to be really efficient with my time. Kingston, New York was a one stop shop location that had all the stores I needed for groceries and additional items and boxer shorts – the latter of which I was in dangerously short supply of.

I figured that the Kohl’s department store was the perfect place to get said boxer shorts. I didn’t even look at the tag as I already wanted to go back home. I was tired and sweaty from the day. When the cashier rung the purchase up, I had to ask him if there was a mistake in the price. A pack of boxer shorts can’t surely be that expensive. He scanned it again and confirmed to me that it was indeed the price.

Being in Kingston, far from where I was staying I could have certainly just left. But the thought of having to stay up and handwash my clothes (there was also a problem with the local town’s laundromat) was just too unbearable to me. And at 6:00pm with the sun starting to go down, I knew the mountain roads were going to get that much darker and narrower the longer I stayed in the city looking for a better price. I begrudgingly handed over my bank card and confirmed the purchase.

I believe that out of that pack, there are only 2 pairs that I have retained to this day. I don’t know if I would have done anything differently if I had the chance. Probably the only thing I would have done was just drive to Albany instead. 😂

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-q6xMJVr/0/MHFp8tJzgd4ZbsgHsf58Hz4CqtpRpQjcqNGXWcNgT/O/i-q6xMJVr.jpg