Many newspaper and other news-oriented Websites run a survey question around this time each year, asking readers how they will be spending Christmas. It's a multiple-choice question and one of the choices is frequently "working." The other choices are usually something like "At home with family and friends" and "Away from home but with family and friends."<br />
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When I have participated in those surveys I haven't had to check that "working" choice. But early in my radio career, that would not have been the case.<br />
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I worked my share of Christmases (usually mornings) for a number of years, before and (thanks to a loving and understanding wife) after I got married, until our daughter came along. Sometimes I did it voluntarily so colleagues who had children could be at home Christmas morning. But after Lisa was born, my days of working Christmases ended - as I had planned.<br />
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One thing stands out about working Christmases: I never felt alone. <br />
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In my single days, it seems there was always someone (a girlfriend, a co-worker, or both) willing to have me over to their house for Christmas lunch or dinner or bring a plate to me at work.<br />
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The first time it happened was in Marietta, Georgia. I regret that I don't recall his full name, but I got to know "Bob," a former employee at the station where I was working, through his weekly visits to pick up news headlines to read at his weekly Kiwanis Club meeting. "Bob" realized I was far from home and would not be able to spend Christmas with my family and so he would invite me to share a Christmas meal with his family.<br />
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The first time I moved to Gainesville and went to work for WDUN (this was in 1964), I was still single and I met a young man who was working part time at the station, Mike Banks, who has been a friend ever since.<br />
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I also became good friend with the his brothers - Paul (JP) and Rod - and mother and father, Charlotte and the late Bill Banks. And, his mom began to see to it that I had something to eat from her kitchen every Christmas that I was in Gainesville, with Mike sometimes dispatched to deliver it to the station. <br />
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So, on this Christmas Eve, "Bob" and Mrs. Banks, Mike, JP and Rod, "thank you" for what you did those many years ago, and the north Georgia hospitality you extended - especially on Christmas day - to this south Georgia boy.<br />
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Merry Christmas! <br />
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<I>(Ken Stanford is a Contributing Editor and retired longtime news director for WDUN-AM, WDUN-FM, 1240 ESPN Radio and AccessNorthGa.com.) <I>
