Vignettes of Poughkeepsie: Stewart’s Shop, State Route 55, Wednesday, February 1, 6:34 a.m.

I recently started working at a horse farm. If you know anything about horse farms, or farms in general, you know that the day begins at the crack of dawn and ends when the stalls are clean and the horses are fed and the horseback riding lessons are over with. It’s only natural that at the beginning of this kind of work day, a person needs some coffee and First Breakfast (this was meant to be a purely Lord of the Rings reference, but after further investigation it turns out that First and Second Breakfast is a common practice among people in Bavaria, Poland, and Hungary; and also in North American farming areas — so take it however you’d like).

What better place to find these necessities quickly and cheaply, but upstate’s very own Stewart’s Shops? I’ve been around Stewart’s my entire life, and it’s taken me until my senior year of college to appreciate its value. On this particular morning, the Stewart’s off of Route 55 (right before the border of the Town of Poughkeepsie and LaGrange) is a bustling place. Every car that’s parked in front of the store is a pick-up truck, and each human that steps out of one of these pick-up trucks is some variation of a burly looking male, wearing a yellow-hued Carhartt jacket and muddy work boots. Aside from the male part, I fit in.

The sun is barely up, but the inside of the shop glows with fluorescent lighting and neon signs, both of which accent the myriad of candy wrappers, drink labels, and chip bags sitting neatly on their shelves, seducing customers with colorful packaging and an equally appealing sugar content. I go for the coffee counter. Today there’s vanilla, hazelnut, chocolate raspberry, and decaf. There’s also four regular pots sitting on their burners. I can’t comprehend why anyone would want decaf at this hour of the day, but they have it brewing despite my personal resentment. I pour myself a cup, add a splash of 2% milk and half a packet of sugar, and stir. There’s a breakfast pizza in the heating case next to the coffee, and the sign saying “99 Cents per Slice!” tempts me. I decide against it, mainly because I have exact change for the coffee, which is $1.30. I learn from the attentive, perky blond female ringing me up that had I filled up my gas tank, the coffee would have been 10% off.

Good to know for Second Breakfast, am I right?