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People who grew up working class have more stories than a canned line like, "My mom scrubbed toilets." I'll tell ya what it's like actually going up poor in America. First, you're ashamed to have friends come over to your house. Shame is a theme of growing up poor...
Part 2 is incoming. First, a response to a few thematic comments. - "I didn't know I was poor growing up." THEN YOU WERE NOT POOR. If you had grown up poor, you classmates and even teachers would have reminded you of this. Kids are cruel, as are adults.
Whenever we talk about American poverty, people say, WHAT ABOUT THESE OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD. This shows how uncomfortable it is for the average American to consider poverty. It's an issue we can't discuss, which is why the conversation switched to culture war issues.
Growing up poor, not fake poor like these journalists: - Margarine containers became food storage for left overs. (You couldn't afford Tupperware.) - Glass jars (pre-plastic age for Gen X) became new drinking cups. - A splash of Dawn in the bath for "bubbles."
My dad made $8 an hour at a factory, for a family of 6. Others had it worse but I’m not gonna let faker in the media (or Congress) act like they know something about growing up poor.
The first time I read a book and identified with an author's story of childhood, it was The Glass Castle. Though not a contest, she had it worse. But damn, saw so much of my life in this story.https://www.amazon.com/Glass-Castle-Memoir-Jeannette-Walls/dp/074324754X …
The shoes. If you were poor, the shoes proved it.
When you get made fun of every day for the no-name shoes you wear, and that was your only pair
AMEN. I knew dang well I was poor. I was embarrassed to be sent to the grocery store with food stamps. I hated not having a phone in the house. My DREAM was to have air conditioning. I wanted out. I worked my way out.
Reminded every day...
Interesting thread! I did my growing up years in the 60’s-we were poor but so were most of our neighbors. It was different than being poor in the 90’s because we have become such a materialistic society. In the 60’s, name brand things weren’t a thing. But poor IS poor.
Yup it's TRUE. If u were poor, u knew it.
By almost any measurement we were poor farmers growing up. I sympathize with the shame part but only later, not in my town. There were always people worse off so I didn't FEEL poor.
I grew up poor. There is no way of not knowing you're poor. I was aware of it everyday. If I missed school (I didn't eat that day, that free lunch, the one I raised my hand everyday in class for) was usually my only meal for the day.
Kudos for confronting an intricate topic with focus.
Not to mention, parents! “We don’t have the money for that.” “We can’t afford that.” They would constantly be commenting about our financial struggle.
I think there is a line when you realize it and that's different depending on the person. I realized it when dumpster fires during the summer are NOT supposed to be a normal thing. Like 8 I think?
I grew up in an a suburb. But my family was poor. Having now lived in rural areas, I think I had it worse in some ways. When you're one of only a handful of "poor" families, you *really* notice being poor. I identify w/many of the statements you made/thread.
So true. I grew up thinking everyone was like me and my family. I had no idea people were struggling. Shame causes silence. You can’t help if you don’t know there’s a problem. But if you really want to help poor people quit voting for open borders and globalization.
Trust me we where poor and my parents did a great job at hiding it. The lights got shut off and we’d have a day at the park gathering sticks. Come home for dinner use the sticks for fire to make dinner. Kids made fun of me for a lot of things but we had uniforms.
Latest clothes wasn’t obvious they didn’t know my mom made them. I got made fun of for being big and for reading too much for having a lisp and for helping clean the cafeteria. None of that involved being rich to me.
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