Jess Garay, an avid thrifter, is “always hunting for a treasure” when shopping for vintage clothing. But earlier this month in Amagansett, she found one she is sure she will never be able to top.
Ms. Garay, who lives in Denver, was on the South Fork for a “girls’ weekend” with her family. Her cousins had learned that Hampton Vintage would be holding a show at the American Legion Hall when she was in town, and knew that she would want to go.
“So that’s how we all came to be going to this,” she began. She went straight to the men’s booths, as is her practice (the clothes “just fit” better), and as she started to go through the racks she came across a thick black polyester jersey. She stopped to look at it, and saw, written across the front in bold red letters, “Rahway” — the name of the city in New Jersey where she, and much of her family, were born and raised.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to get this,’ “ she recalled. She pulled it from the rack, and as she held it up to show her family members, she noticed that the red letters on the back spelled out “Garay” — her last name. “And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m definitely getting it.’ “ Finally, she spotted the initial “K” next to her last name, and all at once realized whose jersey she was holding.
Her cousin Keith Garay had died of cancer in November of 1981, when he was just 24. “I never met him, because I wasn’t born yet when he passed, but my little brother was named after him,” she said. “My father and Keith were thick as thieves. They were best friends.” Right away she called her cousins Kim Garay Wells and Sharon Dowling — Keith’s sisters — over to see. “And then it just kind of blew up from there. It got really emotional.”
“It was just so shocking,” recalled Ms. Wells. “It’s literally like finding a needle in a haystack. And the fact that all of us cousins were at this thing when we found it, it was almost like a sign, like from God or something. It was just weird.”
“When Jess held up the shirt she first showed the front, and we were all kind of like, ‘Yeah, Rahway, our hometown, how funny is that?’ “ added Ms. Dowling. “Then, when she flipped it over . . . I still have goosebumps. I’m not going to lie, I busted into tears. Our brother has been gone for, like, 44 years. And what are the odds of coming across his shirt — in the Hamptons, of all places?”
The proprietor of the booth, Stevie Wright, had watched the scene unfold. “To actually see somebody experience that was just . . . you can imagine how many times I’ve told the story in the last week. It just means a lot to me,” he said. “They were like, ‘How much do you want?’ and I said, ‘It’s yours, it’s not mine.’ It was emotional.”
Originally from Scotland, Mr. Wright moved to Jersey City 11 years ago and got into vintage clothing a few years later. He came across the jersey in the summer of 2019 at a vintage shop in Hoboken that sources clothing from estate sales all over New Jersey, and had worn it every summer since. “Anything I buy is sentimental — I don’t just buy things to sell,” he explained. “Literally, when I would go away on vacation, that was the first thing that went in my bag every time.”
Mr. Wright had reluctantly decided to put the jersey out for sale earlier that week. The month before, at the vintage market in Bridgehampton, a customer had bought 62 items from his collection — a “nice problem to have,” but his stock had been depleted considerably. He considered telling the organizer he would not be able to make it to the Amagansett show.
“But I said, ‘I’m going to be tough on myself. There are things that I wear a lot, and really like, but this weekend I’m going to move them on’ — and one of them was that basketball jersey,” he said. “So you see how the whole thing links?”
After Mr. Wright gave the jersey to the family, he shared some of his own history with it. “He showed us pictures of him in it,” Ms. Garay said. “He wore it and treasured it as well. He was like, ‘My wife loves when I wear this shirt.’ “ (His wife was “over the moon” when she learned the story, he later assured them.)
Ms. Dowling ultimately took the jersey home. “My brother was involved in boxing, and I have a poster of him that my uncle gave me — he’s one of the boxers,” she said. “I figured I would put it in a frame and stick them right next to each other.”
Mr. Wright and Ms. Garay have stayed in touch, and have tentative plans to meet for dinner if he is ever in Colorado. “You often hear about tragedy, and all the horrible coincidences that led up to it. Well, here’s a brilliant coincidence that led to a great story,” he said. “When you share a story like that, it means something.”
