IT HAPPENS EVERY 24 HOURS
On work days, my morning routine is rather specific. I arrive at the office at 8:00 a.m., give or take a few minutes. I start by checking my e-mail and calendar to see what, if anything, is happening that day. Sometimes there is application material to prepare, sometimes not.
Somewhere in the window between 8:45 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., I walk to my favourite Starbucks location. The girls there all know me by drink and name and are the friendliest part of my mornings. En route, it’s inevitably necessary always to pass through the southwest corner of Robson and Hornby streets. On that corner stands a man.
This man, in his dark ballcap and orange smock, lies in wait for me each and every morning. The pocket of his smock is filled with copies of a cheap daily, his hand clutching a copy to wave in my face. We’ve done this “dance” for more than two years now and he’s not willing to let go.
Photo: Saxifrage on Flickr
It began the summer that three separate dailies decided to begin publishing in Vancouver, hocking their rags on street corners by way of people in aprons with stacks of papers to get rid of. The man was stationed on the northwest corner of Burrard and Nelson, so avoiding him on my way to work was easier.
In the beginning, I politely declined a copy. Before long, it became a game for him, and frustrated at the fact that he’d still ask me to take a copy each morning, I dropped the kindness routine and turned to ignoring. Knowing full well I didn’t want a copy, he’d proceed to quickly flutter a copy inches from my nose without saying a word as I walked by simply to irritate.
And now, as I walk the unavoidable path to Starbucks each morning, the game continues. He was re-stationed to my coffee route. Please tell me I’m not the only one that the 24Hours people have a hit out on…
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7 Comments
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You should stop and say to him “you see me every day and I NEVER take one. Please do not wave it in my face and save it for someone who actually does want it.”
they dont do that shit here
I have never experienced anyone coming down on me that heavily, but then again - I am nowhere near a route where they are stationed. But when I take the Skytrain at Broadway Station, I feel bad if I don’t take one. I don’t know if they need to fulfill a quota, so I figure - “heck, why not”
i don’t think anyone wants those papers crapping up our city - and if people didn’t take them out of pity then maybe they’d go out of business and there would be a couple more trees left.. that sounds so treehugger doesn’t it… but arent’ they just a waste of paper. it’s not news! it’s trash.
The dude who used to hand out the Metro at Gateway in Surrey was a cutie. As it happens, there are currently *no* free-daily-slingers on my route to work, it’s rather pleasant.
now that I have a car and drive to most of my destinations this is one thing I no longer worry about. When I did Skytrain it downtown, there was an older fellow outside of the Granville Station who would thrust the paper right into my face, on a daily basis. He was really quite aggressive, and I would find myself trying to go around him…except that he had these go go gadget arms that would reach out wherever you were.
You should grab the paper he waves in your face, tear it up, throw it on the ground, stomp on it and finish with spitting on it.
I live in Saskatchewan so we don’t have these street corner paper sellers but I imagine that if I encountered one, I’d dream up that little scenario I just told you about and think about doing it everyday as I walked passed him with a smirk on my face.