VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

DAVE FINDS THINGS WORTH THE TIME

BY HANNAH HERNER

Dave’s friends used to say he was a traitor to America — that is, because of his love for British bands. He’s a big music fan in general, the type that reads biographies of his favorite bands and knows the individual members and their specialties.

Some of his favorites are the Rolling Stones — specifically the music they put out in late '60s through early '70s — and of course the Beatles. He used to be a big concert goer, and even camped out overnight in 1988 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit to see AC/DC. That ranks his best concert to date, but he says Rush was almost as good.

On the American side, he loves Van Halen and Guns N’ Roses. Today it feels too dangerous to go to big concerts like he used to, though sometimes he’ll hit up a free outdoor concert in Nashville.

“It's good, because then you can think to yourself, ‘Oh, it didn't cost me anything.’ But most free events I've seen, I walked away and thought to myself, ‘Hey, that was really cool. That was worth the time invested in it,’” Dave says.

He learned clarinet in school, took guitar lessons, bass lessons, and can play some keyboard.

“I love music because it's just a worthwhile hobby. It keeps you occupied, keeps your brain occupied. It's fun,” he says. “My goal was, playing a guitar, if I can sit in a room by myself and play for an hour, then I'm gonna pat myself on the back, because that's all I really want to do.”

When Dave moved to Nashville from Detroit 10 years ago, his routine became going to the library every day. His favorites are autobiographies.

“I love to read. I don't care if it's the paper, a comic book, encyclopedia, biography, a history of a band. If it's interesting to me, I'll read it,” he says.

In those 10 years he experienced homelessness, he spent about half of the duration in shelters, and the rest sleeping outdoors. Last year, he agreed to seek housing with the help of a social worker from Mental Health Co-Op. In July, he moved into his own apartment with the help of a Section 8 voucher.

“With my luck, I thought I can't get it. He said, ‘Well, I'm here to tell you, you have just as good a chance as anyone else,’” Dave says. “I got really lucky. I got a voucher really quickly, and the first place I talked to they said, ‘OK, come on in.’”

When he’s out selling The Contributor, off of Second Avenue South, he’s putting the money together to pay for rent early, and be ready to pay for his electric bill. He goes to church near his selling spot, the Lindsley Avenue Church of Christ.

“All those people in the church have been nothing but a Godsend to me,” Dave says. “I got a lot of people willing to back me up because ever since I got my apartment, I have all these people asking me, ‘Do you need this?’ ‘I have this, do you need it?’ They're like, ‘well, let us know what you need. And we'll get it for you.’”

He didn’t even ask for a television, but a church member gave him one anyway. Now, the highlight of his day is often watching reruns of Hee Haw at 2 p.m. each day. He’s not a big country music fan, but rewatching this show is making him remember some of the greats that he watched as a child — people like Roy Clark, The Oak Ridge Boys, Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash. He checked out a book on the show from the library and read it in one sitting.

Dave says he’s not a pessimist, or an optimist, but a realist. He says he tries not to take on things he knows he can’t solve, but it’s also important to him to look to his support system to help.

“I'm thankful to God for The Contributor, because you guys have helped me out a lot. I like this job. You meet a lot of different interesting people,” Dave says. “I'm thankful to God for everything everyone down here has done. Because when you can't do something for yourself, then you need some help.”