Vendors
VENDOR PROFILE
Feeding Frenzy
Ted Jones
by Maddy Brown-Clark
A lady feeds the birds
Old bread too stale for her to eat
It came from the food bank
A few sunrises ago
But it was already old
Too old to be sold.
And the birds are thankful
They , know no lack of gratitude
So the lady wanders away
She must go see
Where they’re feeding the hungry today.
Come morning the cycle
Will begin another day.
BY JASON MEKKAM
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R ITER
kurpose. That’s what drives Ted
'Jones.
“Yo Street Roots! Getcha
Streets Roots here! Just a dolla
donation!” he bellows in a
Rastafarian accent I ask him
j
why the accent and he shrugs.
jH
He just likes Bob Marley, he
says, very matter of fact
Ted’s jovial energy is
infectious, but the Portland
native hasn’t always had a
reason to be cheery. At a young
age, he was taken from his
.
mother and grew up
i
bouncing from one
■
foster home to
■
the next
11
When he
I
was a
p
Answers to puzzles on page 15
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Veterans/Military/EMS personnel
Sliding scale (first session, free)
teenager, he lived with his aunt who beat
him.
Fed up, Ted ran away when he was 18,
and arrangements were made for him to
move to a foster home in Salem. At first,
the new town was rough on him. He didn’t
know anybody well, including his foster
parents. But he warmed up to his situation
and his foster family, and he
eventually graduated from
South Salem High
School.
L
At 21, Jones
decided to return to
K
Portland to look for
fe his mother. With
I the help of friends,
I he was able to find
1 her, and the two
I rekindled their
fc relationship. They
i remained close
i
until she died
Street
moots •
u uiy ■ - / ,
in 2009 of a heart attack, right in front of
Ted in his Southeast Portland apartment.
The death of his mother was a major
turning point in Ted’s life, spurring a
period of self-reflection.
“I was fed up with being at home, being
a couch potato and not doing anything. I
wanted to get out and do stuff,” he said.
And so he did.
Since he became a vendor for Street
Roots, his spirits have been lifted. Meeting
new people every day and earning an extra
income has given him a newfound feeling of
self-worth. He’s happy. And you can tell.
A couple of years ago, Ted sold Street
Roots for about a week before quitting. He
didn’t like how people- were rude to him,
how they looked down on him, how they
told him to get a job. In April, with the
encouragement of his friend Danny, a
Street Roots vendor, he decided to give it
another shot He says it’s the best decision
he’s ever made. This time around, things
have been much better. The people are
nicer. But even when he encounters an
unfriendly potential customer, now he just
shrugs it off. He keeps on smiling and
t
selling.
■
Because he knows why he’s out
■ H l there.
Ted lives alone in an apartment
R e t -■ in Clackamas. He prefers it out
ciL'Lcjk
there because it’s quieter and
HHHHk removed from downtown’s
drug culture. He sells Street
Roots from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Monday through Thursday
i (and sometimes Friday). On
I his days off, he’s usually
■ cruising around on his
mountain bike or at the mall,
F
checking out the music
I stores. He tells me how much
he loves rap and that Too Short
and The Notorious B.I.G. — or
Biggie Smalls, as he calls him - are
his favorite artists.
ask him what he likes so much about
, and he shrugs. He just likes the cuts,
says.
nod, because I like the cuts too.