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Several weeks ago now, I wrote a story about the concern and confusion caused in some places by U.S. Census Bureau address canvassers passing through neighborhoods -- and lawns -- in search of dwellings to which census questionaires will be sent next year.

That prompted us to wonder who these workers are, and what it's like to do this front-lines census work. Just a few weeks ago, there some 900 of these workers in the field in Southwest Virginia. Come spring 2010, more than 12,000 census workers will be back in the field following up on questionaires that weren't returned.

The result is a story that ran in Monday's paper. In case you missed it, by all means, check it out.

Here's the top of it, just for a tease:

The answer came to Hugh Hughes at church, via postcard.

It came to Margaret Cunningham through the car radio.

Each needed work, and each found it at the U.S. Census Bureau.

Hughes, 45, a cabinetmaker and father of four, got laid off from his last job in Lynchburg in December. "I got a turkey and a pink slip," he said.

About the same time, Cunningham, 49, a career human resources professional, was finishing up a master's degree at Radford University. "I graduated into an economy that was just sliding down the hill, no brakes."

In the car one day, she heard an ad for job openings at the census. She called the bureau right there from her cellphone.

Hughes saw the same call for workers on a postcard that arrived at Rainbow Forest Baptist Church.

Within a few weeks, both were temporary federal government employees, trudging through neighborhoods helping to confirm the address lists to which census questionnaires will be mailed in 2010.

"It's been a godsend to get some money into the house," Cunningham said.

Such are the stories of the happy collision of the 23rd decennial census and the worst economic downturn in decades. It's a $14.7 billion operation that over two years will need thousands and thousands of workers.

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