Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 16, 1993 TAG: 9311160014
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Michael Stowe
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Unfortunately, that's meant a lot of stories about layoffs, company downsizings and worker dislocations.
Doesn't matter how you say it. They still stink.
Every article meant more frustrated folks scrounging to stretch severance or unemployment checks to make ends meet. They weren't fun to write, but I was able to meet some truly courageous families.
People like Joe and Maude Barker, who both lost their arsenal jobs less than a week after their first child was born. Their income shrank from $1,000 a week to just over $400 - the amount of two unemployment checks.
After hearing dozens of similar stories, I begin to think I could identify with their plights.
I was wrong. I found that out July 28, when I got a call from my dad.
He had lost his job, a victim of First Union National Bank's buyout of Dominion Bank.
Worst of all, it was his 49th birthday. Some celebration.
Dad was a senior vice president one day, unemployed the next. No real explanation, just a severance check.
It was a weird, unfamiliar feeling I can't begin to describe.
I know the vast emptiness in my gut couldn't compare to the uncertainty Dad was feeling. He reassured Mom that everything would be fine, but inside he was hurting.
Probably his pride most of all.
For 28 years, he'd been a banker - a career that started with a tragedy.
Dad was a sophomore in college when his stepfather was killed in a fire.
He dropped out of school to help support his mom. After a few stints in local factories, he landed a job as a teller and bookkeeper in the loan department of a Henry County bank.
As a youngster, I never really knew what Dad did at work, but he must have done something right. He kept racking up promotions. Branch manager. Branch administrator. Vice president. . . .
Dominion Bank merged with First Bassett Bank & Trust in 1984, and seven years later 1Dad was moved to Dominion's Roanoke headquarters to manage a number of the bank's branches.
Two years later, First Union came on the scene, and the rug was ripped out from under him.
Only then was I able to get a realistic view of the apprehension, anger and frustration that so many New River Valley residents have suffered the past few years.
My parents were lucky in several ways.
First, they had some money saved.
Second, Dad was out of work just three months.
But there was a down side. The job he started earlier this month is with a bank in Rocky Mount, N.C. - nearly a five-hour drive from my Blacksburg apartment.
In a way, it seems fitting.
Jobs are disappearing all over Southwest Virginia, and good workers are having to leave the region - and the state.
I just wish it hadn't happened to Mom and Dad.
I'll miss having them so close.
\ Michael Stowe is a staff writer for the New River Valley bureau of the Roanoke Times & World-News.
by CNB