At Harvard, an establishment covered in ivy, full of prospective Rhodes Scholars and steeped in tradition, landmarks that are featured in application catalogues include: John Harvard, Memorial Church and the Science Center. But what about the Spare Change Guy? Whether or not the student body and administration are willing to admit it, there are several individuals around campus who have become just as important to student life as, say, Widener or Rudenstine. Some would hazard to say that it would be just as valid for Japanese tourists to take pictures of these characters alongside the squirrels. So here it is--an insider's guide to the noteworthy seminal figures not usually included in a overview of Harvard.

THAT SPARE CHANGE GUY

Every Harvard student has walked by the fine French eatery Au Bon Pain and found themselves greeted with these words: "Hey big guy!"--or perhaps more enticingly, with a fond "Hey pretty lady." Either way, they've just been exposed to the crack sales techniques of the most famous Spare Change vendor in Harvard Square.

What most Harvard students may not know is the story behind this Square veteran--Gregory Henry Daugherty. Twenty-nine year old Daugherty says he's been selling Spare Change in the Square for four years, and his enthusiasm for the organization is still strong. "Spare Change papers is a great organization for homeless people," Daugherty says. "It helps homeless people and gives them an idea what they want to do with themselves. Me, I do it because I enjoy selling. I enjoy the public."

Daugherty related his story of how he came to be a veteran Spare Change vendor, and simultaneously revealed some of the inner workings of the organization. Originally from Boston, Daugherty came to Cambridge to hand out the coupon book The Square Deal. Eventually, Spare Change asked him to do some jobs that did not include selling papers, but the publication couldn't give Daugherty the compensation promised. "They were supposed to pay me some money, but they couldn't pay me any money," says Daugherty. However, the editors had heard of Daugherty's aggressive sales technique while he was peddling The Square Deal.

Most new Spare Change vendors are given 10 copies of the publication to start with. They can then sell them for a dollar each and use the profits to buy more copies from Spare Change to sell. According to Daugherty, the editors told him, "We feel like you're a great salesman, so let's give you a hundred papers, you go out on the street and sell your hundred papers." So began his tenure with Spare Change. Daugherty claims he has been with Spare Change for four years; a fellow vendor, Joe Manuel, says Daugherty has been there for six; yet another vendor, Ed Springman, says five, as does Spare Change student intern Toni E. Moore '98, who claims Daugherty has been a vendor since the publication's founding in 1992. Spare Change Office Manager Fred Ellis, who has been with the publication since its inception, settles this dispute: according to Ellis, Spare Change was founded in 1992 and Daugherty has been a vendor since its founding. Despite the confusion about how long Daugherty has been with Spare Change, the consensus is that he is a veteran of the publication and also a great guy.

"He's my running partner," says fellow vendor Ed Springman, who works the Star Market in Porter Square. He met Daugherty through Spare Change, and agrees that Daugherty definitely has a more aggressive selling style than most. He is also of very resilient character, according to Moore, who is currently writing her thesis on the economic practices of homeless people. "There's a lot of rejection involved [in the life of a Spare Change vendor]...most people won't look them in the eye."

To compensate for this, Daugherty has developed his aggressive sales technique that combines persistence and flattery. Daugherty picks up visual clues about passers-by and incorporates them into his pitch, making every one personal. "One time when I walked by him, I was going to play rugby, so I had my cleats hanging from my backpack," states one student. "He saw my cleats and said to me, 'Hey, big guy, you play football?' I used to get that all the time but I told him that football was for wimps and I played rugby. That was two years ago, and ever since, whenever he sees me now he drops his arms to his sides and yells, 'Rrrrrrrrrugby!'" A female student is less amused by Daugherty, "He's a dirty old man. He says to me, 'you don't have to give me any money, just keep walking by so I can look at you.'"

Spare Change editor Linda Larson declares Daugherty "indefatigable," and also says that Daugherty is the embodiment of Spare Change's ideal sales representative. Larson, who has been homeless herself, describes his technique as "musical...it's like he's dancing." She adds that "Greg makes it look easy, he makes it look fun, he makes it look lighthearted...but he has a very serious manner and is a very serious man." When asked how he developed his sales technique, Daugherty replied, "It came from God, it just came from God." He once asked his family how he got his talent in sales, and they told him he got it from his father, also a sales representative. Daugherty even once lent his sales talents to a Harvard political race. "I remember two years ago, in the spring, in the midst of U.C. elections, the Square Deal guy danced around the Science Center gate singing, 'Ed Smith, Ed Smith, please vote for Ed Smith.' Ed Smith was then a UC presidential candidate," says Chris H. Kwak '98. "It was more effective than any poster." Unfortunately, Daugherty's help wasn't enough to put Ed Smith over the top.

How much money Daugherty has made or saved from his sales is a mystery. When asked how much money he must pay to buy the papers from Spare Change, Daugherty answered, "no comment," although Springman and Moore both gave a price of 35 cents a copy. He also would not divulge an average of how many copies he sells a day, or how much money he makes in his endeavors However much he makes, it is not enough to enable Daugherty to secure a place to live, as he acknowledges he is still homeless and has been throughout his five-year stint with Spare Change. However, he says he has saved up enough money for him to get a place, and he is looking for one at the moment. Daugherty also says this will be his last year selling Spare Change. "Spare Change was good to me, but it's time to let another group of homeless people come in and do something with themselves. To me, right now, it's time for me to move on," Daugherty says. He says he doesn't know about what he plans to do next year. Although unsure about future plans, he reveals his deep passion for sales. "I don't know; it's going to be selling something. I don't know. I want to sell brand new cars," Daugherty says, almost whimsically. Then, the daydream look in his eyes is replaced by a determined one. "I want to try something new, to see what I've got. It's time to move on from Spare Change, though, I know I've got to move on. You can't stay out there for too long ... you put some time behind you, you can get anything you want from Spare Change."

PIERCINGS GIRL

Regardless of what Store 24 shoppers are after, on the way to checkout no one can help but notice the girl behind the counter wearing a sweatshirt, a smirk and a whole bunch of piercings. Some might escape unscathed, but odds are that at some point or another, Stormy Erisman, affectionately known as "the piercings girl at Store 24," has poked some fun at all.

Erisman moved to the Boston area nearly a year and three months ago, and has been working at our Harvard Square Store 24 since the beginning of the school year. Although she works the midnight to 8 a.m. shift five days a week, she claims that "it's not that bad." The obvious question to someone working these hours, "What do you do during the day?" received the obvious answers, "Sleep. And drink a lot of coffee. It's like a whole different lifestyle, like, living on this shift." Citing really good managers, Erisman insists, "I have fun working here, I can do my own thing." And she does, spending a lot of her 8-hour shifts reading, drawing and writing. Unfortunately these are also the hours that the store must be cleaned--and work comes before fun.

Her personal favorite item in the store is the coffee, "without it I've got no personality." During her shift, Erisman says that the most popular foodstuff is "by far Ben and Jerry's. There's like Ben and Jerry's junkies at Harvard." In terms of entertainment, the Store 24 and it's customers are all Erisman needs, "I have my own little fun here." Playing mind games with tired late-night customers is one of her favorite pastimes. Erisman explains that "I work here because I'm allowed to say what I want, within boundaries." This comes into play during condom sales. "I love making the condom-buying experience very exciting for everyone. I'm really loud." She wants everyone to know that yes, "We do make fun of every person that buys condoms after they leave." There's one customer who comes in every weekend to buy condoms. "I make his life hell. I was so bad, that he brought his girlfriend in last weekend to prove to me that he really had a girlfriend. Because I was just like, 'you probably don't even have a girlfriend, you probably just have a pile of condoms stacked up at home.' I guess I get really mean, but because it's not an 'I hate you' mean, but more an 'I love to fuck with people mean.'"

But it's not all fun and games. Erisman harbors certain customer-pet-peeves. Her tone is vehement when describing them, "whoa boy, this is where it starts. I hate it when people, like, put the stuff up on the counter, and I'll have like a zillion people in the store, and they'll be like, 'oh...oh wait, I gotta go get like a couple more things,' and I've already got 'em all rung up on the register. I hate that." Going on, Erisman claims that "There's a lot of things I hate. I just hate people in general. I guess I don't really hate them, I just like to make a lot of fun of them, because it's easy." And as many customers know, she doesn't keep the insults to herself but "makes fun of [shoppers] right to their face...I think it's part of my charm." Justifying her attitude with "I'm a Store 24 worker," Erisman hypothesizes that "people come here to get made fun of...that's why the store is so successful." Other pet-peeves include general sloppiness and people asking stupid questions ("what time do you close?").