Meet your vendor.
I was born in Cyprus, and came to Australia when I was 10. I had an aunt here, and she facilitated the whole family to come, to start new beginnings. That was in the 1970s. There are four girls and five boys in my family. I’m the oldest of the boys.
I’m close with my family. My dad has passed away, Mum lives in Cyprus. I live with my brother and sister. My sister looks after me, and cooks for me.
I finished school when I was 10 years old, but started doing work, like gardening, lawn mowing and that sort of thing. It was organised through the school. I was doing this for a few months, then I started working at a potato chip factory. After a year there, I was selling newspapers. I worked for two Greek men, Spiros and John, who had two little kiosks in the city. I’d work on Flinders Street and sell all the papers, The Herald and The Age, which was a big, thick newspaper at the time.
While I was selling newspapers, I made a few friends who were selling The Big Issue. As soon as the kiosks closed down in 2006, I started selling the magazines instead. I set up my pitch like a mini kiosk, similar to what I did in the old days: I spread out lots of different editions of The Big Issue.
I started working at Melbourne Central, but I’ve been at Bourke Street Mall for a long time. I like that pitch because there’s so much foot traffic and a lot of people there. The people in the shops sometimes bring me a coffee or sandwiches or cake, something like this. A lot of shops have closed and people have moved on, but they still come back and say hello. They treat me very well. One time, I got a scarf. Someone even brought me an office chair to sit on, but somehow it vanished. I like talking to people and meeting new people. I love animals, dogs the most, especially young puppies – except when they’re unleashed in the city.
I live in a unit now, so I don’t do any gardening nowadays. I like visiting people, going out and getting something to eat. I try to get to church as often as I can. And I like watching movies and TV. I like classic Greek comedies; there’s this old Greek comedian called Thanasis Veggos who I like.
On my pitch, I love listening to the Greek radio station. I love having Greek music in the background while I’m waiting for people to come up and say hello. I enjoy listening to the Greek commentators talking about current affairs as well.
The most important thing for me is being generous, kind and loving. What makes me most happiest is that I’m working at The Big Issue. It made me happy being on the cover last Christmas. My regular customers were rapt as well, everybody liked it. Everybody said it was a good picture.
Con sells The Big Issue on Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne
Interview by Amy Hetherington and George Halkias
Photo by James Braund
Published in ed#746