COVER STORY
Felicia R. PHOTO BY HANNAH HERNER
Vendor Quarantine Stories By Hannah Herner
PAUL A. Paul A. normally sells papers at the corner of 5th Avenue and Church Street downtown Nashville. He’s strategically placed within a block of the Contributor office so that he can come in and visit with the volunteers and enjoy some temperature-controlled air. Pre-COVID, he was in the vendor office almost every day. He has COPD, a disease that compromises his lungs. Last year at this time, he was camping under the Jefferson Street bridge. Paul has been self-isolating in his apartment since mid-March and hasn’t left except for trips to the doctor. When the UPS driver told me the Batman building was shut down for heavy duty cleaning, and he told me it was probably COVID, I started staying in. Some of my customers work in that building. I was noticing that downtown was starting to dry out. I noticed less people. It’s been miserable. It drives me nuts to be stuck in here. I’ve been watching T.V., that’s about it. I’ve been watching the mayor’s press conference every day. I’ve been watching a lot of movies, but that’s about it. You can’t go nowhere, can’t do nothin’. It’s been important to stay up on the news so I know what we’re looking at. What scares me now is these kids are starting to
come down with respiratory disease after the COVID. That scares me a little bit. It really makes me wonder what’s really going on. I miss my customers. I miss talking to some of these people and getting different perspectives. I want to be back out there with my customers, but at this point I’m not taking any chances. But I will be back soon. I think if I had better protective gear than that I’ve got, I could get back out there. With my COPD it makes it hard for me to wear a mask, but if we could get the masks with the respirators on them, I think it would work better. It’s just harder to breathe when I have something over my face. As far as getting tested, it burns a little bit when they do it. But it’s good to be tested. I got that first test, and went back this week to get another test. I go to the clinic over here. It was free. It takes two or three days to get the results. People are not wearing masks like they should be. They need to make that mandatory. I probably would have gotten sick and died if I was still out there camping. ANTHONY G. Anthony G. has been consistently selling papers in the evenings outside of Osborne’s
Bi-Rite on Belmont Blvd. He says his sales have actually been up a bit. Even since the pandemic hit and non-essential businesses had to shut down, the grocery store stayed busy. He wears a cloth mask that he pulls up when a customer approaches. I put my mask on, and I just make friends with the people. You aren’t selling just the paper, you’re selling yourself. I compliment them on their clothes — anything to start a conversation. I’ve been a consistently high seller. It’s a grocery store, so it stayed open. I buy 50 papers at a time. What does that tell you? It’s more than normal. This is my honey hole right now, because all my other honey holes are closed down. All the bars are closed. I sell at Old Glory. I sit right there in the breezeway right by the gate and the girls tell the men to give me money, and the men do it because they’re trying to impress the girls. It works out for me. He gets laid, I get paid. I’m in a hotel right now. I got off the phone with my caseworker today and went over to the [Veterans Affairs office] to fill out an application for a new apartment. I’m saving up my Venmo money and that’ll be my utility money. I thank The Contributor because it keeps
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money in my pocket, but I be on my hustle. You gotta admit I be on my hustle. If you’re buying 100 papers a week, you ain’t buying them for nothing. I can’t wait for this pandemic to be over with and the world can be back to what it used to be. TYRONE M. Tyrone has been selling at the intersection of Gallatin Pike and Douglas Avenue consistently throughout the COVID-19 changes, though he’s cut back a bit on his hours and number of papers bought. I wear a mask when I go outside, period, always. We were getting less traffic at first until they started opening up phase two of the city’s reopening plan. Most of the churches were online, but then they said it was all right to go back, and the churches started moving. Sunday is a good day for me because everybody is coming out of the church. I go to church on Saturday, which is the Sabbath day. I know people don’t believe in it, but I always have to tell people to find out for themselves. I’m not nervous about anything about the pandemic because first of all, I’m a kingdom child. God doesn’t give no spirit of fear, so there’s nothing for me to worry about. Now I wear my mask. I don’t worry about stuff. If
