BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: frogprince
Date: 30 Sep 10 - 02:04 PM

I had no hat, and I complained,
until I met a man who had no head.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Sep 10 - 12:27 PM

There was a span of poverty when I found a dead man's pair of shoes and was happy to wear them.
I turned the incident into a blue's song.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 30 Sep 10 - 10:05 AM

When the odd inheritance comes through we're not poor - certainly clears the overdraft!!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: GUEST,guest : expoorboy
Date: 30 Sep 10 - 08:03 AM

This link provides a moving reminder that there are always those worse off than ourselves.

youtube.com/watch?v=UDL1m-3je2s&feature=player_embedded

Fred

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 30 Sep 10 - 03:38 AM

We were so poor our cat used to steal next doors mice.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 05:12 PM

An issue of low income eating the clock, here, is the inordinate time it takes to set up the monthly pill sorter of meds I take, with sometimes dangerous results. Now, I have to go to a weekly sorter due to meds changes the doc wants me to "try." And he's a great doc, making small incremental changes thoughtfully-- I'm so lucky to at least have HIM.

The sorters are fiulled from:

<> An XL ziploc (small spacebag) containing the current 90-day-by-mail scrip-meds we cannot afford (after the benefits pay a fraction of their cost)-- of course generics for the most part;

<> A gallon Ziploc of scrip-meds we take SOMEtimes, including unexpired antibiotics on hand in case a weekend infection springs up and the doc who returns our phone call names one we could take until the "local" (LOL) $5 pharmacy opens;

<> Another gallon Ziploc of over-the-counter stuff we must have when we travel, sometimes for 3-4 weeks at a time; of course these are all bought-only-on-sale, industrial size containers.


From these I serve as my own dispensing lay-pharmacist. In a good week I find time to set it up before it's time to go to bed-- and take the night's dose.

OTOH it's late at night I am most alert for the job.... some of the meds affect my ability to think clearly, especially the last med added for twice-daily use that the doc has not doubled the strength for.

The pill sorters have been full of errors for weeks since I started that newest one, and now I am supposed to re-sort it all into a new timing pattern.


Because we get our scrips by mail, I doubt the very nice pharmacist at the local $5 shop would like to do my pill sorters FOR me-- they can if they are the supplier, I guess. The pricing is a crapshoot between "local" and mail-order; my schedule does not always allow me to get "local" refills when needed, while the mail-order can be done online.



I'm taking all these bags out of the fridge and to my next appt so the doc's staff can set them up for me or at least "proofread" the ones I'll set up there!

And this is not an over-prescribing doc-- but between scrip meds and OTC/supplements, it's 11-14 pills a night plus another 4 or 5 each AM-- I forget now, since it's all changing.


???

But no matter how elegantly I sort out the confusion, it will eat the clock weekly to deal with it, and I am certainly not trained to do it or sharp enough that I SHOULD be. The more complicated it gets, the more make-dumb stuff I have to take. And the less ability I have to deal with it-- something's not right THERE.

!!!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: kendall
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 07:47 AM

We were so poor we had to make the dog vomit to feed the cat.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Sawzaw
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 03:51 PM

Well my Daddy worked his way up from absoutely nothin'. Like he was stealing apples off the apple truck during the depression to stay alive.

I was born in Alexandria Va after my dad had worked his way up to home ownership by building a house out of scrap lumber. He had a bunch of hunting dogs and liked to hunt rabbits up around Winchester.

We lived just over the Alexandria city line on Edsall road in FF county. We would go buck swimming in the creek down by the railroad tracks. We had apple trees, grew corn, veggies and grapes and made our own wine.

I remember the time me and my mom went to the dump and picked up a bunch of bicycles. We took them home and made bikes for me and my brother from the parts.

Not very exciting but we had food and the basic stuff we needed to get by. I saw a plane skywriting "buy a Muntz TV" in the sky and wondered what a TV was.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 28 Sep 10 - 04:38 AM

I had a friend that replaced three piece suites every two years or so when she got fed up with it and because she was so house-proud. It was ridiculous, she made such a fuss, no-one was allowed to sit on it unless it was covered in polythene so we would be there rustling and squeaking around while nervously drinking tea for fear of spilling it! Myself I was happy to buy secondhand ones which were mostly perfectly alright and with a young family I couldn't see the point in spending all that money and worrying about the wear and tear of a brand new one when there were more important things to think about.

Talking about buckets when I was 10 and visiting my grown-up married cousin they were just starting out and not too well off he only had an out building and bucket in their first home in a creepy middle of nowhere and he had the job of chaperoning me outside with flashlight. His wife also assigned him the job of getting rid of it, it was scary and freezing as well as embarrasing! It made me move though.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 10:53 AM

I think a positive legacy from being (raised) poor is gratitude. I have been and am poor enough to gratefully appreciate not one but THREE pee buckets (one is always in vinegar-soak-mode to remove crystal build-up)-- so much better than other alternatives when the plumbing's not available.

I'm grateful to be able to use one with no embarrassment or shame when it's needful!

SURE I prefer total plumbing facilities, but it's all the same stuff going down the same drain, and I'm just grateful to have the roof over our heads (and a drain down below).

We're surrounded by people who don't have the roof and drain, and by people who think they "could never use a pee bucket."

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 27 Sep 10 - 08:35 AM

We were so poor, we used to think knives and forks were jewellery'

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 05:06 PM

Don't think I need a spare washer... we have quite a large-capacity one. Not that likely to get enough business to run a second one..... someone mentioned that oil workers' clothes get a stench but the gas workers don't seem to have that problem. Just dirt.

I want to put existing resources to work for us, not add more stuff.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: mg
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 04:26 PM

I think that is a very good idea, especially since you mentioned gas workers nearby..especially if you could arrange for a separate washer since it sounds like you have a lot of space...mg

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Sep 10 - 02:39 PM

Thinkin' about taking in laundry here-- fluff and fold service. I don't think anyone else is doing it, we have free water, and I'm one of those sickos that likes to do laundry-- especially if I do not have to actually put the clean batch away.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: paula t
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 07:31 PM

Hi MikeL2,

I remember the aroma of meat and potato pie wafting through the house. No-one made it quite like my grandma. My mum's was gorgeous, but she always admitted that Grandma's (My dad's mum) was best . She was expert at making fantastic food from the simplest of ingredients. I remember that she would soak marrowfat peas overnight and then roast them in the oven with breast of lamb. She then made it all into a rich gravy which we would soak up with bread.The lamb was mainly fat - but it was crispy and tasted heavenly. My arteries are groaning at the thought!I probably wouldn't be able to eat it nowadays. We don't eat so much fat nowadays do we?

I also remember her jam roly poly and oven baked rice pudding. I always managed to scrounge the skin!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 05:52 PM

I have no problem with disposing of things that are truly well used and worn out. I have a big problem with those who toss something away because something "better" has come along -- "better" in sense that it's bright and shiny, not because it's more efficient or better engineered, but just because it no longer fits in their own perception of themselves.

The landline phone on my desk was purchased new sometime in the 1980s; it works far better than the much newer one it replaced. My cell (mobile) phone doesn't take pictures (it could do texting and websurfing if I wanted to, but that seems silly), but it does okay to call people with.

Things which we have no further use for we give to someplace like Goodwill Industries, St. Vincent de Paul, or the Salvation Army so that others can use them. Only things that are truly over their useful life end up in a landfill, and some of them are actually recycled instead (do you know how much gold and rare earth elements can be recovered from a "dead" computer?).

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Slag
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 05:43 PM

Bonzo3feet (I hope). So, if'n ya bot yer machine back when we was all doing a little better (and if it's still working) and yer outta a job, it's about the cheapest form of entertainment around and some clever folks have even found a way to make money with the darn things! I haven't, alas, except, you know, with the printer and all....

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email)
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 12:49 PM

My wasteful neighbour binned a blue kettle, toaster and blender all because she changed the colour scheme in her kitchen. Madness.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bill D
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 11:40 AM

Very few of the items in our house were bought brand new except for a few of my shop tools and some appliances ...and some of the smaller of those were acquired at thrift shops. I have a host of excellent things either bought for a pittance at yard sales or picked from curbs just before the trash collectors came by. I have repaired a very nice office chair that was thrown out because of a loose caster. $3 and a screwdriver and a drill bit fixed it.

I suppose I understand why those who can afford it simply but new stuff and discard the old, but I can't understand why more communities don't have a central 'yard' where 'almost' good stuff can be dropped off and given away free, or for a small fee to support the operation. Landfills are a stupid place for perfectly usable stuff.....but I suppose Walmart wouldn't agree.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 11:17 AM

Yes.... think about the opposite extreme though:

A rug I bought at least 15 years ago that has appeared in multiple (doggy) locations, that was $15 new, should not be re-used NOW no matter how tempted I am. I can tell it used to be in the loo because of the way it's cut-- I recognize that closet shape there... I have another old one with the same cutout, now full of dog pee-- out on a porch awaiting an eventual re-use (Ah-HAH! In the kennel!)

I just rolled that first one into a trash bag-- under it was a year's worth of ground-off backing, not nasty dust. No backing left on it, this year. Memories... after our 2000 housefire it backed a door for awhile, to insulate it.

I put ANOTHER 15 year old rug down in its place-- it's not even a rug. It's a narrow scrap of cheap nylon plush, with a still-partially-rubber backing, from a bathroom "carpet" I put in.... 15 years ago.... which scrap has also appeared in multiple locations. But it will keep my feet warm as I cross the cold slate floor to get to the washer/drier, in front of which is another ancient (thick, cushy) rug-scrap I dragged home from the church's annual rummage sale, oh, 7-8 years ago.

Tom Petty says "you don't have to live like a refugee...."

Sure-- if you want to live in a tiny house I guess...

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 10:35 AM

Yes, and how many use the computers in the local library or post from whatever job they have? Our computers here at home date back to before I retired -- one was purchased in 2000 and it still works okay. My car is 11 years (chronological, not model) years old and still gets about 35 mpg on the highway and around 28 in town.

You SHOULD build on the past so that you have something in the future. The "throw-away" society idea should be buried with a stake through its black heart.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 09:59 AM

The cycle Jean describes upthread is a familiar one, and widespread.

The potential "fall from wealth" is part of the "warning" to folks not to rock society's boat; and without regular falls the warning is no good.

So what we end up with societally is a whole lotta po' folks not able to fit in with other po' folks and a few *ricos* whose familial wealth is quite recent, and who don't fit in well with either po' folks or old *money.* And folks with all that going on seldom talk to each other about the issues because there is little shared experience/language, at least verbally.


Here at Mudcat we have the luxury (thanks to Max) of being able to interact across those differences, and even get together in person from time to time to sing together.


My eyes were opened one night (cartoon-popping outta the head). A couple who visit here periodically insisted one time too often (for my comfort level) on picking up a dinner check. I had wanted to cook for them to repay the LAST check they picked up, but no.... and to set me at ease they explained about the boatload of cash they actually had, so I would not worry.... and then I realized retroactively how gracious they had really been, before, to visit here and never let on that they could be much more comfortable at a local hotel, but were choosing to sleep here because... they just liked US.

[shaking head]

The things we never know if we don't ask!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email)
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 08:20 AM

Money is always going to be an issue no matter with any decisions we make in life.

The generation that lived during the war knew about budgeting, money was tight, there was rationing food,clothes etc, and these people brought their children up with respect and good morals.

I dread to think who will look after me as I become older, because there are more children these days growing up with lack of respect of the older generation.

As a child I remember looking forward to Christmas or my birthday, getting a small gift or new clothes. My mother saved for everything, even our secondhand suite and kitchen table. Nobody waits or saves for anything these days. They closed down the pawn shops and introduced credit cards.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 07:47 AM

But you can all afford computer(s) and the time to sit in front it!!!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: kendall
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 07:31 AM

I wasn't born in a log cabin, but Father moved us into one as soon as he could afford it.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: LadyJean
Date: 25 Sep 10 - 12:49 AM

I "Came from money". My father was an attorney as were my grandfathers. I went to private school, spent time at country clubs. The only thing I miss from the country club is the Fouth of July buffet and fireworks. (I pigged out on coconut snowballs!)

It was never my sort of life. But I've had to put up with a sort of bass ackward snobbery all my adult life, because I'm not "plain folks".

I clean houses for a living. One of the ladies I work for is playing games. I've been through it before. Somebody isn't happy with her job or her marriage and takes it out on me. Since money's tight, I have to put up with the games.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Richie Black (misused acct, bad email)
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 05:39 AM

The Queen has been refused an anti-poverty grant to help heat her palaces because Whitehall officials feared it would cause a public relations backlash.

The cost of royal utilities, which doubled in 2004, stood at £1m a year and had become "untenable" and that the £15m Government grant to maintain the Queen's palaces was inadequate.

The request for a grant to replace four combined heat and power (CHP) units at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle was turned down according to documents obtained by The Independent under the Freedom of Information Act.

It was explained that the handouts were aimed at schools, hospitals, councils and housing associations for heating programmes which benefit low-income families.

There was concern that if Buckingham Palace was given money from the fund it would lead to "probable adverse press coverage".

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 24 Sep 10 - 04:03 AM

The recession has meant that everyone has had to tighten their belts with the general running of a home with regard to shopping and uneccessary spending, which in around about way has made me change my whole way of thinking by making food go further and discouraging waste and using up everything. There was a program highlighting the appalling waste of useable food a little while back vegetables and fruits that would normally have been thrown out in markets etc. and it was prepared and cooked up in dishes in a restaurant and the view was that it was perfectly fine, which could be used to feed many people.

Thinking poor has completely changed my way of thinking about waste. Thank goodness for the one-pot meals!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 09:23 PM

DO NOT read Rap's post THIS way if you're holding a drink of ANY sort:

"Well, for most of my growing up we used paper kids...."

THAT's PORE!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Dharmabum
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 08:35 PM

Sears catalog.
Always go for the index first.
Pages are softer.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 07:48 PM

Well, for most of my growing up we used the paper kids at school tore out of their Big Chief tablets and threw away. See, first we had something to read, and some of those notes were pretty juicy. Then, we'd cut the paper into quarters. When we needed to do the paperwork after the job, so to speak, we'd fold those quarters into quarters and tear off the little corner which wasn't loose. We'd put that aside, open the paper out, and insert a finger into the resulting hole. We'd do the paperwork and then neatly fold the paper around out finger and wipe that off. Then we'd use the little folded-up triangle to clean our nails.

But the really poor folks didn't even have that. I won't go into how they did the necessary.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 07:24 PM

(((Ron)))

Hey bro we grabbed water the other day, cabin looked fine.

Let's hook up!

~S&G~

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Dharmabum
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 05:14 PM

I was feeling fairly well off yesterday,Seein'as it was my 57th
b-day & all.
Then, I went to the dentist to see how much it would cost to replace the bridge that had broke loose from my lower right, a couple months ago.

$4000.00! That's right,FOUR GRAND,out of pocket.
And that's with insurance!

Made me feel kinda poor again.

Guess I'll just have to make do with the choppers that're left.
Needless to say,I'll be chewin' my pork n' bean ommelette on the left side for quite awhile yet.

Maybe I'll go whittle me a new set of teeth in the 'ol woodshop tonight.

DB.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: LilyFestre
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 04:08 PM

Slag....I have a Canon AE-1 from 1984 that I love dearly and won't part with no matter where the digital revolution goes! I still use it on occasion, it's fun and while digital is far more economical, there's nothing like the feel of an old SLR in your hands, the sound it makes....*sigh* I'm with you.....absolutely!

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Amos
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 04:07 PM

I've been so poor I got my smokes from the bus stop, and I've slept under bushes for want of anything better, but I kinda outgrew that mode about 50 years back and went to work and found someone who could talk me into fiscal managent, thank Gawd.

A

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Slag
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 03:37 PM

That's just pathetic Seamus!

Lily and Rap, yep! I still have a problem of letting go of things in this "throw away" society of ours. I always look for quality ( a vanishing commodity) and durability. Fer instance, back in '84 I came into a litle money and splurged on a Minolta SLR camera. I still have it but did not foresee the digital camera revolution, alas. The digital is mor economic by far and the results are foten better than I can do with the film camera. So what do I do with it?

Rap, if that TP is two-ply you are in luck! Two for the price of one. And then if you quarter it and use both sides that's 16 days of regularity you can enjoy!

Art, was that a convertible sans top?

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 03:08 PM

We're so poor we have to sublet at least two rooms in this house as soon as we can, to afford medical care-- our part of the med cost after insurance-- and WE NEED IT NOW, 'nuff said.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 02:54 PM

Our school district was so poor we had to use the same car for Drivers Ed. and Sex Education.

Art

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 10:50 AM

NO, Rap, the teens were left to sprout the wooden coop.

:~)

We repaid the chix for helping and ate them too.

And bunnies.....

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 10:46 AM

...hat's why we raised chickens while the teens were growth-spurting, in a coop (huge shed) we and they constructed out of wood salvaged off the property's scrap heap

I first read this that the teens and chickens were made of salvaged wood. Now THAT would be poor! (I'm glad you had chickens to help, though.)

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 09:56 AM

LOL-- another frequent meal here I had no idea had a name other than "omelette fillings" or "frittata ingredients" (if I have the eggs).

In fact I had already planned to have it for lunch, having boiled greens and a tater left over from the last few days' "why not fix this" meals.

Bubble & Squeak is greatly improved by breaking an egg over top of the hot stuff still in the pan on the heat-- that's why we raised chickens while the teens were growth-spurting, in a coop (huge shed) we and they constructed out of wood salvaged off the property's scrap heap. An old wooden silo made great framing! Must be why the landlord (farmer) loves us so-- we do what he does, and what his parents did when he was little.

BTW, "general public," just because I have a wedge of dried up Brie in the fridge doesn't mean we're "los ricos"-- it means someone GAVE us some Brie I've not used up yet because you never know when it might be JUST the thing to "make" a B&S meal!

To have a name for it now-- thank you, England!

===

"Somos Ricos" is the frequently used expression murmured in situations such as when there is an extra nickel in the van's change cup permitting the purchase of a dollar burger. 50% irony and 50% gratitude. Our Bishop grew up that way too, and i think that is at the heart of the "simpatico" there.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 04:32 AM

My mum was no Fanny Craddock either and Monday night was 'Bubble & Squeak' night, which was the left over greens potato etc. from Sunday's meal mashed all up and then fried up to have with bacon or sausages or whatever. She tried her best 'bless' but it was always oozing with fat, I guess that she probably didn't get the fat hot enough or something but whenever 'Bubble & Squeak' is mentioned now it makes me feel queasy.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 23 Sep 10 - 02:55 AM

All seriousness aside, when I was young my parents were poor, us kids were poor, the butler was poor, the cook was poor, the upstairs maid was poor, the downstairs maid was poor, the stableboy and the grooms were poor, the chauffeur was poor, the gardener was poor, our dog was poor, we had poor horses and cattle, but all in all we were happy.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: frogprince
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 09:42 PM

It's true that Adrien, Norman, and Mary eventually had to eat the other nine to survive, but they didn't let a little thing like that get them down....
      (forgive me, Adrien)

"You're not supposed to let down Heinz cream of tomato soup with the same amount of milk and water"

I hadn't remembered, in decades, that my parents would let my sister and I buy a can of Hormel chili once in a while, but we had to dilute it with about the same amount of water and share it.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Beer
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 09:22 PM

Best memories I have are when we were poor. So many stories to I could relate. Best summed this way I guess. Picture 12 plus Mum and Dad sitting around the kitchen table. No electricity and the cupboards bare, no shoes to wear and only means of transportation was an old horse and our feet.

Ad.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 07:52 PM

I've seen the same thing at the University of Notre Dame and other schools.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 04:20 PM

We wuz so poor we had to use used toilet paper -- one sheet per person per month.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: LilyFestre
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 03:28 PM

Slag,

   My husband works at an ivy league university and you should see what those kids throw out....and what they believe the rest of the universe to have. Just watching what they do for lunch every day is appaling. A heavy percentage of them eat out for every meal (and I'm not talking about those that live on campus which is pretty much just freshman due to lack of space). And at the end of the semester, there is a treasure trove of quality stuff set out to the curb so the college kids can go home for the summer. Why bother to take it when they can get new seems to be the thought pattern. Crazy.

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Tig
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 03:26 PM

Money was always tight in our house although we never really realised it as kids.It wasn't until I started catering for myself I discovered something really amazing!

You're not supposed to let down Heinz cream of tomato soup with the same amount of milk and water :-0

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: olddude
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 03:26 PM

So poor that if we wanted a cold, we had to go out and catch one

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 22 Sep 10 - 03:06 PM

I was raised and have been so poor (and am still closer to that end of the continuum than the other), that whenever I read/hear someone blithely assure me that I can "get" such-and-such product to do one simple thing-- I see lines forming, between them and me. Depending on how they make that statement, and how well I know them otherwise, it might be a wiggly gray dotted narrow line.... or a big fat black one, or somewhere in between.

And I tend to deposit many of those statements' makers into a category I know I have been in myself with others-- they cannot actually know me, they will never catch up to what I have had to learn in that regard, and I do not care to do their work for them of figuring out where I come from on that level.

And then I "vote with" my silence-- and "my feet."

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 11:33 PM

I never went 'hungry', though we drove a 37 Chevy until 1952...Bill D

That's five years less than I've driven my Fourrunner :>)

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 11:09 PM

I would rather be "poor" in the USA

Than ANY other country I have witnessed...around 36 total so far.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

However, the roadside restroom cleaners in Germany had a "pretty good gig."

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Slag
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 09:31 PM

I can't remember if it was in The Great Gatsby or another work by F.Scott Fitzgerlad but they line "The rich are not like you or I..." and what follows is as insightful a bit of prose ever written. It goes on to describe that difference even if a rich person should come to financial misfortune. They grew up thinking about money in a way not available to those of us who struggle. It is a great theme and worthy of exploration in these threads and of course, in literature and the other arts as well.

I am both amazed and apalled when I see some rich person, the child of a rich person or some celebrity neuveau riche go to drugs and booze. It is like they can't think of anything else that would engender a good feeling about their being. No imagination, no passion for a cause or project, NO HUMAN COMPASSION or EMPATHY for other fellow beings. T.S.Eliot had it right: they are the hollow men.

I have also seen the people with no concept of money, what it is or what it represents, come into huge sums, say, through the lottery or an unexpected inheritance. They blow through it like there was no tomorrow and wind up in the same, if not worse, shape than the one they were in before the money.

By the same token I have heard about those with a knack for business who have retired or given away their millions, decide that maybe their retirement was premature or that they are just bored with it so they go out and start over again in a new venture and so acquire as much, if not more wealth than they had in the first go around!

I have a hard time understanding the question at times, let alone coming up with the answer but, Susan, you are on the right track. If we can share the load some, show each other where to look along the way, then we are on the right track and it is those kinds of riches that money cannot buy.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 11:20 AM

True poverty is the lack of basic necessities: air, water, food, clothing, shelter, human companionship/love. Being deprived of any one of those long enough can result in death. I would throw in there health also. You can have all the stuff and money in the world and if you are in bad health you can't really enjoy it.

Slag, I was meaning to PM you about something else but your comment there got me right off.

I was so poor but also so mentally reflective that I invented a wonderful flow chart about that, which I later discovered kollidge kids were studying up on by Maslow-- the hierarchy of needs.

Mine was a bit different, and I used mine to help me gauge where a person working their way out of the "po' hole" was stuck and needing a boost to keep climbing up and out.

I discovered that if the "stuckness" is challenged in the right way and to the right degree, the person will spontaneously "cathartify" their way to the next higher rung very shortly afterwards, due to the improved mental function that enables them to think thru the opportunities they had only felt as barriers.

I had, earlier, been at the lowest low in my own life so I "Got" what they were dealing with.... But in that particular time period (I was working with a LOT of po' folks then), I was several rungs along ahead of them; thus I had the "slack" to think a bit, and pull them along after me (as they also pulled me along in other paths of growth).

And one of the things we all agreed on was that non-poverty-- i.e. financial power and wellbeing-- are always measured by peeps on THOSE rungs by how far they are from bottom. They tend to lack--as a group, not as individuals really thinking thru it-- the basic definition of what health and wellbeing look like. If they did have it, it would include health and wellbeing for their fellows because species survival pushes us toward cooperation.

Yes, it's a bit pink-think, but observably accurate in the one-on-one mode of intimate, well-listened-to dreaming.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: MikeL2
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 10:38 AM

hi paula

Yes yes yes !!! Meat & potato pie....lovely.

My mother used to cook these regularly. I have had many different pies since then and none come close to reaching what my mother made. That includes ones I make these days - my wife loves them though.

Regards

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: kendall
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 06:51 AM

romanyman, poor is like everything. it is relative. To a germ, good health is a type of disease.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 06:23 AM

Ask me in a few months to a year... I will probably be very poor if what I think is going to happen, happens.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Slag
Date: 19 Sep 10 - 04:58 AM

I think this thread demonstrates that "poor" is a state of mind more than anything else. When I was in Hawaii the "hang loose" crowd had a phrase: If you want to be rich earn more or want less! That works.

True poverty is the lack of basic neccessities: air, water, food, clothing, shelter, human companionship/love. Being deprived of any one of those long enough can result in death. I would throw in there health also. You can have all the stuff and money in the world and if you are in bad health you can't really enjoy it.

Over and over I see that riches are a deceit. Those of you who have had to slug it out and make it on your own, so to speak, have learned things money can't buy and you also have a greater appreiation for the things you do acquire.

I would bet that a rich man would love to trade his esophageal ulcers and high anxiety to have a little pob and live in the love of a caring family, if he only knew that it was that which would give him peace.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 18 Sep 10 - 04:37 PM

No, romanyman, we can't really define "poor" as it all depends on circumstances. (And yes I do understand that part about missing the mind, most.)

Emma, I have eaten that dish (bread & water). Had some just the other day. (Heat the water!? Didn't know THAT part!) Amazingly satisfying! With or without a teabag.


Another legacy: I really CAN do it better myself, quicker-- with few exceptions, and I kow wjhat odrder to do hard things in without a second thought.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: romanyman
Date: 18 Sep 10 - 04:24 PM

can someone define poor, i had only a few years back a nice house that i had worked bloody hard for, a good job, very well paid , (excesivley so ) a very good life in fact, that all came to a crashing end, due to a con trick by my ex missus and her lover, I lost it all, including my sanity, (really) i suffered a massive breakdown, not because the material things had gone, but because i found my life had gone, material things eventually can be replaced, but of all the things i lost my mind is the thing i miss most, (you have to have had a mental episode to really understand that bit) i now have nothing and live on state pension, but i have a good woman who understands the dark dark days when they hit me, i have good friends around, so really i am rich in other ways. i dont have cash to throw about but i manage

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Sep 10 - 04:02 PM

Brewis (pronounced "brews") is eaten in Newfoundland, where it is made with hard bread, otherwise known as ship's biscuit. It traditionally goes with fish, which is, of course, cod.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Emma B
Date: 18 Sep 10 - 03:56 PM

The Lancashire 'Cotton Famine', was a depression in the textile industry of North West England, in the mid C19th brought about by the interruption of baled cotton imports as a result of the American Civil War.

The factories ran out of raw cotton to process and large parts of Lancashire working society became unemployed, and went from being amongst the most prosperous workers in Britain to the most impoverished.

A 'recipe' from the period is for 'Brewis'

Pour boiling water over a crust of bread, pour the water off and sprinkle salt and pepper on the bread. Serve.

THAT'S 'poor'!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: paula t
Date: 18 Sep 10 - 03:36 PM

I'd forgotten all about Pobs!I must admit I didn't care too much for it, but it was filling and hot.
We also used to have meat and potato pie.I still love it.The Lancashire version was a stew of a little meat onions and potatoes in a rich gravy. It was cooked in a very large casserole or very deep bowl and had a thick pastry crust overlapping the top of the bowl. This crust would often sag into the gravy in the centre.Served with pickled red cabbage.Gorgeous!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 18 Sep 10 - 11:02 AM

apropos of nothing...

I seem to have two default setting s when it comes to acquiring needed items. The first and strongest is to wait till I can get it via Le Scrounge-- watch for it on a parkway as a freebie, get it from FreeCycle, etc. I find it very hard to waste anything, but not at all hard to discard, pass on/leave an item I can't use, or burn trash. And I do save stuff in good shape, or stuff I will rebuild soon (and I do remake it); but I do not accumulate trash or junk. I do sometimes acquire multiples of things (not all at once), because chances are I will be able to rotate in a better version, and/or send along one version better suited to the camper, thrift shop, or trash.

The other default is Buy Retail and Expensive. If I am going to pay cash money for something, it has to be GOOD because my defaults tell me I may have to use it for a long, long time before I can afford another one.

I like how these two settings work for me. I do NOT like that I seem to cling to the settings rather rigidly and unthinkingly. Perhaps the talking about it means the rigidity is on its way out-- that is often the case, with me.


But because of these two defaults, I can start and run a program on a dime, AND I can write for (and get, and use) Big Grant Bucks. In fact I am at my most creative when I am dealing with short resources, and I strongly prefer not to let money "run" my agenda.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: MikeL2
Date: 18 Sep 10 - 10:22 AM

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bill D - PM
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 02:12 PM

<"wow...Patsy reminded me of something I hadn't thought of in years....
bread & milk & sugar!
It was a common snack, and it never dawned on me that it was because it was cheap">

Hi bill

It just reminded me too. As children we often used to get it for breakfast instead of the cerials we couldn't afford.

This was quite normal around our area. We had a name for it....we called it pobs...

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Sep 10 - 10:05 AM

Ha! Ed T, you obviously ate at a branch plant of my house.

One reason why our diet ranged from dull to downright unpleasant was that our mother was a lousy cook. Between the Depression and the war, she had no opportunity to learn, and the appearance of cheap convenience foods during the '50s and '60s looked like a good reason not to bother when she finally had the time and the means.

To this day, I loathe canned cream soup.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Ed T
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 08:30 PM

Thank God for boloney (or, alternatively canned pork luncheon meat) sandwiches with mustard, canned tomatoes, boiled potatoes, salt cod, home baked bread with butter and molasses, strong black tea with canned milk (and, a good drink of moonshine with hot water and sugar, if you were old enough to take a pull of it).

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Joe_F
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 08:28 PM

Empty Pockets Blues

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 05:50 PM

AFGO, often used around here in PMs, is

Another
F
Growth
Opportunity

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Slag
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 04:56 PM

On the rare occassions we'd have pancakes (unless we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa-then it was just about every morning!) Mom would break hers up and put it in buttermilk. Now I understand it. Her people were from Arakansas and that was a treat there. Pobs, you say.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Slag
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 04:51 PM

Adds new meaning to the term "North Pole"!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: gnu
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 04:43 PM

999... I hope you are flush now so you can afford Viagra for Xmas.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Gurney
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 03:30 PM

Benny Hill recitation lyric:
'There were nine of us kids, and we all wore hand-me-downs, and as I was the youngest and the others were all girls, it wasn't very nice!'

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 02:31 PM

We were so poor that if you awoke Christmas Day without a hard-on, you had nothing to play with for the holidays.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 02:12 PM

wow...Patsy reminded me of something I hadn't thought of in years....

bread & milk & sugar!

It was a common snack, and it never dawned on me that it was because it was cheap.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Becca72
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 01:56 PM

Oh, I had hand-me-downs but only 2 siblings so mine were more gently used (and thankfully the correct gender!). :-)

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: kendall
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 01:41 PM

At least you had shoes that fit and were not hand me downs with holes in the soles.
When I was a boy the one who left home first in the morning was the best dressed.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 01:38 PM

ACOA = Adult Child(ren) of Alcoholic(s)

AGFO = Agate Fossil Beds National Monument?
       Association of Generals and Flag Officers?

You got me there.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 01:17 PM

ACOA????

AFGO????

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 10:29 AM

Speaking just for me, I find it really hard to separate out in my thinking those strands that come form being poor and the strands from being an ACOA.

Just when I think I have one licked, I take a pratfall tripping over the other one.

:~(

AFGO!


~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Becca72
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 09:36 AM

Yes, Dad, but we grew up in very different places and I had to walk to school from kindergarten through 8th grade; Elementary school was one street over but in Junior High it was about 2 miles round trip up and/or down the steepest hill in the city (which was a real treat in the dead of winter when the sidewalks were icy!).

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: kendall
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 08:34 AM

Many comedians use the old, "I had to walk to school and it was uphill both ways"..but up until the 5th grade I did walk to school and it really was two miles round trip.
I remember the Sunshine company donated saltines and cheese for our snacks, and to this day when I buy saltines I favor Sunshine Bisquets.

On the other hand, I hated dried apricots.Still do.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: banjoman
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 05:20 AM

Being from Liverpool, our main diet consisted of Scouse and Bread & Jam. On days when things were really bad it was Blind Scouse (thats Scouse without the meat) We also had some school dinners - remember those- and hated Fridays when it was either Cheese Pie or Spaghetti and I still after more than 60 years can't stand either

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 03:38 AM

>We didn't call it pobs. In the South it was Bread and Milk. Much enjoyed, as were Sugar Sandwiches (crunchy and sweet).<

I didn't realise how widespread this is. My Grandmother used to do hot Bread and Milk for me too as an instant warmer or if any of us had been poorly out would come the Bread and Milk sometimes flavoured with nutmeg or jam if it was in the house and the Sugar Sandwiches was a particular favourite of hers. If you were lucky enough to have it in golden syrup sandwiches was another treat. A favourite of mine was a vinegar sandwich which was also a craving I had through preganancy, I still indulge in that today.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Gurney
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 03:11 AM

I cringe to see fruit just thrown away by the kids walking to the school near me. Just tossed in the creek. My mother once slapped me because I threw a tiny breadcrust in the fire. "There are people starving in (somewhere!)" Taught me a lesson which stuck.

This thread reminds me of some of the treats of yesterday.
Lard sandwiches with extra salt.
Dripping sandwiches with "Lots of Brown, please."
Sausage sandwiches.
I think we must have burned off the fat. No-one was overweight.

Like Banjoman, I made my first bike from parts scrounged from the tip. My Dad built a caravan(trailer) from bedframes and stuff from the tip, and hand-sawed the timber from used railway-sleepers. He had to buy the tyres and HDF/hardboard, though.
Towed it with a motorbike and sidecar!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Slag
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 01:37 AM

I didn't find out until I was in the military that whaT Mom called "Cream Tuna" is SOS. In our case the second "S" was Sunshine Saltine crackers and Cream Tuna was a treat. I also loved the Mac and Cheese. You can get it today for 49 cents on sale so what does that make it then? 5 cents a box? Feeds four. But that was just sometimes. We ate well. Meatloaf, occassional hamburgers and hotdogs, Sunday roast, sometimes steak. I always had an appetite but I never went to bed hungry.

My Dad worked unbelievably hard, usually to the shop by 6AM and home around 9 or 10 PM. He'd get a coffee and donut for breakfast as he was usually gone before any of the rest of us got up. Home for an hour at lunch and an hour at 5PM. He was 6' tall and the most he ever weighed was 175. All muscle. Mom had to keep him well fed above most every other concern and we kids benefited from that greatly.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Sawzaw
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 12:58 AM

We were so poor that I could only have one measle at a time. :)

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 Sep 10 - 12:47 AM

Yes... between under-reported poverty and the "poverty level" being set unreasistically, it's hard to see the reral problem even when the stats are horrrendous enough.

Bill--

"Where there's a will, there's a way!"

*grin*...and there's a huge amount of 'maybe' buried in that slogan.

In some 'ways' there's a point of diminishing return on time & energy expended.

So true... I often describe, in multicultural trainings, how living poor eats the clock. It takes so much longer to get even simple things done, when one does not pay for the "convenient" method so popular in the fast-paced, tech-toys culture. Such as people having to walk miles to work if they do not have a car in rural America.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Emma B
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 09:19 PM

Today it was reported that

"the latest poverty rate figure for the US is 14.3 percent, which means one in seven Americans are currently living in poverty.
This up from 13.2 percent in 2008, with more than 3.7 million more Americans crossing the poverty threshold in the last year.

Moreover, the 43.6 million people living in poverty is the largest number of poor people in the United States in the 51 years that records have been kept.
The poverty rate rose for every ethnic group except for Asian Americans

About 8.4 percent of young adults ages 25-34 live with their parents according to the Census data, which skews the actual percentage of young adults in poverty.
While their current poverty rate is 8.5 percent, officials stated that the rate would be significantly different if so many were not back under their parents' roofs.

The portion of the population without health insurance also rose from 15.4 percent to 16.7 percent this year — 50.7 million Americans are without health coverage, up from 46.3 million in 2008

A full 26.6 percent of those living below the $25,000/year income mark are currently uninsured. This marks the first year that health care coverage has decreased since the government began keeping records in 1987."

Figures from Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009.

Definitions of poverty vary considerably among nations -

"Many of those classified as poor have cable and satellite television, fridges, air-conditioning units, microwaves and a roof over their heads, even if it is just a caravan in a trailer park. But they have little disposable income and few opportunities to step up the ladder."

Guardian Sept 16

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 07:08 PM

"Where there's a will, there's a way!"

*grin*...and there's a huge amount of 'maybe' buried in that slogan.

In some 'ways' there's a point of diminishing return on time & energy expended.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 07:07 PM

Since we don't live in a rural area with low property taxes and any way to raise chickens & vegetables, life sometimes feels like just 'waiting for the other shoe to drop'...and like WYSI, that other shoe includes teeth...and there ARE no real bargains at the dentist.

A good friend who I once wanted to marry (and become farmwife to his farmlife), once told me wisely that you can be a farmer in one potted container. Of course he was right. Where there is light there can be veggies, and BTW ornamental banty chickens living indoors in birdcages lay small but delicious eggs. :~) PM for details.

Then there's the teeth, the dentist.... I'm in mid-deal there and it can be done, it just takes time. I'll lose two but the rest of the mouth has a plan. :~) I made a punny.

(C ya Bill)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 07:07 PM

I had no way to judge whether we were poor, given that everything was rationed right up until my twelfth year, and everybody was , as far as I knew, in the same boat.

My father came over from Eire in 1935, and married my mother in April 1940, having already refused the option of remaining neutral (as an Irish citizen he was exempt from conscription), and joined the Royal Artillery, serving as a Bombardier on the Anti Aircraft batteries at Woolwich. Having a damaged hip, it was decided that he was unfit for active service, and he was medically discharged. He promptly joined the Local Defence Volunteers (later the Home Guard), and served continuously throughout the war.

After demob in 1946, he returned to his trade. He was a shopfitting joiner, a craftsman in the era of handmade timber shopfronts, but thousands of soldiers were pitched into an emerging job market, and wages were poor to abysmal.

He used to cart a complete kit of joiners tools in a huge black toolbox and a leather toolbag, and he would go off every morning, by bus, to whatever shop he was working on.

Sometimes he would be spending five hours a day on travelling to and from his eight hour shift, and that would be 6am till 9pm, with a twenty minute lunch break on the job.

He then would go out and do odd jobs on evenings and weekends, to support Mum, my younger brother, and me. A fiercely proud man, he wouldn't countenance the idea of my mother going to work, and she never did.

Mum wore the same coat and best dress (special occasions only) for at least seven years, but we kids never went hungry, and never felt the rationing restrictions, as we got our share, and most of my parents' share as well.

I cannot recall my father ever working less than seventy to eighty hours a week during my early years, and it wasn't until the boom years of the late fifties that, with the help of my Uncle Bob, Dad and Mum started to build a property business, and almost miraculously we were comfortably off.

As a child, I had one toy which I still can remamber. My father made a rifle out of copper tube and a hand carved stock, which was the envy of every boy for two miles around. We made our own games in those days, and that rifle took part in every kind of adventure, from opening up the Wild West, to handling the rebels on the North West Frontier.

I guess, reading this, you might say we were poor, but, in comparison to today's over-indulged, greedy, lazy, and self absorbed kids, I think I lived through the best that childhood has ever offered.

We were safe out on our own at the local park, and we were free to get filthy dirty, eat worms, roll in the dust and generally do all the things that made us tough, and self sufficient.

We had respect for our elders, respect for authority, and respect for each other, but most of all WE HAD FUN!

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Dharmabum
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 07:02 PM

Pork N Bean omelette.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: bobad
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 06:58 PM

"Since we don't live in a rural area with low property taxes and any way to raise chickens & vegetables"

Where there's a will, there's a way!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 05:26 PM

What I notice now is that the comfort I had, when I 'retired' from punching someone's timeclock, that I would be 'ok' because we had a house and Social Security no longer applies.
Medical bills (the dreaded 'donut hole'), rising property taxes and gas prices and grocery prices...etc..., are nibbling away at the edges and we have NO guarantee that we can just coast the 'rest of the way'.

As some of you know, my wife & I do craft shows to cover some of our expenses, but it-gets-harder! We can borrow against the house we 'own', but at times it feels like "I owe my soul to the company store". Credit is tougher, prices are higher and bad management by government institutions are creating 'poor', where there used to be 'comfy'.

Many years ago, there were **cheap** ways to eat & live, as many of us have noted. Nowdays, it is harder to find those bargains, even if you are willing. Since we don't live in a rural area with low property taxes and any way to raise chickens & vegetables, life sometimes feels like just 'waiting for the other shoe to drop'...and like WYSI, that other shoe includes teeth...and there ARE no real bargains at the dentist.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: gnu
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 05:24 PM

Boasting? That is offensive.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 05:02 PM

I find boasting about how poor you were as distasteful as boasting about how rich you are. Unless, of course, you'd achieved poverty by your own unaided efforts. We were never poor, and I'm glad of that. Though never rich either, my parents didn't have a car or a fridge, and holidays away were few. Like a lot of people back then. But I know that my father as a child used to be sent to the Manchester meat market late on Saturday evening for a penn'orth of blue bits- offcuts of meat already on the turn, that wouldn't last till Monday- to be curried for Sunday dinner. Because my grandfather was out of regular work for 8 years. He was blacklisted as a trades unionist, and when he finally retired in the 50s he was proud that HIS gold watch and chain came not from the bosses, but from the union.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 04:47 PM

We call it Po' Food (now). At the time we ate it as kids (Hardi has a similar background to mine), we didn't have names for it except, "Here."

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Emma B
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 01:12 PM

.... and tater 'ash - a kind of hotpot/'scouse but with MUCH less meat!
Mum made great pastry and we usually ate this with a 'lid' on

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 01:08 PM

We didn't call it pobs. In the South it was Bread and Milk. Much enjoyed, as were Sugar Sandwiches (crunchy and sweet).

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Charmion
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 01:03 PM

Pobs, yes, and Toad in the Hole (how to make four sausages feed five people), and Train Smash (pork liver fried in bacon fat served with mashed potatoes and stewed tomatoes). I doubt we ever ate anything that cost more than 29 cents a pound until well up in the 1960s.

My two brothers and I grew up with house-poor parents in a village within commuting distance of Ottawa. Priorities were medical expenses -- our mother had a serious chronic illness -- and the endless struggle to keep the house habitable. We were socially a little weird but economically normal to the residents of the original village, but as the nearby subdivision filled up with city-type people we began to feel poor.

Money was hard to come by, but one could collect pop bottles for the deposit (two cents each) and do chores for generous old folks who preferred not to spend their July afternoons weeding their gardens. It was harder to deal with the need for capital-intensive items like bicycles and skates; in the absence of cash, we relied on reverse snobbery. Wheedling the parents was at best a waste of time but more often a great way to get a hard smack on the lughole.

My mother liked to tell a story about me that involved a blouse worn by the local rich kid, Marilyn MacDonald. (She had a pony; she had to be rich.) This would be about 1963, and I would have been about nine years old. Apparently I asked Marilyn's mother how much the blouse cost and where it could be purchased. Mrs MacDonald met my mother at the post office a week or so later and asked if she had bought the blouse, and my mother had to say I had never said a word about it. Clearly, I believed that $1.99 was an unconscionable price for a blouse and it wasn't worth mentioning. I normally wore hand-me-downs from my cousins. New clothes were both rare and generally hand-made.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: kendall
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 12:07 PM

You had sugar? no, I won't spoil this with humor.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Emma B
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 12:03 PM

Memories of cheap filling food from childhood .... anyone else have pobs for supper?

Scraps of bread stirred into hot milk and, maybe, a little sugar

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 11:48 AM

Dharmabum I still do give my kids pasta with tomato soup sauce! Poor is a very different thing these days. We have all mod cons and while we have had to downbrand in the supermarket we never go hungry and yet we have less 'money' than we have ever had in either of our lives. Like many people of my age I was brought up on the buy now pay later which works fine until you hit a glitch and the outgoings outway the incomings. Many are now paying the price for easy credit and will probably think twice before going down that road again.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Becca72
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 11:40 AM

Like Ranger1 I only found out later in life that we didn't have much money as I never really wanted for anything. My parents always found a way somehow.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 10:26 AM

been warped by the rain, driven by the snow
I'm drunk and dirty don't ya know, and I'm still, willin'
Out on the road late at night, Seen my pretty Alice in every head light
Alice, Dallas Alice

I've been from Tuscon to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed
And if you give me: weed, whites, and wine
And you show me a sign
I'll be willin', to be movin'

I've been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet
Had my head stoved in, but I'm still on my feet and I'm still... willin'
Now I smuggled some smokes and folks from Mexico
Baked by the sun, every time I go to Mexico, and I'm still

And I been from Tuscon to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed
And if you give me: weed, whites, and wine
And you show me a sign
I'll be willin', to be movin


Hard life is it not!!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 09:41 AM

Love all the posts-- short and long, funny and not.

I'm dashing around today, so briefly, what I recall at this cooler time of year is the entire YEAR I Lived On Oatmeal.

There are a lot of ways to make oatmeal.

But none of them prevent hair from falling out and gums from bleeding.

I still have one spot where the gums never did recover, and not enough money to pay to have that or any other mouth problems fixed.

Good thing my teeth are from me ma and not me pa, because her peeps had New England teeth. Nary a cavity-- lifelong. When my gums flare up I just rinse hard with germ-killer and wait for the pain to pass. (The pain travels down the vagus nerve thru the chest and thus feels just exactly like a heart attack is described-- but never is a heart attack, TBTG.)

But before long I will lose the two lower front teeth-- not enough gum left there to hold them. Every ear of corn I eat in the summer is a blessing and a curse; when I chow down on one at a parish picnic and have to grin my pleasure, I always wonder if teeth will fallout as I do it. (There is a heavy price to pay for skipping the corn, which also gives me the shits but that's age, not being poor, LOL.)


Another "benefit" to being raised poor: having people tell me that since I am a "real survivor" and/or "tough," I don't REALLY need their help. (Another blessing and curse.)

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 09:21 AM

I suppose I benefitted from my own parents less well off childhoods and of course the war, being a baby boomer they wanted me to have what they didn't have for example having my own room. Both my mum and dad came from very large families never having a room of their own or a bed for that matter, I was better off.
They both worked hard, my mum first took a job where she could take me with her and then later when I started school she began working part-time until I got to an age that she could increase her hours. She made sure that wherever she worked it would be quite local to where we lived. She found that she couldn't have anymore children after me and in a way I think she was relieved. My dad did lose a job at one point and was driving around in a Skoda for a while and was the butt of a few kids jokes at the time now I realise that I was fortunate to ride in a car at all. I don't remember suffering too much from him being out of work apart from his temper mum was trying to keep things calm on the 'pin-money' as he called it that she was earning. He didn't really mean that but he was probably feeling bad about himself. And nothing seemed to stop me going to the local dance classes every Saturday so I still had some interests, we didn't have a telephone in the house though until I left home. Maybe that was just wisdom on my parents part!

When I got married I was 19 and unlike some young people today had been working full time for one company since I was 16. Instead of flitting from one job to another I stuck with the company from when it opened until the firm moved to another county and learned as much as possible including operating the computer which was very basic at the time, but I just knew it was worth while sticking with. My boss then always encouraged me to save money every week in the bank without fail no matter how small so just got into the habit. But I didn't go with the Company it was too far as far as I was concerned and I wasn't confident enough to be so independant.

My now ex-husband passed to get into the Fire-Brigade and was doing well so we contemplated getting our own house instead of renting. We went through highs and lots of lows then, not just financial and highs and lows when I found myself on my own with my boys.

I don't consider myself poor compared to some I am lucky to still have a job. How things will be when I am a pensioner might be another thing.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 08:42 AM

Cardboard box - you were lucky!!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Dharmabum
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 08:37 AM

Financially,I guess we were poor.
Though,I never really knew it.
My father died in '64 when I was 11 years old.
Left my mother to raise my younger brother & me.
She recieved a small amount each month through my dads S.S. benefits.
Pride would not allow her to accept food stamps or other assistance.(tho it was offered)
There were quite a few nights that dinner consisted of elbow macaroni with canned tomato soup sauce. Occasionally a hot dog or two would be chopped up & thrown into the mix.

But we never went to bed hungry,always had a roof over our heads & never went to school with ripped jeans.
Not a person entered our house that wasn't offered something to eat or drink.

Growing up that way,I was given the tools to always find a way to get by,no matter what situation was thrown at me.

I still shop dollar stores & yard sales.
Show me a dumpster & I'll dive in it.
The most expensive thing I've ever bought new was my Taylor guitar.

Truth be told,I still like macaroni & hot dogs.

DB.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 07:28 AM

My father was a hospital cook so not well paid.
As was said further up the thread, poverty is relative. We had the Welfare State so no fears about medical bills, and the Family Allowance probably came in handy.
It didn't feel poor, took it for granted that food might be made out of cheap ingredients and clothes were 'homemade' (and sometimes looked it).
There was enough money for what we needed, not what we wanted. The 3s 6d for music lessons might have been hard to find, but I had them.

For some reason we attended a church in Ealing (a posher London suburb than East Acton, where we lived) so we were among well off professional people.

My parents did all sorts to make a bit extra; soft toys (when things were in short supply in the shops), dress making, cake decorating - my father made the rich fruit cakes, mother decorated the in a way that would seem slapdash compared with the fancy tracery people do now.
When things eased a bit the cakes were still made and sold IAO the missionary society.

The frugal habits have never left me. Stood me in good stead. And as a child I think I got more pleasure out of my toy farm by deciding whether to buy a cow or a pig this week, from the display in the toyshop window than I would if I'd been given it complete.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 07:13 AM

I've been broke occasionally - like now.

I don't think I've ever been poor.

Poverty is relative, anyway. Fifty years ago, if you had a car and a television set, you were well off. Now, you can have them, plus a computer, and still be poor (or broke).

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: kendall
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 06:50 AM

I'm glad I know what a "Fisherman's friend" is; otherwise it could be mis understood!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: I don't know
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 06:35 AM

We were never poor but definatly not rich. My brother & I were feed & clothed & had small amount of pocket money. Toys were usually new except bikes which were secondhand because we outgrew them so quickly. Most of all we were not poor because we were LOVED.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: banjoman
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 06:13 AM

My Dad died when I was seven and my Mum was left with 4 young children and she was only 35. We never wanted for food or clothes although I soon got used to not asking for things which my friends got as presents. It stood me in good stead as I learnt how to build a bike from bits scrounged from a tip. I also repaired a guitar which someone had thrown away. I hope that I have passed some of this on to my sons. As for me, I was made redundant four times in 10 years and managed to keep going on a diet of odd jobs and music gigs.
Again it stood me in good stead as I have now retired and spend a lot of time making my own instruments and doing a bit of teaching.
We were never poor in spirit

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: GUEST,Down So Long
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 05:00 AM

Soooo Pooooor

Our daddy painted our feet black and laced our toe-nails up.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Gurney
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 01:59 AM

Richard Bridge, if you don't like my mentioning what my parents avoided in the 1940s so that they could get by, then bad luck! I admire them for it, and that is what Susan was asking. Some kids in my circle had much less than we did because their dad spent time in the boozer.

Seamus, I wonder if half the readers know what a Fisherman's Friend is?   
Good job you capitalised it.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 09:46 PM

I've shoveled snow, cut lawns, carried papers, and caddied in 90+F temperatures with 90%+ humidity. The money I earned went towards food, shelter, and clothing -- as did the money my siblings earned too. I worked my way through Catholic high school washing dishes, cleaning the gym floor, and stuff like that. I remember that in grade school we would sometimes get leftovers from the convent of nuns who ran the school.

We got a new pair of shoes once a year; other clothes were hand-me-downs from other kids. My mother would NEVER accept state aid or welfare other than Social Security survivor's benefits and, later, some money from the VA.

We were never poor, somehow. Times were just always hard, but we had a roof (that my father built before he died when I, the oldest, was five), food, heat, clothing of some sort. At a minimum there were six of us living in that house at the same time...and it had one bathroom and it was NOT large.

But my mother saw all four of her children graduate from college and me receive a Master's degree, her three sons marry, she had two grandsons she met before she died, and even took some college courses herself "just to see if I could do it."

The wolf was always at the door, but we killed and ate him instead of feeding him.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Slag
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:52 PM

Delano's A&W was at the south end of Main St. two blocks off High St. which was actually Highway 99 until the Freeway went through somewhere in the early 60's. I think Pixley did have an A&W just off the Highway but we never ate there. What kind of work did you do?

I grew up working in my Dad's welding shop. Let me tell you, in the summer that was the place to be! Seems we'd average 107 to 110 most days with a few of them on into the teens. Add an electric blast forge, a few big torches going, a couple of arcs running and the water just came through you. At the end of the day your clothes would all be white from the salt leeched out of you.

I've explained else-when that I chose the name "Slag" not becasue I like polemics so much but that was my very first job: chipping slag off welds! I've used the name "Slaghammer" in gaming quite often.

BTW my baby sister is eight years younger than I and she was born in 1957! Yep she was the folk's darling and NOT A BOY! She had it pretty good. My Brother and I provided no rest for the folks, you know!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:32 PM

Slag, I lived in Fresno in the 1970s, and often had work to do in Earlimart, Pixley, and Delano. You brought back memories.
Was it Pixley that has the old-fashioned A&W drive-in off Highway 99? It reminded me of the drive-in near the house where I grew up in Wisconsin.

I thought we were poor when I was growing up in the Village of Wind Point, north of Racine, Wisconsin - mostly because there were five kids in our family. We were Catholic, so we had halibut steak on Fridays - one piece split among the seven of us. And on the rare occasions when we had beefsteak, we'd split one steak among the seven of us. We didn't realize that Wind Point was a rather exclusive suburb, and that my dad earned a salary well above what people in the city earned. Still, it didn't seem like any of the kids in the neighborhood we wallowing in materialism. We cut grass and delivered papers and did babysitting to earn money. Teenage kids didn't own cars or expensive electronic equipment. My youngest sister was born in 1957, nine years after me. Her life seemed to be much more affluent than mine.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Slag
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:19 PM

I grew up very poor. My brother, two years older, always had a scheme which involved my money and not his! Other than that, we kids didn't know what poverty was. We'd wear holes in the patches on the knees of our pants and didn't think anything of it. Mom would fix'em. And I kid you not! I grew up in Green Acres part of Delano California. Honest that was the name of the neighborhood. There were grape vineyards across the road and cottonfields began at the end of the block. Five miles north of us was Earlimart and the next town up was Pixley. Some of you will remember Pixley from the old Eddie Albert TV show titled, um! Green Acres! Get the picture? They used Pixley's water tank on the show quite often.

I now know my folks struggled, now I know, but not then. They never showed it or complained within our hearing. My brother had a very sickly first two years of life and the folks' debt was substantial. It wasn't until I was about eighteen when they began to prosper from my Dad's welding business. We were, you might say, lower-middle class, on the poorer side compared to a lot of folks but nobody was comparing then. I loved my childhood and could tell you tales that would curl your teeth! It was fun. What the hell is "poor"? And yes, Bill_D, we ran an evaporator cooler in the summer, the one with a big squirrel cage. We'd play outside in the 110 degree heat and when we couldn't stand it any longer we'd come a running and burst into the house and wrestle to see who would be first under the cooler.

I'd pay a lot from now to go back and live those days again. Priceless. We were rich!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: ranger1
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:13 PM

My mom had to tell me the truth about the Easter Bunny when I was five, because my parents didn't have money for Easter candy that year. Other than that, I didn't know we were poor. I was a Headstart kid, but didn't realize that it was an income level program until I was in my 20s. So yeah, I guess we were poor, but I never knew it at the time.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Emma B
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:07 PM

It's exactly because there is nothing funny about (relative) poverty and I was brought up in a household with shared sibling bed, no bathroom no fridge no car etc myself that it IS necessary to laugh!

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: kendall
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 07:56 PM

There were 11 of us all told. We lived in a small house and what I told Amos was the truth, not a joke.
We had no fridge or bathroom until I was 13.
My Father hit the bottle when he lost his job during the depression and he just drifted away. Had it not been for welfare I don't know what would have happened to us.
We lived 5 miles from the nearest town and for most of the time we had no car. My Mother carried groceries and worked all the time to keep us fed, clothed and sheltered. I don't know how she did it. She was a saint.
I make jokes about poverty but there is nothing funny about it when you are stuck in it.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 07:53 PM

Well, I grew up in a middle class family... My dad worked for Ford Motor Company as a district rep and my mom worked part time fir an archeitect... So poverty wasn't an issue...

Then, when I was in my early 20s I took a job teachin' GED in the Richmond City Jail thru a drug rehab program and also worked at their half way house... Rubicon paid subsistent wages which means that you are poor.. That lasted about 4 years during which time I had to eat at the half-way house because food was a luxary I couldn't afford... I had an old Karmann Ghia which had a bad starter motor and when I did have to drive it anywherer I had to park it on a hill to roll down to get it started... A used started motor back then was about $20 but seems that $20 was outta reach... Yeah, my parents would send my a $100 now and then which would go toward car insurance but for those 4 years, yeah, I was living under the poverty level... But I lived good... I had food at the half-way house... I was workin' on my 2nd degree at VCU and I never once thought, "poor me"... No money but, hey...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 07:44 PM

It's all very well to hear it in your head...but it's quite another to give into temptation to quote it when requested to stay a bit serious... I know many, many "we were so poor that" jokes, and at least one song.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 07:34 PM

I loved that "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch. It made my sides hurt.

It looks like it has a long history. At YouTube, you have your choice of several different performances.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Alice
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 07:19 PM

Em, I just read that sketch out loud to my son and just about peed my pants laughing.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Emma B
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 06:06 PM

sorry W y s i w y G ! but here in the UK it's almost impossible not to hear the Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen Sketch and its many varients from that thread title

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:42 PM

At 11 yrs old, I wanted a ball glove...it cost $7....my allowance was 35¢ a week. When we wet to get it, we had forgotten about tax, so my mother and the clerk reached some sort of deal. I used that glove for 8 years.

How many remember 'air conditioning' being merely a squirrel cage fan blowing air drawn through wet 'excelsior'(shredded wood)? We thought that was living high when that was installed! (We had one for the 37 Chevy, too...fastened to the passenger side window and forced air thru wet wood and into the car.)

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: bobad
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:31 PM

Good post Alice. Poverty, like wealth, is relative. When you see the extreme poverty of some people in so called "third world" countries it's pretty hard to call yourself poor in places like North America or Europe.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: frogprince
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:27 PM

Grew up on a southern minnesota farm. The good news: we weren't hungry, and only our everday work clothes were ragged and patched. The less good; the windows in the old house were so drafty, the pile of winter blankets on my bed was topped off with the remains of a very heavy old overcoat too worn out for wearing. I guess we had a good year in 1951 or 1952; Dad was able to update from the remains of the '34 Ford to a '49. In a lean year, I didn't always get a dime or a quarter by asking for it. The most regretable part was being so tied down with farm labor that, apart from going to school, it was a rare treat to do anything else. I'm afraid that all work and no play really did make Dean a rather dull boy in his early years.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:10 PM

In winter our Gran would suck a Fisherman's Friend, and we'd huddle round her tongue for warmth.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Alice
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:07 PM

I've lived in El Salvador and seen what poor is.
No matter how broke or hungry I am, or the hardships of my parents and grandparents, I know I'm not poor.

a.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: gnu
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:03 PM

At the age of ten, I trapping rabbits, hunting, fishing, mowing lawns, trimming hedges, shovelling snow, washing windows, forking horseshit in gardens... whatever, for whatever pay I could get. I wasn't poor. I came from poor and they taught me.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:03 PM

I don't really like the moralistic non-sequitur of "my parents almost didn't drink or smoke, so although Dad was never well-paid, we never wanted for anything".

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 04:55 PM

Yes of course humor makes sense to include, but it's not just a thread for one-liners.

I want to KNOW people.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Amos
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 04:07 PM

Kendall reported at some point that his childhood home was so small, and he had so many siblings, that he never got to sleep alone until he got married...


A

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: olddude
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 04:02 PM

In my neighborhood growing up in the mountains, if we didn't grow it, shoot it or make it, we didn't need it ..

Funny we never thought of ourselves as poor, we just made do with what we had ..

only now as an adult, I realize how broke we really were, but we were happy, never hungry and always had a roof over our heads .. seems like a good way to grow up now that I look at it. We had the whole woods as our playground .. never needed camp or toys, we had it all right there

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Gurney
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 03:41 PM

Susan, with regard to how poor you consider yourself, I suspect that that depends on your social group and neighbourhood. There were people in the 1930s who committed suicide because they were down to their last $million, and people who live on what I consider a frighteningly low budget, but who take pride in their spotless home and fine children, and hold their head high.

For myself, my parents almost didn't drink or smoke, so although Dad was never well-paid, we never wanted for anything. Dad always had a motor vehicle, although he went to extraordinary lengths to make the first car work, and we had the first automatic washing machine and television in the street.
But we rarely had anything new.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 03:34 PM

My father always had a job, even during the depression, as a Western Union lineman...until he couldn't work any longer due to illness, then my mother went back to work as a medical secretary.

So... I never went 'hungry', though we drove a 37 Chevy until 1952, and we had potato soup often, and I never ate a grilled steak until I was an adult...(I thought 'steak' meant cheap fried round steak). My first bicycle was used...as was the 2nd....as were many of the toys I had as a kid.

So, we were not poor, but we could see it from where we sat in our modest little houses.

I have never owned a new car.....

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 03:24 PM

Will you allow a couple of jokes first?

A line from the film "92 in the Shade":

"I'm so broke, if turkey was ten cents a pound, I couldn't afford a raffle ticket on a jaybird's ass."

From Dick Gregory's autobiography:

"There were so many kids sleeping in one bed, when you got up at night to pee, you had to leave a bookmark so you wouldn't lose your place."

You can go back to being serious now.

Subject: RE: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 03:02 PM

How Poor Were (Are) You?

Can't even make a down payment on paying attention????

GfS

Subject: BS: How Poor Were (Are) You?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 02:52 PM

This is not primarily a joke thread.

In the many groups I have led, I have found that many people were raised poor, or lived well below the poverty line for a significant period as adults, but do not identify themselves as such. Yet people raised poor, as they have shared with me, often feel like they are the "only one" in a group.

I think once we "overcome" being poor, we like to leave it behind. Yet there are real gifts that grow under dire necessity. When group members have taken a look into that old (or present) experience, the gifts have popped out. Poor people are resourceful people.

I'll start with a childhood memory--

My mom mostly did her grocery shopping, even in deep winter snow, on a three-wheel bike with basket. We were raised on beans & franks and Kraft dinner... There was often a choice whether we wanted breakfast or dinner, and there were never seconds. "Seconds" were school lunches or another night's supper. We ate a lot of thin soup, too.... Meatloaf was a luxury.

Yet we were surrounded by affluent suburbia-- my mom wanted us in good schools and that was where we landed when our family broke up and she found a job to support us-- she had taught herself shorthand and typing, and landed a job running a nearby orthodontist's practice. The pay was low but she got paid vacations and a pioneering retirement fund that she now lives on in comfort.

Gifts? I KNOW that I can always figure out what to do under any rough circumstances.

You?

~Susan