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"Working Class Poverty Tales"
Just flashed back to my old man. If I asked for a piece of chewing gum (a fairly common treat), he'd take out a stick of Doublemint, tear it in half, give me half and put the rest back in the pack for later. I remember once, dreaming about money, when Mom asked how I'd know if I were rich. I said, "When I can walk into the store and buy a pack of gum without even thinking about how much it costs!" I remember that because I could tell by her reaction that she was trying not to laugh. I didn't understand why it was funny. |
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Quoted: My dad was a school teacher and we were not poor. However, my parents grew up during the depression and sometimes acted like we were poor. We lived very modest in a poor blue collar neighborhood. We kids had everything we needed but not near what we wanted. My dad would recycle nails. When he need some guess who got the chore of straightening them? My mother washed and save used aluminum foil, bread sacks and other plastic bags. How she fed a family of six on one skinny fryer I'll never know. I guess potatoes, vegetables along with gravy on biscuits made the meal filling View Quote yup. we would get admonished to put only enough on our plate so that everybody got some. If there was leftover potatoes and meat you would be eying it. Things got better through the years and so did my mother’s cooking. Her cooking was never bad, just started out as ok and got better. She liked to recreate favorite restaurant dishes at home. She got good at it. My friends always liked to stay for supper. Their moms were not into more than boverbaked chicken and little seasoning. |
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Quoted: We stuffed towels around the windows to keep the wind from blowing in View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Had to duct tape my shoes together poor. Yup. We stuffed towels around the windows to keep the wind from blowing in ha, went to bed with a winter wool hat on. The curtains did indeed blow in through the 1870s wooden sashed windows. |
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Oh yeah !
I know all about government cheese, butter & rice ! I can remember eating rice with ground hamburger with soy sauce a lot ! Food stamps ? Oh yeah we where on them ! And these where the ones that where actual paper. We lived in a 800 sq. ft. 2 bedroom rental house so my brother & 2 sisters slept in bunk beds in one room. Roaches ?? oh yeah ! We had those also ! There’s nothing like going into the kitchen at night and turning on the light and see about 50 of them scatter ! Ahhhh ! Good times ! And I’ll be damn I’m still poor because I do not have a damn G - rifle ! There are ALOT of post on here that I can really relate to ! |
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I didnt grow up poor... but my parents sure did! I can still remember my Dad eating shit like canned ham jelly on bread. I miss my Dad...
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Friend down the street said we were rich cause we had a window air conditioner.
So, maybe 1961. |
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My dad died when I was a baby, left my mom widowed with 3 kids and few prospects. She developed a rare neurological disorder and was severely restricted to what she could do for work. Between my 9th birthday and the day I graduated high school, her TOTAL income was under $30,000.00. That's 10 years, if you're counting.
We stayed where we could, lived with relatives or friends. I was working from the age of 14, doing anything I could....from bailing hay to cleaning dog shit at a dog kennel. Got very minimal assistance, and were generally dirt fucking poor. But, in spite of that my family was close and my childhood was pretty good. I still have a lot of shame about how poor we were and how I was treated by people because of it, but I got a college education that I earned, and my mom got better and we're tougher for having lived through it. I can get by with nothing, I know I can. |
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Quoted: Oh yeah ! I know all about government cheese, butter & rice ! I can remember eating rice with ground hamburger with soy sauce a lot ! Food stamps ? Oh yeah we where on them ! And these where the ones that where actual paper. We lived in a 800 sq. ft. 2 bedroom rental house so my brother & 2 sisters slept in bunk beds in one room. Roaches oh yeah ! We had those also ! There's nothing like going into the kitchen at night and turning on the light and see about 50 of them scatter ! Ahhhh ! Good times ! And I'll be damn I'm still poor because I do not have a damn G - rifle ! There are ALOT of post on here that I can really relate to ! View Quote good times! |
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Grew up in a family of 6 people living on 1 income that wasn't great. We stretched our money as much as we could and my dad taught himself to fix pretty much everything so we didn't have to pay a handyman or buy a new whatever it was. My dad and brothers would go hunting and we would eat a lot of venison, and they would fish and we'd eat pan fried perch and sunfish and what have you. I didn't realize we were poor until I figured out the truth behind Santa and how much my parents skimped and scraped to get us presents, I used to go to sleep and worry that we wouldn't be able to pay bills/taxes and would lose our house after that. It pretty much ruined Christmas for me, I still don't really enjoy it. We've all done well for ourselves and we all help out our parents when they need it. My dad was self employed and I remember being worried around tax time every year that this was the year they couldn't pay. My dad built our house so there was no mortgage, just taxes. We were probably low middle class, just stretched with mouths to feed.
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Quoted: Grew up middle class but I’m in the process of becoming poor do to separation and divorce. Darkest of time of my life will be this year and I hope I can find the strength to make it through it. Outlook not so good right now lol. View Quote Hang in there my brother ! I went thru to what sounds like the same as you. Of course this has been years ago & I thought it was pretty damn bad. You just have to fight thru it ! Having close friends to talk to also helps ! And I mean FRIENDS ! Not the ones you think are your friends ! That is key. |
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I grew up lower middle class/upper lower class. I fear being poor more so that I do death. I’m never going back.
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I was never starving, so I guess I can't complain. Would have been cool to have a dad around though.
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I suppose we were, but my parents never really let us know about it.
One of my earliest memories, I must have been about 2 and a half, was living in a cottage with no electricity (but we did have gas). My dad would lift me up at night to pull the chain to shut off the gas light before going to bed. My sister, a year younger than me, got whooping cough. I remember mum nursing her, and having to step around the little piles of vomit she was leaving everywhere. The fire was burning down, so I went out to the coal shed to find the biggest chunk that I could carry and throw onto the fire. We were both glad when dad got home from work, and went out on his motorbike to to call the doctor. A while later, dad came home with something to replace the motorbike and sidecar - a really ratty old van. It had real floorboard, with holes in them. You had to remember to lift your legs when we went through a puddle. A while later he traded that in for a car which was somewhat better. I remember Friday nights, when dad would bring home his pay packet, and take out the tin with envelopes inside, and divide the money between them: Rent Food Clothes Holiday They always put away enough that we would have two weeks holiday, even if it meant that the clothes/food envelope was short changed. Dad got a better job and things improved. We moved into a council house. They started saving for their own house ... and eventually got one. Then they bought a new car! Looking back, I never knew how desperately poor we really were. |
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We used to throw stuff out the holes in the floor of my moms chevette.
We was po |
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Raised by a single mom with 2 jobs and often a part time also.
Latchkey kid, lived in shitty hoods all over Chicago. My mom did the best she could and we thank her for it. |
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Food stamps, eating muskrat, groundhog, pig brains, dandelion greens... etc
I still eat dandelion greens.& I'm 56 |
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Bangladeshi poor? No.
I do recall an oil bust time in Houston when work got real slack and my mom having to ration one loaf of bread and a can of Spam for two days for her family of seven once. Her giving us sugar/butter or ketchup sandwiches for lunch a few times noting my dad would get paid in a couple of days. My dad then had to travel to get more work until that cycle passed. When he had extra money later, i know he anonymously bought groceries for hungry neighbors on several occasions. Later on, in my teen years, the old man was disabled for a full year. My whole sophomore year in HS i only had one pair of pants and if you wanted a warm bath, you heated pot fulls of water on the stove. My first car was 20 years old and cost $150. Us boomers had the world handed to us though. |
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Quoted: i remember the paper food stamps as well. good times! View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Oh yeah ! I know all about government cheese, butter & rice ! I can remember eating rice with ground hamburger with soy sauce a lot ! Food stamps ? Oh yeah we where on them ! And these where the ones that where actual paper. We lived in a 800 sq. ft. 2 bedroom rental house so my brother & 2 sisters slept in bunk beds in one room. Roaches oh yeah ! We had those also ! There's nothing like going into the kitchen at night and turning on the light and see about 50 of them scatter ! Ahhhh ! Good times ! And I'll be damn I'm still poor because I do not have a damn G - rifle ! There are ALOT of post on here that I can really relate to ! good times! My first (on the books) job was a supermarket cashier at the grand union store. The store was in the suburb, a fairly well to do one. The city poor folk would sometime shop there with their food stamps. One day I asked a regular why he went ten miles in a cab to shop here when I knew he lived near where I played little league in the city. His answer,....out here the food is better quality and you give cash back as change because you don’t keep food stamp change in the register. I knew little about the food stamp process. |
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Does sleeping on cardboards, in a house with leaking roof and no windows count?
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My dad was a capt with four kids back in the '60's. I think there were financial issues but we never heard about them or felt them. I didn't find out until decades later that "bread cereal" was poor people food or that Hamburger Helper was a meal stretcher! We thought they were treats!
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Household income for my family with 3 kids in the 90’s as a kid was approx $20k/year. My dad made a few career moves and it improved considerably from there into the 2000s.
Had a great childhood, though. Even though the answer to everything I asked for was, “No!” |
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Most had it better than me, but I was better off than many.
Im here today in a much higher tax bracket, but not much has changed. |
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Quoted: i have yet to experience real human love. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I grew up poor in a wealthy community. I learned a lot about human nature. I didn't realize that I was poor until my mid teens. I learned the difference between real human love and snobbery. Not married ? No love from your wife and kids ? |
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My parents both grew up poor, my dad in true poverty. I experienced some of that, more so the mindset of being poor early in childhood. But I grew up solidly middle class, could argue upper middle class for the rural area we lived. I have a ton of respect for what my parents built and what they did considering where they came from. My goal in life is to do as much growth as they had just in taking the family from middle class to upper class.
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Grew up poor? Hell I'm still poor!
I never got my Lambo, playboy wife, 87,000 acres homestead like the rest of GD. |
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Poor, no. Seriously lower middle class, heck yes. Both my parents worked their asses off for us and I will never forget it.
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Govt cheese. Having to choose between heat and food in the winter level poor. Never again.
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I didn't grow up poor, although my Mother told me that there were some lean times with my Dad being in High Steel Ironworking. I never knew and never wanted for anything.
I wasn't poor until after college....too proud to move back home, determined to make it on my own. That's when I felt the sting of poverty. And for many years. I have been homeless, living in a camper shell in the back of my truck and showering at work. Buttered noodles every night (well....not every night....sometimes just salt on them) with fish and game caught out of season. 3 jobs at a time. This was for many years. With hard work.....maybe way too hard....and smart planning, I really turned my shit around. It wasn't easy. But I made it. I stayed out of trouble and focused on making my situation a little better every day, even if it wasn't much. I had to dig for that little silver lining most every day. To this very day....when I see as much as just $5 on my money clip on my wallet, I'm giddy with glee. That feeling of hopelessness and not having has never left me. Now I know why Depression Era people had weird money habits and saved all kinds of worthless stuff. Now? It's hard to believe I was ever that poor. I own a company and pay/treat my people the best. I appreciate hard work. |
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Quoted: Who here grew up poor? Were you really poor? View Quote Yep. 2 shirts and 1 pair pants for entire school year poor. $1 a day for school lunch...so a 50 cent dr pepper and a 50 cent rice Kristie treat. Eating out was wendys dollar menu. Never ate out as a familly. NEVER opened a fridge or kitchen cabinet in 18 years. That was not allowed. |
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Quoted: I didn't grow up poor, although my Mother told me that there were some lean times with my Dad being in High Steel Ironworking. I never knew and never wanted for anything. I wasn't poor until after college....too proud to move back home, determined to make it on my own. That's when I felt the sting of poverty. And for many years. I have been homeless, living in a camper shell in the back of my truck and showering at work. Buttered noodles every night with fish and game caught out of season. 3 jobs at a time. This was for many years. With hard work.....maybe way too hard....and smart planning, I really turned my shit around. It wasn't easy. But I made it. I stayed out of trouble and focused on making my situation a little better every day, even if it wasn't much. I had to dig for that little silver lining most every day. Now? It's hard to believe I was ever that poor. View Quote |
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Can of spam fed 6, if we were able to afford it. There were days when there was nothing but flour and salt and what ever my brother was able to shoot that day. (I refuse to eat squirrel, rabbit, opossum to this day) Outhouse as a kid. (If you ever see a picture of a old wood burning stove and there are 2 small boards next to it, those boards were for sitting on in the winter so your ass wouldn't freeze to the seat.) Our school allowed me and my brothers to use the locker room shower 3 times a week.
Father was in WW2, really messed him up, got worst the older he got. I never understood until I started to research his unit's battle history, he still had nightmares up to the day he died in 90. (most of our money went for booze to help him cope with the nightmares) I will fight any man who tries to dishonor him. |
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Middle class kid here. basic home in the burbs. had what i needed and somethings i didnt. my dad bought me my first car in 1979 , it was a 1971 Ford galaxy 500 4 door. had a back set the size of sofa.. I worn that thing out.. I cut grass and actually started working at 15.
I guess i am considered upper middle class. like my parents basic home in the burbs. gave my kids way more than they needed both turned out great and productive members of society Man I feel for your guys that had squat growing up puts my child hood in perspective. I have couple of guys at work that grew up dirt poor. they are some hard working dudes. |
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My parents were dirt poor.
When my siblings came along, my folks were poor but on their way to middle class. Things were OK by the time I came along. |
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