VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

VENDOR SPOTLIGHT: HANNAH'S GREATEST HITS

BY HANNAH HERNER

In my time at The Contributor, I’ve written dozens of vendor spotlights. Here are some excerpts from some of my favorites.

Keith

My interview with Keith turned into a tradition of visiting his garden each summer! He always gave me some home-grown vegetables to go. I even ended up helping him to connect to his former foster family, and getting breakfast with them. Keith is a true and original success story of this paper.

Something we at The Contributor love about you is your positive attitude. Is that how you’ve always approached life?

No, when I quit drinking my attitude changed. It didn’t come in a day, it came gradually. The more I was not into myself, the more I became aware of others. Eight years ago, I wouldn’t have cared. But now I can instinctively tell when something needs to be done to help somebody out. I’m pretty good at figuring it out.

When we used to be able to hang around in the Contributor office, I’d see 20 vendors go in and out buying papers. But the certain two or three, I would have a feeling. They’d be coming in and scraping $1.50 together to get three papers, and I’d just say ‘give ‘em 13’ and I’d pop a $5 bill down. I knew when it was time to do something like that.

What is your gardening philosophy?

My gardening philosophy is to hope and pray and be grateful when it turns out good. And don’t get mad if it doesn’t because there’s always going to be another time. And share, share, share! I have people that tell me, ‘I’ll buy some.’ I’m not selling a thing. I think it would be bad karma. If I have enough to give, I’m going to give.

Teresa

Teresa used to fly a sign on the street I lived on, and I was excited to see her get involved in The Contributor. I did her interview while driving her to and from the store and I feel like the drive made the interview especially good. I admire her views on her family, and had such a laugh hearing about her old jobs!

Simpson was born in Baptist Hospital (now known as Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital). Having grown up in Nashville, she sees good and bad in the city’s growth.

“I’m glad people are not as redneck as they used to be.” She says her father was a redneck, someone who didn’t accept people of color, and even her own younger brother, who was gay.

“I listened to my mother. At first I started listening to my father, and I was like ‘that’s not right’ they’re human too, they bleed, they have feelings,” she says.

She’s quick to get emotional when talking about her younger brother Michael. The two were very close. “That was my baby,” she says.

He died of HIV, “back when you couldn’t tell anyone that you knew anyone with it,” she chokes up. … In her life, Simpson has also worked in carnivals, was a caretaker for her mother, worked as a nanny, and in the ’70s and ’80s she was a topless dancer.

“I’m not proud of everything I’ve done, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not ashamed of it either. That’s what makes me. I’m no one to judge. I mean, looking at me, you would have never thought I was a titty dancer,” she laughs.

Pedro

Pedro was the first vendor I talked to on my first day working at The Contributor. I think we bonded easily because he has daughters around my age. Pedro is so thoughtful and optimistic, and is always collecting little gifts to give. He’s a gem.

Pedro has a lot of stories to share, usually starting with, “Oh, I didn’t tell you this!” He grew up in Chicago with three brothers — one of them is his twin. He was sent home from kindergarten because he couldn’t speak English, and went back the following year, having learned it. His family used to host kids in the foster care system. They used to have big birthday parties in his yard in Chicago, complete with a live rock band. He just happened to be at the famous 1979 baseball game where the disco records were burned. As a teen, he got mad at his dad and hitchhiked across the country. He didn’t know what to do next so he called the police on himself. He waited outside the Chicago Bears stadium for three days, so he could be the third person to get tickets to watch them in the playoffs. He helped build the Brentwood Target, Velocity in the Gulch and a fire station in Hermitage. He loves watching Chopped.

“In the future I want to get my own place, and I’m working on my disability,” Pedro says. “I’d love for Nashville to be happy. Sometimes people think it’s a sad city. I want to change Nashville, I do. I want to change how people think about the vendors. A lot of people don’t know your situation. If they knew your situation they’d have a better perspective of a vendor.”

And since then, he has gotten into his own place!

Paul

Both stubborn Northerners with birthdays one day apart, Paul and I bonded quickly and even went together to get our COVID-19 vaccination. Paul is always giving me great ideas of stories to look into. He likes to keep his ear to the ground and share his theories. One of the first stories I did with him was a photo gallery of him moving from living under Jefferson Street Bridge to his own apartment. This quote from that story is so him: “If it wasn’t for the help from The Contributor, I’d still be up under that damn bridge. That’s how I look at it.” he says. “I want to die with a Contributor in my hand, sitting on a corner. That’s how determined I am.”