Not long ago, Adam Ruark was on a ship and sleeping in a room not much bigger than a commercial crab pot.
“I got back from Alaska,” Adam said. “Fishing. I didn’t get a chance to shave my beard and mustache off.”
He didn’t work on a small ship with a crusty skipper as seen on television’s reality series “Deadliest Catch.” Instead, Adam was on a huge vessel with hundreds of shipmates.
“Some ships can only hold 500. The bigger ships hold more. There’s a bunch of companies up there,” he said.
When asked if he knew the skipper, Adam laughed, “No, you never meet him, naw.
“You wake up at probably 6 o’clock in the morning; you go to work at 7. Then you don’t get off until about 9 o’clock at night. You just sleep, and then you work. They give you lunch breaks and dinner breaks. They feed you steak and eggs and pork chops. It’s a big, old cafeteria, but they feed you good.
“(The fishing season) goes from December until about now. That’s why everybody’s coming back now. They’re all up in Seattle right now, spending their money.
“It’s hard work, but it’s worth it.”
Adam said he gives his money to his relatives in Salem for safekeeping.
He sold the street paper Real Change in Seattle, but he said the city was too expensive and he couldn’t earn enough to rent a room. Adam decided to try his luck with Portland and Street Roots.
For now, Adam sleeps at Teen Challenge, a Christian faith-based nonprofit. “It’s just a mat on the floor, but it’s real nice and clean. Real nice people.”
Adam sells Street Roots from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of Starbucks at Northwest 11th Avenue and Lovejoy Street. There, he has sold more than 60 papers since he started in late June.
He attributes his sales success to his experience as a former Real Change vendor and his polite manner.
“Say, ‘Good morning, how are you doing?’ The whole thing about being a vendor is to not be rude. To not panhandle (or) smoke cigarettes or drink while they’re selling.”
When asked if anything has changed for him in the short week he’s sold Street Roots, Adam said, “Not yet, but it will. I can see already that I’m going to be getting into a motel room here. I’ll get a good running day next week and get into a motel room. I don’t mess around.”