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| Ron Morgan, Real Change Vendor. Photo by J.P. Gritton |
Ron Morgan was born and bred in Hastings, Minnesota. Over the course of the 14 years he lived there, his dad taught him everything he knew about being an electrician. It was good work, paid the bills, put food on the table. When those bone-chilling Minnesota winters got a little too much for the Morgan family, they headed for Muskogee, Oklahoma.
In Oklahoma Morgan became an electrician like his dad before him. Since he left Muskogee, Morgan’s lived “everywhere from Maine to South Dakota.”
When I ask Morgan how Maine winters compared to Minnesota winters, he grunts, “Maine was cold, okay?”
His work as an electrician brought him to Boston, Mass., and New York City, where he worked on the city’s subways.
I wonder aloud if that wasn’t a
really, really dangerous job
“Walking around discarded needles, rats the size of dogs, muggers, and the trains,” he says. And that’s not to mention the subway’s charged third rail, where an errant hand or foot could get you 22,000 unwanted volts of electricity.
“I loved it,” says Morgan.
In 1999, work as an electrician brought Morgan to Seattle. Things were going well until he was bitten by a spider — an examination of the bite revealed that Morgan had leukemia.
Seven years on, except for diabetes and a cast on his left foot, Morgan is all right — but don’t bet on him going back to working as an electrician.
“Three doctors have told me I absolutely can’t,” says Morgan when I ask if he ever thinks about returning to electrician work.
So now Morgan sells Real Change and plenty of it — he is one of the paper’s best vendors. Getting to know the people at his turf on Denny and Aurora is what Morgan has enjoyed most about the job.
To them, he says, “Have a great day.”
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