Deb and Larry Shelton were hilariously nice people. I met Deb when I walked into her office at The Franklin Favorite newspaper and started asking question about the local impact of the recession. She took me home with her after work so I could talk to Larry directly about how it has felt for him to be out-of-work for the longest period of his working life. Read the full piece about them here.

As I was getting ready to go after talking with them for a couple of hours, Deb asked me where I was staying that night. I told her about couchsurfing.com, and how I’d lined up my first host family in Bowling Green, KY.  Her response: “I don’t know if I like the idea of you staying with strangers. Maybe you should just spend the night here.”