Dear Coop,
I’m leaving the PSFC after 20 years.
For most of that time, I’ve been traveling from Harlem (yes, we lived in the Slope when we joined) to work doubles (I picked up my wife’s shift because it made our life so much easier for only one of us to take time out of a weekend when our boys where young) and shop weekly.
But soon, our second son will leave for college in the fall and having to drive to Brooklyn to shop for two, plus having to work the 5+ hours, is just too much.
I probably could have kept it up because I truly enjoyed working with the same people every four weeks for years. I was the Squad Leader for the Saturday 5:45 a.m. shift, and the one after, for 10-ish years, and our community was organically formed based on the shared reasoning that we decided to wake up at an ungodly hour on a weekend to get our shift out of the way.
But because of COVID-19 and not having regular shifts, I’m giving it up. I know the one constant in NYC is change and everything must adapt to new circumstances, but this one is just too much for me.
I’m not signing up for any new shifts and have enough banked to last late into the summer, so if you read this and happen to see me, let’s catch up, commiserate, and say goodbye.
I miss you already.
Doug Vitarelli
