Boiler Room Job

On my way to busking at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, a blue eyed guy offered to take my busking gear up the four flights of stairs, all by himself. Usually I hold one end and the volunteer holds the other. But he just lifted the whole thing by himself. “I work out”, he said.

On the subway platform a lady stood by me. “Cold”, she said. Turns out she is from Bangladesh, where it never gets cold. She has been in New York City for a year, with her husband and three kids. Her English is limited, but she is very friendly.

At the ferry terminal, the sanitation manager told me that all his workers are disabled people. He works for a company which trains and finds jobs for the disabled. He himself is tired of working with people (any kind of people). He almost got a job upstairs, in the boiler room, where he wouldn’t have had to deal with people, but because of the economy they froze this job.