End of Year – December 30 – January – June
By Joyce Lavene
Senior Staff Writer
If there was a catch phrase for 2009, it would probably be ‘do more with less’. The year was a time of loss and fear – of people losing their jobs like leaves falling from the autumn trees. Banks failed and homes were taken. The nation struggled to keep its head above water while states came up short on budgets and slashed red ink.
Locally, many people fared better than their neighbors. While unemployment rates rose to double digits across the area, residents of Midland, Stanfield, Locust, Red Cross and Oakboro hung tight and reinvented themselves. They opened new businesses or closed their businesses and went out to work for companies for the first time in years. They made do and gritted their teeth, waiting for the good times that would surely come.
Towns did the same as budgets were cut and schools tried to offset North Carolina taking lottery revenues and tightening its belt. Roads went unpaved for lack of funds and houses ready to sell went unpurchased. For many, 2009 will be a year they remember as the first time they went on food stamps or received other aid from the government.
Yet there were bright sides too, as communities chipped in to keep things going. It was a year of fundraising and hope for a better future as it didn’t seem like things could get worse. But as the year came to a close, there were signs that the worst might be over. Lights at the end of the tunnel beckoned us to believe that we had all been through a rough time but we were looking forward to a brighter year in 2010.
Photos by Joyce and Jim Lavene
