Adventures in Censusland...
I will have to reserve names/addresses/location due to confidentiality.... HOWEVER, I can tell you just a few things that will make you laugh at me....
I walk up to this house to do a followup call regarding an incomplete census. Sitting on a chair on the side deck is a rather large Native 'gentleman' and his Slurpee. I tell him I'm with feds regarding the census and that we have not received a copy from this house yet and it is mandatory under law and we need to complete it. He tries to argue with me that the lady that owns the house isn't there, I asked if he lived there, he said yes. I said that was fine, it is the people in the house that is what we need a count of, it is irrelevant who it is that completes it. So I start to fill it out - he doesn't know his last name. We're off to a great start. Then I start to ask about the names of the other people (which is now at a total of 10 ppl), he has no idea. I figure that I can at least get enough information to at least get one full person completed and put unknown for the rest - then at least its completed, when all of a sudden, 4 rather large males enter the deck from the garage, their eyes the size of saucers. They've been in the garage doing something that isn't probably legal, but I can't do anything about it. I'm there to gather information and leave. Second person gives me his name and birthday, and so on... then I ask if anyone has been married, divorced etc... and second person pipes up with "Well, we got the licence a couple of times, but I don't remember actually going through with it every time because we kept fornicating and having children and my first wife wasn't into bigamy." I shit you not, that is exactly what he said. I can see the swiss cheese that was his brain starting to ooze out his ears when I mentioned that this was mandatory and he figured he'd just make shit up to see how I'd react. Then the other two stood up and that was my cue to get the hell out of dodge. They watched me as I went to a couple more houses near theirs and then watched as I went to my car. I was seriously creeped out.
Then I go to a house... nice elderly gentleman answers the door, naked. Not Half-Nekkid Thursday nekkid, naked. He apologises and says he will be right back and comes back wearing underwear... either way, it was a frightening experience.
My last adventure was a good adventure. A very nice older man answers the door and we have a conversation at the door and he invites me into the foyer as the wind was blowing my papers everywhere and made it impossible. Keeping a foot at the door, I cautiously entered but as it turns out, he was a very sweet man. We talked for over an hour. He'd lost his wife a couple of years before, and he was former RAF during WWII and we had a great conversation. He was only one of many nice people I've met on my adventures, however, they are few and far between.
** on a side note, I'd like to know where my other blogger toolbar went with the font stuff and colours *ponders in black*
I walk up to this house to do a followup call regarding an incomplete census. Sitting on a chair on the side deck is a rather large Native 'gentleman' and his Slurpee. I tell him I'm with feds regarding the census and that we have not received a copy from this house yet and it is mandatory under law and we need to complete it. He tries to argue with me that the lady that owns the house isn't there, I asked if he lived there, he said yes. I said that was fine, it is the people in the house that is what we need a count of, it is irrelevant who it is that completes it. So I start to fill it out - he doesn't know his last name. We're off to a great start. Then I start to ask about the names of the other people (which is now at a total of 10 ppl), he has no idea. I figure that I can at least get enough information to at least get one full person completed and put unknown for the rest - then at least its completed, when all of a sudden, 4 rather large males enter the deck from the garage, their eyes the size of saucers. They've been in the garage doing something that isn't probably legal, but I can't do anything about it. I'm there to gather information and leave. Second person gives me his name and birthday, and so on... then I ask if anyone has been married, divorced etc... and second person pipes up with "Well, we got the licence a couple of times, but I don't remember actually going through with it every time because we kept fornicating and having children and my first wife wasn't into bigamy." I shit you not, that is exactly what he said. I can see the swiss cheese that was his brain starting to ooze out his ears when I mentioned that this was mandatory and he figured he'd just make shit up to see how I'd react. Then the other two stood up and that was my cue to get the hell out of dodge. They watched me as I went to a couple more houses near theirs and then watched as I went to my car. I was seriously creeped out.
Then I go to a house... nice elderly gentleman answers the door, naked. Not Half-Nekkid Thursday nekkid, naked. He apologises and says he will be right back and comes back wearing underwear... either way, it was a frightening experience.
My last adventure was a good adventure. A very nice older man answers the door and we have a conversation at the door and he invites me into the foyer as the wind was blowing my papers everywhere and made it impossible. Keeping a foot at the door, I cautiously entered but as it turns out, he was a very sweet man. We talked for over an hour. He'd lost his wife a couple of years before, and he was former RAF during WWII and we had a great conversation. He was only one of many nice people I've met on my adventures, however, they are few and far between.
** on a side note, I'd like to know where my other blogger toolbar went with the font stuff and colours *ponders in black*
posted by Kristin at 8/24/2006 05:28:00 PM
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