Well please don't holler at them or call the police, they're doing their jobs and are not nicely dressed crooks casing your neighborhood. They're with the U.S. Census Bureau and they're completing an operation called "address canvassing." This must be completed the year before the Decennial Census begins April 1, 2010. They're locating all existing buildings on maps for the census.

I waxed a little nostalgic when my friend Sherman City Clerk Linda Ashby forwarded an e-mail with this information. In 1980, I supervised the census in western Grayson County and west Sherman. It's a hard job. People don't really want to talk to you and give the information the U.S. Constitution requires the government to collect. And, some people were just downright mean.

My enumerators (those who will come to your house in 2010 if you don't mail in your form) were fine folks. On my crew, I had a minister, a person who now works for the state, a doctor's wife, a young mother of twins. Every background and race I could think of were on my team. It was kind of like it is now. There were a lot of people out of work, so it provided jobs. But there were also a lot of people mad at the government.

These people won't be asking questions, they're just listing buildings. Be nice to them, please.

Happy birthday Friday to Elwood Reding, Susan Stanley, Dewayne Patterson, Connie Miller and Hayli Collins Reams, all of Denison; Margie Gray, Douglas Ray Robinson, Rhonda McCollum, Karen Brown, Ramya Sundaram and Charadai Johnson, all of Sherman; Linnzi Ingram Bowman, Sandy Cheek, Trina Bynum and Pauline Culverhouse, all of McKinney; and Debra Bowles of Whitewright.

Happy anniversary Friday to Eddie and Dorothy Gressett of Collinsville, 64 years; Lloyd and Tina Hagberg of Pottsboro, 33 years; Walter and Winkie Whitfield of Sherman, 22 years; Anthony and Amelia Nero of Denison, 22 years.

Happy birthday Saturday to Clarissa Neff and Kathy Logston, both of Denison; Racquel McNeal, Manassah Manny Worthington, Shonia Taylor, Chase Landry Allen, Dr. Pratap Tumala and Beverly Dodson, all of Sherman; Rev. Steve Warren of Buda, Texas; Jared Roberts of Bells; Judy Randall Nicholas of Hendrix, Okla.; Ashlyn Ross of Howe; Gloria Wheatfall of Ft. Worth; Michelle Payne of Celina; and twins, Brok and Bret Shields of Tom Bean.