Not-So-D.C. Jobs: Meet Alexandria's town crier

• Town crying in Alexandria dates back to the 1700s, although the role is now ceremonial.

☀️ A typical day: Fiore-Walker represents the city at big-deal events — parades, Christmas tree lightings — and when notable guests or businesses come to town.

• It's a volunteer position, and he does research beforehand, then writes his own rhyming cry for the event. He typically goes for the quatrain scheme, saying, "It keeps the brain active."
• His full-time gig: director of a nonprofit.

👶 How he got started: Fiore-Walker was a docent at Gadsby's Tavern Museum, and he gave Alexandria pedicab history tours in period clothing. So when the city announced it was holding a "cry-off" to find its new crier, everyone urged him to sign up.

• He had to perform one common cry assigned by the city, then wrote his own based on a rhyming Scottish cry from the 1590s, he says.
• He's had the gig for 13 years.

‼️ Fun fact: Fiore-Walker is only the city's second Black town crier.

• The first, in 1816, was Peter Logan, who purchased his own freedom from slavery.

👀 The intrigue: Fiore-Walker is a member of the American Guild of Town Criers, and he recently traveled to Provincetown, Mass., for a guild "cry-off," where participants were judged on their strength of voice, their entry and exit, and the style of the cry-writing.

🤐 Trade secret: You have to keep the two personas separate, Clark Kent-style.

• "There are things that I, the town crier, do not do that Ben Fiore-Walker, the private citizen, will do."
• Aka, if he's in his town crier gear, he's not stopping at Trader Joe's for toilet paper.

🚀 Advice for strivers criers: Have fun with it — town criers are often needed distractions from the heavy things in life, says Fiore-Walker.

• "Don't take yourself too seriously."

☝️ Yes, but: Beware — walking in parades while wearing period shoes can be dangerous. "There has been some skidding."