Greed and Folding on the Campaign Trail

     
     While in Charlotte to photograph the Democratic National Convention, I experienced bad and good sides of human nature.
     Motel owners jacked up their rates. For example, a motel that normally charged forty-five dollars per night asked for one hundred-and-seventy. No way I'd pay that much.
     I found a low budget motel willing to charge its normal rate. But with a catch. The owner required me to call him late each day. He needed the daylight hours to book the rooms with suckers willing pay usurious rates. If he filled the rooms, I'd be out of luck. As it turned out, not many fish took his bait. He accepted my lower payments.
     One night a woman appeared at my door. She said, "What are you doing in there all alone?" I told her I was getting ready to sleep, adding "I know what's going on and I'm not interested." Hearing that, the prostitute departed.
     Some parking lots near the convention arena charged thirty dollars per day. But not all. One lot situated farther out charged five dollars. That place got my business.
     Inside the convention arena, a standard sized bottle of water cost $4.50. I drank from water fountains.
     At the end of the second session, the temperature in the upper seats had gotten hot. Thirsty people mobbed a concession stand before leaving. A man walked over to me with a dazed expression. He told me the concessionaires had hosed him for $7.50 for one bottle of water.
     Greed on top of greed.
    The good side of humanity revealed itself inside a laundromat. I asked a woman, a fellow customer, if she'd keep an eye on my clothes. Would she be willing, later on, to transfer my clothes from a washer to a dryer, and feed some coins into the slot? In return for this assistance, I told her I'd pay the cost of drying her own clothes.
     This arrangement would enable me to go somewhere for lunch, retrieve dry clothes, and get to the arena before the convention proceedings resumed.
     The woman agreed to the deal.
     When I got back to the laundromat she was gone. I walked up to the dryer. My jaw dropped with
amazement. Inside the dryer, my clothes weren't only dry, they were folded in a pile.