Growing up, were you poor or wealthy?

[Haole Girl]

In financial terms, that is...

I was a little of both, depending on the years.

We had some very difficult times. Once, on a 100f day in Sacramento, my mother didn't have .50 to give me for the neighborhood swimming pool (when I was around 14 yrs. old). So I mowed yards for money. And, I remember the two-week period when I ate nothing but oatmeal (plain oatmeal) as an adult. But, overall, I'd say I've been middle class most of my life.

Just wondering how you would describe your financial status, growing up.

[LSK]

1. slightly better off than average I guess, my father was a union electrician

So he always had a job with good benefits.

[Haole Girl]

3. Too bad even union jobs don't seem safe any longer. nt

[LSK]

5. he is retired now with good benefits and pension

Too bad not many get that anymore. On the other hand I worked with him a few summers and his job was shit. He worked over 40 years at it too.

[Haole Girl]

8. That is a long time to do a job like that...

..a friend of mine's father (when I was in elementary school) did that kind of work and was killed on the job. :-(

[enigmatic]

2. Poor

Welfare poor.

[Haole Girl]

4. Must have been difficult. I'm grateful that our tough times were...

..few and far between (compared to a lot of people's). :hug:

[Javaman]

6. long island wonder years, yes, it was as dull as it sounds. nt

[Haole Girl]

9. At least you were close to an exciting city! nt

[Javaman]

32. Thank god. Punk saved me! :) lol nt

[In_The_Wind]

7. We weren't rich but we never missed a meal.

My Dad was blue collar. He owned his own business.
We always had a small boat until we bought a houseboat and docked it at Lake Sidney Lanier.


I'll bet our old dock space is sitting high and dry x( now.

[Haole Girl]

11. That's important...

I know what it's like to go to bed hungry and I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy.

Too bad about the old dock space. :hug:

[KansDem]

22. That sounds like my upbringing...

When I graduated from high school in 1971, my stepfather was bringing home about $200 a week. That was enough to buy a 3-bedroom, 2-bath house in suburban Long Beach, California, two cars and clothes and food. My mom went to work when I was in 5th or 6th grade (mostly for "economic freedom"--my stepfather controlled the checkbook), but we never went hungry or cold. We only had the basics and are vacations were generally driving back here to Kansas to spend a couple of weeks with relatives every two years or so, but it was a comfortable upbringing.

[CTyankee]

10. Growing up in the 50s was good. Energy and credit were cheap.

Dallas was booming and expanding. My parents were able to invest in the stock market which did well over time.

We weren't wealthy but in those days things were much cheaper. Health care was never an issue. Since my parents had lived as young adults through the Depression, they never overspent. there were no credit cards yet, but we never needed them anyway.

We were white and that was enormously privileging. There was a terrible downside for blacks and Hispanics in Dallas. They had to deal with poverty and racism. It was still a time of segregation. When whites got a brand new school, blacks were given their old one. It was shameful and a big reason I left Dallas when I went away to college and never lived there again.

[Haole Girl]

13. I'm here in the Dallas area, as you may know...

...and the scars still linger. There was a news story, recently, about wanting to keep a segregation sign over a drinking fountain "as a reminder." I find it ridiculous, personally, that the sign is still in place...and think it reveals a lot about the city of Dallas.

[CTyankee]

45. Up until my mother died at 94 in 2005, I visited Dallas 4 times a year.

I haven't the heart to go back, I will be too sad. Dallas is probably better than lots of places tho. When I was growing up it had already attracted many northerners to its financial center and fashion industry. Dallas women were always among some of the best dressed. I think that helped Dallas become more sophisticated and urbane...

[ceile]

12. Poor

My mother even though she was an RN had to work 3 jobs. 4 kids-a young one at home (me), 2 in college and 1 in the Army. I used to catch her crying every now and then- worried about paying the bills. One Xmas she didn't have money for presents, but someone slipped $300 under our door. We think maybe our church took up a collection. But in other ways I was spoiled rotten. I had/have an amazing extended family and have never wanted for love and affection. I'll take that over money any day.

[Haole Girl]

15. We had four children in our family too...

..and it was quite a struggle at times. But, I know what you mean about never wanting for love and affection. Our extended family of cousins, aunts and uncles, saved my mother's sanity during a very difficult time... when my father was shipped overseas.

[redqueen]

19. It's so good to know you had family...

our family was fractured by racism, so... bleh.

[ceile]

31. That must have been rough. n/t

[DarkTirade]

14. I'm not sure if I was on the very lower edge of middle class, or on the upper edge of poor.

My parents managed to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table, but not much else for the most part. Only reason we had a computer was because my parents used it for business purposes, I.E., it paid for itself.

They did make it a point to put aside enough money to try and get us some kind of (hopefully) useful skill in the form of getting us lessons for something. Since we're a fairly musical family, that mostly meant music lessons. My older brother sang and played piano. (our piano was a hand-me-down from someone who was just going to throw it away. Hooray for free stuff that would normally be really expensive!) My step-sister played trumpet through high school, although she never pursied it beyond that. My stepbrother tried a myriad of things, and eventually ended up teaching himself his own set of useful skills. :) The only ones in our family that have continued with music beyond high school are my little sister and myself (she's still in high school but she's planning to major in music in college like I did.), we're both primarily violinists.

And personally... I'm glad they managed that. Because if they'd just given in to what peer pressure told us we wanted as kids and used what little money they had to buy us a Nintendo and lots of toys, I wouldn't be the intelligent, creative person that I am today.

Besides... since we were right on the edge of middle-class-dom, all my friends had a Nintendo anyway. :P So I could play over at their houses.

[Haole Girl]

16. It should be mandatory for every child to be given the opportunity....

..to learn at least ONE musical instrument. Glad your parents had the wisdom to do that for you! :D

[DarkTirade]

33. Well, in my family's case...

let's see... my stepdad played trumpet in the army band when he was younger. That's why my step-sister took up trumpet. His first wife, my stepsiblings' mother, was the music teacher at the school I went to as a child. My stepbrother and I were friends in pre-school before his mom died and eventually his dad remarried to my mom.

My stepbrother was probably the least musical one in the family, tried flute and it just didn't work for him. But he was in chorus every year from middle school all the way through high school, and he was one of the best in his class.

My mom sings and plays piano and guitar. My brother sings and plays piano, and just started teaching himself guitar the last few years. My little sister started on piano, but decided it wasn't for her and switched to violin at a young age. She isn't much of a singer, but she'll cover the alto parts when we're doing christmas carols. :)

And I'm the one who loves music, but prefers to create rather than perform... so I've dabbled in a half-dozen instruments and spend most of my time writing music. (If you wanna separate every single instrument I've ever played, technically I could claim to have played a dozen or so instruments including voice, but I really don't consider keyboard and piano to be two different ones, or electric and acoustic guitar, or the various sizes of recorder I played in the renaissance music ensemble I was in, etc. So it's really only 6 plus voice. :) ) I'm also the token bass in the family, since both the other male singers are in the baritone-tenor range. :)

[KamaAina]

150. That sounds about right.

There was the time our fridge didn't work, so we ended up leaving the milk outside on a ledge (in winter in Conn.) Did you know milk freezes into flat chips rather than crystals? Or the time we put all the bills in a hat and Mom let me draw the winner. "And this month's winner is... the phone company!"

Don't even get me started on the cars. One of them she sold for fifty bucks. Okay, it was the late '70s. But fifty bucks?!

[DarkTirade]

168. Luckily we never had refridgerator problems...

because we lived in FL that that trick wouldn't have worked. :)

We did have to go with a barely functional stove and a drier that threatened to overheat and burn the house down for quite a while before my parents could afford to replace them though.

[redqueen]

17. Poor.

Welfare, food stamp, and Christmas courtesy of our church poor.

[Haole Girl]

20. Wow...

all your life? :hug:

[redqueen]

23. Nah...

my mom and dad both went back to school in middle age and got nursing degrees, and after that we were middle class... but I had run away by then.

It's not so bad really... it taught me that money's definitely not everything, that you can make do with much less than you think, that gratitude for what you have is paramount, and it gave me huge amounts of empathy for people living in poverty everywhere. :)

[Haole Girl]

24. You are wise

..beyond your years. :-)

[redqueen]

29. Aw, you flatter me.

You do know I'm 38, right? :P

:hug:

[Haole Girl]

34. No!

I really thought you were younger. But, hey, when you're my age everyone is young! :hug:

[terrya]

18. If those are the two choices, we were poor.

Lower middle class, actually. Dad was a blue collar guy...worked in a steel fabricating plant. He didn't make a whole lot of money. We had some difficult times, also. Dad's union was on strike for 6 months...at one point, Dad had to apply for food stamps.

[Haole Girl]

21. Oh. I should have put more than those two choices...

..sorry about that!

[zanne]

25. My father worked in a shoe factory.

He had five kids, my mother was a stay-at-home and he built us a house. We always ate well, and though we couldn't afford vacations or any frills, it was a good life. I never considered myself to be poor until I got into high school and found out that my family's income was in the poverty range. Oh--my father belonged to a union.

[Haole Girl]

27. Sounds like your parents held things together well

You were fortunate.

[NewWaveChick1981]

26. Neither.

We were definitely not wealthy, nor were we poor. My parents had some rough financial times, but my mother made sure we had a roof over our heads and food to eat. We never starved, but I do remember some really tight times. Dad was continuously losing/quitting jobs (stemmed from his alcoholism), but Mom always held it together.

[Haole Girl]

28. It's just amazing how many times I've heard similar stories...

..of the mother holding things together. I'm sure there are many times it's reversed, though. At any rate, I'm glad your Mom held it together!! :hi:

[Broken_Hero]

30. better than average

my dad had a good union job, and he was able to provide for 9 of us, rather well...btw, IBEW, he spent 27yrs working for the local power company.

[Haole Girl]

35. Hi petersond!

9 of you!! Wow! Good to see you around, btw. :hi:

[Broken_Hero]

37. yeah, 9 of us

there was more, but most of the time it was 9 of us at home...a few step brothers/sister parted with the main chunk of our household, but for the most part there was 9 of us.

[johnnie]

36. Started out "poor"

6 of us in a two bedroom house, a lot of beans and weenies and not much of a lot. By the time I was 8 or so we started doing better and then better. Basically ended up middle class but not rich. It wasn't bad.

[Haole Girl]

38. Glad it wasn't bad

:hi:

[DarkTirade]

60. Yeah, that's pretty much how it was for my little sister...

because with 4 out of the 5 kids out of the house by the time she was 8, suddenly my parents had more money without all those mouths to feed. :P

[BarenakedLady]

39. Neither

lower middle class maybe on good years. More working class I imagine.

[Haole Girl]

40. Hi BNL!

Wish I could keep this therad going....but have to get back to work!! :hi:

[SteppingRazor]

41. Upper middle class, I'd say.

Went to private school 1st-10th grade, had a car my last year of high school, parents paid for college. All in all, I got damn lucky to get the parents I had.

[Haole Girl]

42. Yes, you were lucky!

:hi:

[SteppingRazor]

46. Oh, like I said in my first post, I do appreciate that fact...

of course, I also had to deal with parents who were conservative Republicans, so it's not as though it was all good. :P

[Breeze54]

43. I think we were poor but we never missed a meal.

I come from a large family, 7 kids and two parents, one paycheck.

All of the kids went to catholic school and I remember not having

new clothes a lot or lots of hand me downs. We rarely went out to eat

but we did get to go to the ocean for vacation every year in a rental

beach house but the owner was an old friend and gave my parents a cut rate.

I really don't remember getting anything new until I was much older but

we lived in a huge house that was the pits when my parents bought it.

My parents spent all their spare time fixing it up and making it better.

Some kids treated me crappy as if we were rich because the house was big

and because we went to parochial school but we moved there from a two bedroom

apt when I was a baby!! :P My Dad said when they had to start hanging the kids

from hammocks to sleep, it was time to move. ;) We needed a big house but we only

had one full bath. But we always had food and a lot of love, chaos, bickering and laughter.

We didn't even have a car until I was ten years old. We walked everywhere we had to go.

[Haole Girl]

59. "Love, chaos, bickering and laughter...."

Brings back memories of our big house(s) and how it was. :-)

[LaurenG]

44. Poor but better off than many people

things got much better the older we got but both parents worked and we still had to use the Mormon food pantry occasionally. (When I was little they were the only source of help and we weren't Mormon but I was always grateful for what they did for the community).

[Haole Girl]

87. I remember the Mormon church helping a family in our neighborhood...

..the woman had been beaten up by her husband, and had several children. It was amazing how they stepped up and helped them. Glad things improved for your family, btw. :hi:

[Missy Vixen]

47. We were lower middle class

My father was a Boeing machinist and my mom was a housewife. Everyone else we knew had pretty much the same background, so it seemed fairly normal to me.

Julie

[PassingFair]

48. Another snot-nosed lower middle classmate here!

:hi:

My mother was a Speech Therapist and
my father was a Salesman.

They were GREAT parents!

[Missy Vixen]

51. We're the fun people, aren't we?

:hi:

Let's face it, you can take the girl out of the lower-middle-class neighborhood, but I'm still there in my heart. My parents weren't perfect, but they did their best to make sure that I would grow up to understand that I am blessed beyond measure.

Julie

[PassingFair]

53. The best! Well educated, with nothing to lose! n/t

[kineneb]

153. also lower m.c.- grandfather was an autobody repairman (1960s)

and a proud member of the IAMAW union. We never lacked anything, but everything was budgeted. They both remembered the Depression and the rationing during WWII, so nothing was wasted. Grandma would spend every summer canning and freezing the food from our garden.

They raised me after my parents divorced.

[FloridaJudy]

49. Certainly not rich, but not really poor either

My parents were graduate students. They had scholarships (remember them?) and held part-time jobs to keep groceries on the table. My dad also had the GI bill, and they bought a run-down house with a GI loan, so we had a roof - albeit a leaky one - over our head. We also had my maternal grandparents living with us, and they had a small, barely profitable business making custom furniture, until my grandfather got too sick to work (it was my parents' shame that he died in a "charity" hospital - they had those back then). We had no car, but public transportation was cheap and reliable. No television, though we rented a small one for my grandfather while he was still well enough to care for at home, and returned it when he was permanently hospitalized (tuberculosis and Hodgkin's).

Christmas and birthday gifts were home made. So were clothes and all meals. My family made all home repairs themselves, sometimes having to do it over and over again until we figured out how to do it right. We had a vegetable garden that my grandmother tended, and a wood stove fed with left-over lumber my parents scrounged from construction sites. Vacations were trips to my father's army buddies' houses in distant cities, and in turn we gave them housing for their own (that run-down house was a huge old Victorian). Our only "luxury" was books, and my mother was a canny used book-store shopper. We played a lot of chess and card games - I learned math from poker played for the contents of the "button jar".

But we knew our strained finances wouldn't last forever, and they didn't. Eventually my parents got their degrees, and got decent-paying jobs. We got a car, a record player, and a gas stove. We raised the vegetables because they tasted better that way, and not because we had to. We bought new books. Still didn't bother with a television, though.

I guess you could call our life-style Bohemian, rather than hard-core poverty. I loved it. Today that no-longer-run-down house in Berkeley, California is worth several million bucks. I wish I could afford to still live in it.

[Haole Girl]

55. A common thread, I'm readining, is an optimism....

..our parents had. An optimism that things would get better. :-)

p.s., I hated having a TV in my 20's. My older sis bought me one because she said I was "out of touch" when I didn't realize John Wayne had died until 6 years after!

[FloridaJudy]

166. Actually, I think this is pretty typical of grad students

My parent's had to live a bit more frugally than most because they had small children (birth control and abortion weren't as available in the forties and fifties) and ailing parents. But this sort of reduced, cost-trimming standard of living isn't uncommon for people finishing their degrees.

I remember having to scrimp to get by in grad school. At one point we had a running contest to see who among my fellow scholars could come up the tastiest recipe for the least cost. And who could keep a junker car running longest. And who had the most miserable part-time job. I emptied and cleaned bed pans on weekends, and wasn't even close to a winner in that one! The guys who tarred roofs in Florida - in summer - were a shoe-in. My psychiatrist was once once of them.

It continues to this day. A friend of mine in her forties is now in grad school - having had a marriage and a career which foundered - and has to practice the same economies. And she's going to graduate with a mountain of debt, something I and my parents avoided. Scholarship money has dried up, and work/study has been replaced by unpaid Internships. It also costs a hell of a lot more to attend a University, tuition and expenses having risen faster than the cost of living.

But there's the same optimism. A temporary reduction in living standards is tolerable, even challenging, if one knows it won't last forever. And if one knows one is working toward a goal of an interesting career that pays a decent salary. It's not the same as being trapped in a dead-end, minimum wage job, or even worse, being laid-off in a depressed economy. Hope may not put groceries on the table, but it's infinitely easier to go a little hungry when you have it.

Those guys tarring roofs in Florida who aren't in grad school have my deepest sympathy.

[Blue-Jay]

50. Poor, but not destitute. (most of the time)

[Haole Girl]

56. Glad you weren't destitute...

..it is a horrible feeling.

[Blue-Jay]

61. It is indeed a horrible feeling.

I didn't experience it as a kid.....and that's all I'm going to say about that.

[BigBluenoser]

52. Some good times... some bad times...

Dad was an enlisted man (Military Police) in the CDN armed forces & mom was a nurse. We were "okay" most of the time by our standards (eastern Canada is pretty low income outside of the cities) but had a real bad spell when dad retired from the army and tried his hand at being a financial advisor. Really did not work out and we relied on my Mom's income exclusively for 2-3 years (she was no longer a nurse, and was now a Clerk, approx $23,000CDN a year). Dad was forced to work retail for a while and joined the militia (reserves) as a Warrant Officer and had to work 7 days a week. Things got better in time for me to go to university (thank the diety of your choice) when dad went back into "Law Enforcement" as a Deputy Sheriff (in Canada, they do prisoner transport and court security - very diff from the states). Some lean years, but overall we were "middlin" I guess. They did good enough to get two kids through their undergraduate degrees. My sister is now a high level recruiter for an engineering firm and I'm doing my PhD in management. They did pretty good work for a Newfy and a Herringchoker (New Brunswicker) from small towns, I couldn't have asked for a better home life. No poverty, but no money lol, but we had lots of used books, 3 channels on the Tee Vee and lots of love. I hope I do half as good with my kids when we have them (er... not me and the OP... but me and my wife that is!)

[Haole Girl]

57. Welcome to DU!

Your last line made me laugh! lol :hi:

[BigBluenoser]

62. Thanks for the welcome

Glad to give you a giggle!

[Breeze54]

83. Hey, you gave me a giggle too but

I was trying to be polite and wait for the OP to welcome you. ;)

But now that KC2 has done that....

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[BigBluenoser]

84. My mom always told me my head was in the clouds...

And now I see your welcome and it looks great!

Thanks for the skywriting!

[hyphenate]

108. My dad was a Newfie

and Mom is from Cape Breton. We always called him (and relatives on his side) "goofy newfies."

We spent most of our summers at my mom's parents' farm in Cape Breton. I very much miss it, but it's not the same anymore at all. Too many new houses gone up, and "modernized." My cousin lives in the old house, with indoor plumbing and few animals, a cat, dog and goat. A far cry from the cows, chickens, sheep and horses of so long ago...

[BigBluenoser]

172. Yeah, the Atlantic region sure has changed...

...even since I was a kid (I'm 32). Heck I barely recognize the part of NS I grew up in. The unpaved road we used to skate on in the winter was paved a long time ago... and there are now two suburbs *shudder* just up the road from my folk's place. In the last decade McDonalds, Superstore, Tim Hortons a giant sobey's etc. have popped up. It's just wierd lol. My pops grew up without power and running water in NFL and had subsistence livestock to supplement what the boats brought in. Even with power, Black Dack Brook Newfoundland is still pretty er... rustic lol. Loved going there and working the boats when I was younger. Mind you, the age of the in-shore fisherman with a small boat and an outboard is now pretty much gone :(

[Tuesday Afternoon]

54. middle to upper-middle. n/t

[Haole Girl]

58. Hi TA

:hi:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

74. Hey KC2

I have known poor as an adult but, until I was 16 my family was fairly well off.

[cemaphonic]

63. Middle Class, mostly

My Mom was widowed shortly before I was born, but she had a good job, life insurance, and lots of family support, so we managed OK. When I was five, she remarried, and my new Dad was just starting a 30-year career with the Federal Gov., so we were solidly entrenched in the suburban middle class for the rest of my childhood.

[Haole Girl]

65. So sorry about your bio father

Hope your step dad was a good one. Sounds like he provided for your family well. :hug:

[cemaphonic]

79. Yeah, he's great.

I never even call him (or think of him as) a stepdad unless it is ambiguous. He retired early a couple years ago, as one of those longtime govt. employees that couldn't do his job effectively under the bumbling of the Bush administration, (You know how awful air travel has become post 9/11? Imagine trying to be in charge of a big chunk of that mess) and spends his time working for Habitat for Humanity, and maintaining hiking trails.

[LiberalEsto]

64. Poor

Struggling immigrants

[Haole Girl]

66. By your user name...

I would guess... Latin America? Sorry, I have a curious nature.

[LiberalEsto]

156. Estonia

just south of Finland.
My folks lived in a displaced person camp in Germany after WW2 for several years before coming to the US in 1949 with virtually nothing.

[Haole Girl]

163. Thank you!

Wow... I'm so glad they survived that! :hug:

[TK421]

67. Comfortable....definitely not rich, but we weren't poor

:shrug:

[Haole Girl]

68. Hi TK421!

Running out the door now.... have a good weekend!! :hi:

[TK421]

71. You do the same..I'm stuck here at work

but I'll have a beer for you later on ;-)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

69. I'd say, near the bottom of the "neither poor nor wealthy" bunch. -nt

[Haole Girl]

88. Thanks. nt

[Bennyboy]

70. I was poor, middle class then rich.....

Kind of the way it has gone for me in my adult years too....

[Haole Girl]

89. You're going the right direction, I guess! nt

[Bennyboy]

131. No, now I am back to poor again...

Completes the cycle...

[grannylib]

72. Perfectly comfortable. Not wealthy by any means, but we had

everything we needed and a fair amount of what we wanted, so can't complain at all. It was actually rather idyllic, not in terms of finances, but the times and the community - totally stereotypical middle American Dick and Jane childhood, in many ways. Had just enough "spice" thrown in with my dad being very active in the civil rights and antiwar movements, and taught on a college campus, so at least there was that *lol*

[Haole Girl]

90. Spices are good! :-) nt

[Inchworm]

73. Both extremes

:hi:

[Haole Girl]

91. Now..

..there must be a story there. Tell us someday, ok? :hi:

[Inchworm]

157. I need to check the Statute of Limitations

hehe

:hi:

[hobbit709]

75. Broke in terms of money

Rich in terms of experiences

[Haole Girl]

92. I know what you mean.

:-)

[Silver Swan]

76. We didn't have much money

But we weren't "poor," either.

My father, who had been a farmer, died when I was eight. My mother went to work in a small factory for 95 cents an hour in order to support four children.

This was back in the mid-1950's, when a week's groceries for five could be bought for less than twenty dollars. We lived on the farm, which was owned by my grandfather, so we didn't need to worry about a roof over our heads--even though the house did not have a bath tub or a shower!

But most people in the town where we went to school weren't much better off. There wasn't as great a gap between rich and poor as there seems to be now.

[Haole Girl]

93. Do you mind me asking...

..if your house didn't have a bath tub or shower, how did you handle bathing? I hope I am not being rude by asking this.

:shrug:

[Silver Swan]

123. How to bathe without a tub or shower

Glad you asked.

Baths were accomplished in a galvanized metal tub placed in the middle of the kitchen floor. For a child, the tub was big enough to sit down in. The tub was filled with water from the sink, using a pail. When the bath was over, the water was emptied outside.

Of course, bathing was not a daily event. Bath night was Saturday night. And no, we weren't stinky.

We did get a real bathtub installed when I was about twelve years old. But to this day, I believe that daily bathing is greatly overrated!

[Haole Girl]

126. Thanks for answering that!

:hi:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

130. Not if you live in the South.

Where it's hot and humid, daily bathing is a necessity if you don't want to smell your own pits every evening.

[JoePhilly]

77. Lower middle most of the time ... hovering above poor.

Recall mom flipping the couch cushions onto the floor hoping to find enough change to buy milk. She sent me to the store knowing that I was 4 cents short hoping they'd let me slide. They did. And we paid it back the next week.

[Haole Girl]

94. omg...

Your story brought back a painful memory. That must have been embarrassing for you. :hug:

[Redstone]

78. Poor as dirt. But lucky to have older cousins, so we could get clothes & bikes & stuff

as hand-me-downs.

Some kids in town didn't have even that option.

And NOWHERE near as poor as Mrs R was, growing up. She and her cousins played with dolls made from sticks and leaves, and that's the truth. And they wore dresses made from stitched-together parts of worn-out adult dresses. No electricity. No running water. They cooked dinner on an open fire in the back yard, and washed in the river.

Redstone

[Haole Girl]

96. Wow...

THAT is poor. I'm sure she truly appreciates where she is today.

[Ramsey]

80. Upper middle class mostly

A few leaner years, especially when my parents had 3 kids in college or grad school.

[Haole Girl]

98. Having several kids in college/grad school would be tough.

We used to joke about the way three of us were 4 years apart & how our parents planned it that way for our college educations! :hi:

[Midlodemocrat]

128. Same here. My dad had his most productive years in the 70s, when

he had two in college and two in private school. We never wanted for a thing. I feel very blessed.

[Arugula Latte]

81. Probably middle to slightly upper-middle class.

We had a four bedroom suburban home, two cars (nothing fancy), and took nice vacations. All on one income. I even had a horse for a few years (didn't keep him anywhere fancy, but, still ...). We weren't swimming in money, but, it was the 70s and 80s, and it seemed like life was easier then. We also had generous grandparents who started the college funds.

I knew plenty of rich people who lived in the ritzier parts of the town. I wasn't crazy about most of them, on the whole. A lot of them were just shallow a-holes concerned only with appearances, it seemed to me.

[Haole Girl]

99. It's interesting, isn't it, how much more a single income could provide...

..back then.

As for people living in the better parts of town... well, it is a long story & I'm a little tired. Maybe I'll save that for another day.

[Lyric]

82. Very, very poor.

Not much better now, but I'm working on it.

[Haole Girl]

100. Sounds like you're doing well in school...

..and that is a very good start! :hug:

[deutsey]

85. Poor. My mom was a waitress at a diner and my 1st stepfather was a heroin addict

and unemployed most of the time. Social services almost put me and my sister in foster care.

But like the guy in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" who got turned into a newt, we got bettuh. Well, most of us did.

[Haole Girl]

101. Wow... I'm so glad you didn't have to go into foster care.

:hug:

[Scooter24]

86. I come from a wealthy family

Father a corp. lawyer, Mother a pediatric surgeon. My Grandparents started investing in real estate and stocks in the 50s and were the ones to loan me the money to start my own business at age 16.

Growing up I was pretty much spoiled...designer clothes, nice car, vacations all around the world. But I never had a close relationship to my parents due to their crazy schedules. We were lucky to get 20 min. at dinner together. When I went off to college, my parents paid for everything...tuition, my condo and all my bills even though I was earning quite a bit of money. I had a very close group of friends who all came from similar backgrounds. I also met my current boyfriend as a Freshman in college.

I don't think we ever ran into financial problems. My family are savvy investors and money has always been there for when we need it.

Overall, I had an amazing and blessed life so far and wouldn't change anything.

[Haole Girl]

103. You were fortunate, but it sounds a little sad....

..about your parents being too busy to spend more time with you. But that happens, in my experience, with all incomes. :hug:

[hyphenate]

95. Pretty damned poor

if you ask me. But we didn't mind. Since gas was a thousand times cheaper in that time, we would take drives, go visiting, walks, and go visit my dad who was working.

Mostly spaghetti for dinner, some chicken, and proper meals on Sundays. Clothes were bought at factory outlets (which were REAL factory outlets, not like the tourist traps they have now with that designation), and sometimes my grandmother knitted something.

It didn't "feel" like we were poor, but I can recall my grandmother sending food home with us when we went visiting, and eating at McDonald's was a major treat, just like the infrequent trips to Dairy Queen. I don't recall us eating out very much at all otherwise, except on our birthday.

[Haole Girl]

105. Had more than my fair share of spaghetti growing up...

..still do, in fact! :hi:

[hyphenate]

110. Me, too!

You would think after having so much of it, I'd never want to see it again! But my aunt's boyfriend was Italian, and I spent my share of time with them, and he could cook the best things....

[Zuiderelle]

97. Middle class. But I would have traded it for more love.

[Haole Girl]

106. Aww

:hug: :hug: :hug:

[Zuiderelle]

122. Thanks

There's a silver-lining. At least I know how not to treat my child from that. :)

[laylah]

In between.

My dad was a factory worker. Raised 6 kids (and a few grandkids) on $96 a week. We always had what we needed.

I remember knowing when Dad was on strike (he was a Teamster) because we would have Poor Old Man's Potato soup, which was made with water, when he wasn't on strike, we'd have Rich Old Man's Potato soup, made with milk. Of course, we always had more but that is one thing that has always stuck in my mind.

My mom planted a huge garden that was known county wide for it's abundance, then canned everything in it. Daddy hunted and fished, all to supplement the table/freezer. I never felt poor. That counts for something.

[Haole Girl]

107. Fresh fruits and vegetables....

..if this generation could only be so lucky.

[Richard Steele]

102. We were so poor, I never even knew it.

We had so little money, that it was never a subject of discussion
in our home, and it never even occurred to me that other folks
had more $$$ than we did.

I was probably around 30 years old before a random childhood memory
suddenly jumped "outside the box", and I was dumbfounded by the
sudden flash of insight, "Holy Crap! We were POOR!".


All my life, I had just thought that my family was incredibly
clever and resourceful. No one ever told me it wasn't by CHOICE. :shrug:

[Haole Girl]

109. Interesting

If you didn't know it, your family WAS very clever and resourceful! :-)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

104. very wealthy for the most part

[Haole Girl]

111. Hi pri

Hope you are catching up with everything. :hi:

[seemunkee]

112. Mostly middle class, with ups and downs.

Depended on my dad's health. He was a UPS driver and then went blind. We had years of little income while he went to school and got a masters in economics. I was pretty young and didn't notice too much, as long as I had a bike and fields to play in things seemed OK. Then things went well for a while until his kidney's failed and he passed away. My mom did a damn good job raising my brother and I and getting us through college on his pension and her salary as a librarian.

[Haole Girl]

113. Having done my share of Library work...

..and knowing how little it pays...kudos to her for making it work! :hi:

[seemunkee]

129. She was fiercely independant

and became very adept and working the system. Having to deal with Social Security, GI Bill, Veteran's benefits, etc. We never went without.

[Nikia]

114. It ranged quite a bit

I suppose that we were never what would be considered in many people's eyes as "wealthy" and on the flip side of things, we probably weren't what would be called destitute. I have had a wide range of experiences though and have emphasized different points to different people. In telling some of my "poor" stories to lower and lower middle class people though, I was suprised to find out that they thought of my parents as middle class people down on their luck who made mistakes that real poor people would know better about, that is that they insisted on doing things in middle class ways that lead to being worse off in providing the necessities.

[Haole Girl]

115. Oh...

I know exactly what you're talking about. The "What did they think would happen?" response! :hi:

[GOPisEvil]

116. Pretty darn good overall.

Dad was a career military man (enlisted). It gave us a good life. Not extravagant, but a good life.

[Haole Girl]

119. If you don't mind me asking...

What branch of the military and what rank? Just being nosy! :hi:

[GOPisEvil]

124. Air Force - E-9

[Haole Girl]

127. My Dad retired Lt Col, USAF

:patriot:

[applegrove]

117. Upper middle class. Didn't know it though till I was about 10.

[Haole Girl]

120. Really. So...

..everyone around you must been upper middle class, too, I imagine.

[applegrove]

125. Yup.

[Sweet Freedom]

118. Fairly poor

My poor mom worked her ass off for $1.87/hr when I was little and didn't get any child support (meanwhile, dad was driving a corvette). I remember when I was a teenager, we shared an efficiency apartment and used to eat tomato sandwiches because that was all the food in the house. I got my first job at 14 washing floors.

Needless to say, I know how to stretch (and appreciate) a dollar. Although, I'm much better off now, and believe my childhood taught me empathy and compassion for those in need -- and I have a soft spot for single moms. :hug:

[Haole Girl]

121. I'm glad you kept your empathy and compassion.

Many people seem to forget. :hug:

[SarahB]

132. Fairly poor

I never starved, but my parents were divorced and my brother had multiple disabilities. Having had nothing handed to me, I don't take things for granted, nor does my happiness surround money. However, I've gone through enough and am enough of a realist (especially in this economy) to not expect grandiose self-actualization as a consequence of making a living either.

[Haole Girl]

133. That's never a good idea...

..in *any* economy. :hi:

[spinbaby]

134. Kind of both

My parents were very well off and we lived in an affluent suburb. But they were both depression era and were extremely frugal. I spent much of my childhood in clothes that were too big because I was supposed to grow into them.

[Haole Girl]

136. Yeah..

I remember my parents buying clothes - and shoes - a little big, for that very reason. :hug:

[MrSlayer]

135. Neither.

Middle of the road. We were never poor but never rich either.

[Haole Girl]

137. Oh...all of a sudden I have that Pretenders song stuck in my head!

:hi:

edit to add a link for you: http://youtube.com/watch?v=mdd0PJqslfE

[MrSlayer]

142. Wooo Oooo Oooo Oooo.

I know that tune.

[flvegan]

138. Relatively poor.

My first decade was pretty good. Then, parents separated. My mom, I don't think, took anything from him that wasn't an emergency. She was a teacher, so as you can imagine, it wasn't steak and lobster every night.

But, we didn't go without. I never missed a meal, never went hungry. Power was never off, phone never out. There was just little extra. So, at 11 or so, I took on two paper routes (I'm still a workaholic to this day).

My mom sacrificed so much for us, and went without so many things. That's why I try to do stuff for her when I can.

No regrets. Got my independence from my 9 year old latchkey kid experience. Made me work hard, and my brother as well. We're both doing okay today (knock wood).

[Haole Girl]

139. You know...

I think starting to work young builds a good work ethic. Just a theory I have. I might be completely wrong, though, too! :hi:

[Mike03]

140. Both. When I was very young, we were working class.

My Dad worked so hard to improve our lives. I can't even describe how hard he worked. That is one reason why it's so painful to me that he has cancer now. He never got to rest.

Thanks to him, and the knowledge he passed on to me, we are very comfortable, and probably will be for some time.

But anything can change at any time.

So who knows?

[Haole Girl]

143. I'm sorry to hear about your father..

..I remember reading something about his situation, but I didn't realize he worked his entire life and never got to rest. Sounds sad. Some people, though, prefer to work hard... and never stop. My own Dad is 76 years old and still works. He is very comfortable, and could draw several different retirement checks, etc., but prefers working.

Guess what I'm trying to say is, please try not to feel guilty about how hard your father worked. :hug:

[Mike03]

148. Aw, thanks.

He does love to work, and thanks to him, he has taught me a hell of a lot.

He told me that if he had his life to do over again, he would not do one single thing differently. And that makes me really happy.

Thanks for your post... It means a lot.

[TexasLady]

141. lower middle working class?

I dunno...Always had food and a roof.

both parents always worked.


I'm older now, and still consider us in about that bracket, and we have friends of all walks of life.

Last Christmas we hit hard times. Some wonderful friends brought my kids and I a helluva care package, and my youngest a bike. We've always been able to do okay..but the past year has been really difficult.

We didn't ask, we just simply received a beautiful gift out of nowhere.

Man, that's a scary place to be, but our gifts were heartfelt and soo appreciated. It was THE best Christmas for us EVER. I felt pretty dad gum rich last holiday season. :D

My only hope is that one day, when I finally get these kids schooled and outta here, lol, that we can pay it forward...that's what it's all about.

[Haole Girl]

145. Yes

That's what it's all about. :D

[femmocrat]

144. I never realized that we were poor!

We had everything we needed, a nice house, plenty of food, but no money for "extras". We didn't have (or need) a car and I wore hand-me-downs. We never took vacations, but did plenty of other things. We were really a lot like others in our neighborhood. Families lived comfortably on one income in those days.

It wasn't until I applied for financial aid for college that I saw how surprisingly low my dad's income was. My mom didn't work when I was growing up.

[Haole Girl]

146. Odd question for you...

I wore hand-me-downs A LOT growing up and still prefer to wear the same clothes several times per week after washing them, of course), instead of digging through my closet for something I haven't worn in a long time. Do you do this, too? Just tossing around an idea in my little brain tonight! lol

[femmocrat]

158. No, I'm the opposite.

I never wear the same outfit twice during the school year! Seriously! I have a different outfit for every day of the school year. I'm a real clothes horse. In the summer I live in the same couple of pairs of shorts and tank tops, though.

I attribute my clothing addiction to having to wear hand-me-downs (from my aunts) and dresses my aunt would make for me from patterns. When I was a teenager, I learned to sew and designed all of my gowns for formal dances! I was always whipping up some outfit from fabric and a Simplicity pattern. Funny... home sewing has become a very expensive hobby in recent years since imports are so much cheaper. Did you ever make any of your own clothing?

:hi:

[Haole Girl]

161. Yes, I made some of my own clothing...

...learned to sew a little bit, but didn't like it that much. I went to work in a clothing store at 15 and 1/2 and bought my own clothes with what I earned & my employee discount until I left for college. :hi:

[Contrary1]

147. Looking back, I would say we were on the high end of the poor scale.

I remember Mom and Pop sitting at the kitchen table one evening going over the budget to see how they could squeeze out the extra $8.00 that the monthly mortgage had gone up.

We never had the nicest clothes or furniture, but they always seemed to have a few spare bucks to lend out to a friend or relative in need.

I learned a lot about what was really important just by watching them.

[Haole Girl]

149. Your parents sound very kind hearted

:-)

[last_texas_dem]

151. Middle class

Not what most people would consider wealthy, but I don't remember ever really doing without. My father was a junior high school principal; my mom stayed at home until she went back to work as a teacher, and later a librarian, when I was 11 years old.

[Haole Girl]

154. Glad your parents made it work!

:hi:

[Joey Liberal]

152. poor n/t

[Haole Girl]

155. On that note..

I'm going to call it a night...

and try to let this thread die a natural death.



Thanks to everyone for your responses!


:hi:

[Orangepeel]

159. working class. Not many luxuries, but always had food, clothes and heat

[Haole Girl]

162. Thanks

:hi:

[SPKrazy]

160. Family was decidedly middle class

poorer when I was young, then with a little luck, and improved job and all my family of origin had a little more money.

My dad is far from wealthy, but he does pretty well for a retiree. Says he makes more money retired than he did working. Investments, retirement pensions, social security, etc.

He earned it, he deserves to live as well as he can in my opinion.

As a child I don't remember we had a lot of money at all. But we ate, we had a roof. We took trips in the car to see my grandparents usually across states once or twice a year. There were a few trips to other places close by. They always tried to include travel in our lives. We weren't poor, but we were far, far from rich by comparison with Americans.

I suppose in comparison with 3rd worlders, we were freakin' brazillionaires. lol

[Rising Phoenix]

164. started out loaded

then we lost everything, so we were broke as fuck, but we still lived in our urber rich community and went to school with millionaire kids....kept the house thanks to a technicality. So it was rough. Financially we have never recovered

[Lorien]

165. Parents were divorced. Mom was poor, dad wealthy

but we lived with mom.

[baby_mouse]

167. Well off. Pretty well off, really.

2 doctor parents. They kept complaining about how we were poor, though...

[mondo joe]

169. Poor. But in a big poor extended Sicilian family you share everything, so it always

seemed okay.

[clyrc]

170. Middle Class

Dad was an Air Force pilot, and mom was a housewife. We would have been better off, but mom spent money like crazy and I actually remember going hungry one month because she had to have a gold-plated ash tray. Mom and dad are both bad with money, and even though I'm not great with it, they both think I'm cheap. It was very important to my mom, when I was growing up, that her kids dressed extremely well, and that the house looked nice, and that trumped anything else. I want my daughters to look nice, and I want a pretty home, but things like food and travel are more important to me. My daughters don't dress as well as I did, and sometimes (like when I visit my parents) I feel bad about that, but then I think about what world travelers they are and I know that I've made the right choice for my family.

[Tektonik]

171. We were lower middle class