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| Susan McRoy, Real Change Vendor. Photo by J.P. Gritton |
The air is heavy with the stink of vegetable oil. A line extends from the register to the soda fountain, loops around a banister, continues past the fake plants on the condiment stand and through the double glass doors.
Customers have the bug-eyed look that precedes an MSG fix. They seem upset about something. The grease burn you got yesterday is still biting at you. You want to hoist a black flag above your head and toss a grenade in the fryer. Most of all, you want to quit. This is called “working in a fast-food restaurant.”
Sharon Soocey worked in the fast food industry for 10 years before she became a Real Change vendor.
“I’d come in and the dishes would be piled up. We wouldn't have time to do prep work… I’d be ready to pull some hairs out,” she now remembers with only a laugh.
One day, though, Soocey’s roommate
told her about Real Change.“I decided I was tired of just collecting
one paycheck a month.”
As of last June, Soocey had been selling the paper for a year and is one of the paper’s top vendors. You can find her between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the QFC on 15th Avenue and Harrison Street. Map
“I don’t push anybody to buy the paper… and I still give a smile when customers don’t,” says Soocey. She likes the job she’s got now.
When she’s not selling papers, Soocey
reads Ann Rule, plays cards, and visits with her mom on Capitol Hill. In fact, Soocey has plans to move to Capitol Hill from her studio in Georgetown,
partly in order to be closer to her mother. But that’s not the only reason she wants to leave the neighborhood she lives in now.
“I don’t like Georgetown,” she says. “All you’ve got are fast-food joints.”
To her faithful customers, Soocey says, “Keep on smiling.”
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