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In 1990, thirty years ago, The Edward Dubose trial and sentencing was still making the news.

Judge Joe Brogden had sentenced Dubose to death row at Holman Prison. That brought out the fact that this was the first Escambia County person to be tried in his own county, sentenced in his own county and was serving his time in his own county.

As of February 1990, there had been 139 people to die in Alabama’s electric chair, but no one had been sentenced from Escambia County to be executed in Alabama.

Another murder trial was just gettig started. Clarence Foster was on trial for the murder of Linda McClain. She had been seen with Foster at Odom’s Bar and seen leaving with him. Her body was found in shallow water alongside the railroad tracks on the Alabama -Florida state line.

The U.S.Census Bureau was hiring people to count the population for the 1990 census. The pay was $5.50 an hour plus 24 cents a mile. By the way, the pay is a lot better now.

In 2000, I applied for a job with the census and had a fun time with it. I worked with the Brewton and East Brewton areas and went on to work in Atmore. When we finished there, some of us drove to Mobile County to count that area. One day I was sent to the northern part of Mobile County to a sparsely inhabited area, and to tell the truth, I was hesitant to go alone, so Marvis Simmons of East Brewton went with me.

We turned off on a fairly decent road that turned into a trail and finally, a warning sign. I looked at Marvis and asked her if she really cared who lived there and she said “no.”

Needless to say, we got out of those woods as fast as we could.

Anyway, if you have one of these workers stop by your house, help them out. Not only will it help with the way the nation divides money, it is the law to answer the questions.