Robin Graham is an adventurous spirit.
“There’s nothing holding me down, so I can go anywhere and do anything,” he said with a warm smile.
Robin grew up with 10 siblings, so as an adult, he values peace and quiet.
“I like being alone, where I can hear my own thoughts,” he said.
Robin came from a big family, but he raised a small one of his own in Reno, Nev. He put his three daughters through college by painting houses and by selling his enormous rare-coin collection.
“Once they finished college, I hit the road, and have been on it ever since,” he said.
Robin has spent months living in Big Sur, camping in the wilderness. He has a spiritual connection to the solitude of nature.
“I like the smell of the redwoods and the sound of the creeks,” he said.
Recently, it has been harder for Robin to travel as much as he would like. Due to a series of four sudden strokes, as well as a heart attack, doctors have urged Robin to take it easy.
“I had a blood clot in an artery that got lodged behind my left eye, so I’m completely blind on that side,” Robin said.
In addition to his partial blindness, his new medication causes dizziness, making it even harder to venture out on his own.
“When my doctor told me I wasn’t going to be able to travel as much, I wanted to take one last adventure. One last memory. Something I’ve never done before,” he said. “Last week I walked from here to Scappoose, almost 20 miles through the night.”
With his doctor’s approval, he still walks almost two to three miles every day.
Aside from traveling, Robin’s biggest passion is painting.
“For 28 years, every day, seven days a week, I painted houses,” he said, his eyes lighting up as he talked about his craft. “I had the best horsehair brushes you could buy. They hold the varnish beautifully.”
As a master house painter, Robin started his own company, which he ran for decades. He’s painted houses, motorcycles and prize-winning boats.
“When I paint, I put everything I have into that one single object,” he said. “Painting is my heart.”
Unfortunately, his passion turned out to be quite dangerous.
“I got cancer from inhaling the toxic chemicals. My doctor forced me to retire. I went into a hospital for seven weeks for the surgery to remove the cancer. I went through several months of chemo.
“Did all that. Survived,” he said.
Robin’s life nowadays is less solitary. He spends time with his best friend, Terry, a fellow Street Roots vendor. Due to their mutual medical conditions, they have each other’s back. Robin’s strokes have no warning signs and may happen at any time, and having a friend close by can be a matter of life or death.
“We watchdog for each other,” Robin said. “If need be, I’ll call the ambulance for him; he’ll call it for me. It’s good to have a friend.”
Terry is also the reason Robin got involved in Street Roots. Upon reading a few Street Roots articles from Terry’s paper, Robin was impressed.
“I like that it’s all original material. I like the style,” he said.
Robin is excited about selling Street Roots and enjoys being able to work in retirement.
Robin sells the paper downtown, on Southwest Second Avenue and Main Street. If he’s not there, he’s probably eating a bean and cheese burrito at Taco Bell, his favorite restaurant.
Reading is one of Robin’s favorite hobbies. Specifically, he enjoys reading about new forms of engineering, “like the design specifications of the Mars Rover,” he said.
Although Robin’s body can’t travel as it used to before his strokes, he can certainly still explore the world with his mind and with his heart.
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