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Paridon Williams, Vendor of the Week.
Photo by J.P. Gritton |
He’s no Michael Jackson — he’s
not even a Justin Timberlake. His
moonwalk is actually more like just
walking backwards with a weird facial
expression. And the closest vendor of
the week Steve Allen comes to singing,
as far as I can tell, is blowing the duck call
he keeps hidden in the folds of a black
down jacket.
Watching him, I realize it must be
practically impossible not to buy papers
from someone who is doing the moonwalk
while blowing on a duck call. And I
almost forget that Allen is in the middle
of a prodigiously crappy run of luck.
A few weeks ago, while Allen was
selling at his Beppo’s pizza turf, a Department
of Corrections crew came to
the camp where he slept and — there’s
no other way to put it — they robbed
him and about 15 other fellow campers.
“No warning, no nothing,” says Allen
of the clearing in which he lost a sleeping
bag, a camera, and 15 weeks’ worth
of Real Change back issues.
Allen still had his health and a few
blankets, which he’d hidden in nearby
bushes: that night he slept in a shelter
and stowed his blankets under the roar
of cars along Interstate 5. The next day
he went to work as always.
While he was there, the City of
Seattle swept away Steven Allen’s last
worldly possessions like they were
crumbs from a table. That night — city
shelters either full or closed — Allen
slept outside. Which might not have
been a big deal, except he didn’t have
any blankets.
The good news is that a few weeks
and a case of pneumonia later, Allen is
dancing in the offices of Real Change,
jovially extolling the virtues of the
moonwalk, and intermittently blowing
a duck call.
No thanks, that is, to the City of
Seattle |
