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Over the Back Fence By HANK HENRY Any of us could face hard times some day Not every Christmas is a happy one. Everyone is expected to be jolly this season of the year, but many people are not because of things that have happened to them. Some of them appear to be all right (well-dressed and composed), but if we could understand things that are not seen, we would know they are broke and hurting. There are a number of nonprofit organizations, such as the Salvation Army and the Medford Gospel Mission, that do a great job of feeding the homeless and the needy. But many people who are between jobs for whatever reason don't receive the help they need because they consider the situation temporary, or they have too much pride to accept "charity." My wife, Nora, and I learned about hard times during the Christmas season of 1962. As I have written before, I had moved the family to Billings, Mont., where I was to manage a radio station. No one warned me that the station was not solvent. None of the skills I possessed were of any use in rescuing a company from bankruptcy. After about a year, that station was sold for a fire-sale price, and the company transferred me to a station in Helena. After six months I decided we had no future there and had better return to Oregon. The move took all of our savings. It was during this time, while driving all over the Western states, that our car had radiator problems six different times. But that was not the worst thing that happened. After we moved back to the Portland area, Nora experienced a recurrence of a staph infection, which she had contracted several years earlier after going to the dentist. Our old doctor prescribed expensive antibiotics and said Nora had to stay in bed. We had two children at the time, ages 3 and 18 months, and Nora had to take care of them while I went looking for work. I was able to find a few fill-in jobs around Portland, but nothing permanent. We were living in a rented house on the Clackamas River near Oregon City. Every weekday morning, I would head out to visit several stations, both radio and television. Nora insisted that I should appear as a professional, which meant dressing in a suit and tie. On Friday afternoons, I would take the suit in to be pressed (not cleaned) for a buck to keep up the image of a successful man. Making a living as an announcer meant that the field of possible jobs was actually quite small. For example, there were 16 radio stations in the Portland area then, and five or six in the Medford area. FM stations were something of a rarity. In all of Oregon at that time, there were probably only a couple hundred people making a living as announcers, so statistically the chance of an opening was slim. On top of that, it was December, a time when few people feel like moving on and when bosses postpone firings until the first of the year so as not to look like Scrooge. After Christmas, I made another swing down Interstate 5 and stopped in at Channel 10 in Medford. It turned out that there was an opening for an announcer/newsman combination. I got the job and stayed there for 20 years. Even in times of high employment, such as we are having now, there always will be a small percentage of people who are between jobs but don't want strangers to know it. If you know of a family that may be in financial difficulties, there are ways you can assist without revealing your identity. One way is to buy all of the ingredients for a Christmas dinner and get it to them anonymously, even if you have to hire a taxicab driver to make the delivery. As for the chance the people you have decided to help are not really in such straits as you have been led to believe, Nora and I always remember the words of our Sunday School teacher when she said, "If you are going to err, it should always be on the side of mercy." (Hank Henry is a retired Jackson County commissioner and a former radio and television announcer. Call him at 772-9055.) Prime Times front page Mail Tribune front page Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA