I Am Completely Serious

I worked as a part-time census enumerator back in 2000, tracking down people who hadn't sent in their forms. Southern Illinois isn't technically part of Appalachia, but culturally close enough that the managers didn't send newbies out into the hills of the Shawnee Forest.

I worked in rural small towns, instead. My first day on the job, someone who clearly had a beef with the man I was interviewing barged into his house, and the temperature felt like it dropped 20 degrees as they glared at each other. I got out of there as fast as I gracefully could. But people were mostly polite to me.

There is no way I would do that job again, in this political climate.