When I was 10 or 12 I read a book written by Eisenhower called; At Ease, Stories I Tell My Friends. When Ike talks about growing up he make the comment: I grew up poor, but never knew it. The glory of America is that you can grow up poor and not realize you are poor.

My dad was born in 1922 in the Arkansas Ozarks, which was not exactly a booming time or place. Out of curiosity read the quote to dad and asked if he knew he was poor going up. He thought about it and said: Not really, we always had food, owned the place they lived and there always seemed to be someone worse off. Then he said that I was growing up poor by many peoples standards and did I feel poor.

This surprised me. I knew things were tight for my parents with 5 kids to feed. However between my grandparents farm and neighboring farms my cousins and I had a couple square miles to safely roam. It didn't occur to me that I would be considered poor.

So I'm curious, did YOU think you were poor growing up?

In this day and age is it even possible for a kid to be poor and not know it? Is this something we've lost as a culture?

I never realized I was poor. I knew other kids whose parents had more money than mine.

Looking back, compared to todays standards, everyone I knew was poor. Just some more than others.

I grew up in a nice new house in a middle class neighborhood. Had a friend who lived in an older neighborhood and their house was decent, but had cracks in the walls and things that made me feel much more elite than he and his family.
That "old" home of his is now worth four times what that house that was ours is worth these days.
So much for childish perception.

I was married before I had a lawnmower or a bicycle that all the parts left the same factory at the same time. Pretty much everybody in the neighborhood had these custom vehicles.

I have talked to many people who grew up back in the 1920-50s, they didn't know they were poor either. It wasn't until their households had television did people know they were poor. The TV commercials told people they were poor. Told them they were ugly and fat too. Now it's even worse. Now they are telling people they got no friends. I think people were happier before the media started telling them they were poor fat ugly and had no friends.

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Have Gun Will Carry

I grew up in a middle class neighborhood in a large city. We had a nice house with plenty of space for 4 people. I have no idea if it was tough for my parents to live there or not. But we were never hungry, had 2 cars, a house with a yard. I had a bicycle and baseball equipment and roller blades but I don't know if it was hard for my parents to buy the roller blades or the baseball glove. They weren't always happy to go out and spend money on these things but part of that is them coming from a different culture and just not understanding why I need these things.

Thinking back I can say that there was a time when we were considered poor by the gov. I remember my mom using those welfare coupons to to help off set the cost of food but I don't remember it being used too much. Granted I was a kid and didn't pay attention to these things. I don't know if it was a month or a year. I remember being about 10 or 11 and seeing that. But by the time I was a young teen there was no more of those coupons

Had a lot large enough to play in, Dad's cousin had a farm to hunt on, the river was only a few miles down the road, did not have one nickel to rub against a rock but had a wonderful childhood. Dad always kept a box or so of .22 shorts for us and 15 or so shotgun shells each season plus a boat at the river.

Went from roller skates to bicycle, horses, motorcycle, then family car for dates. Never felt poor in the least and met many with much more earthly possessions which I would not have considered changing places with. Probably the richest poor kid you ever met with a loving family who were always there for me.

Met rich kids in college whose families and respect for same convinced me that I had it made. Money is not what it is considered to be when it comes to happiness.

Our household struggled a tad as there were 7 of us but, we got by decently enough. We were in an older middle class neighborhood, knew every neighbor we had for two blocks square. Most were WWI and WWII vets. My parents never had to worry about us kids, or where we were while in the surrounding neighborhood.

I came from a "Dirt Poor" low income family. I never realized we were poor because in the area I grew up in everyone was the same situation. Old frame houses with tin roofs, cooking and heating from a fireplace, outdoor toilet (two seats), lighting from kerosene lamps, one car (1937 Plymouth with rust holding it together),
walked one mile to the school bus stop. Christmas Day-one gift, Birthday-one gift, water for drinking, cooking, bathing came from a hand pump 75 feet from the back door or 50 yards to the creek. Well to do kids had two pair of shoes and more than one pair of overhauls.

I don't know if I grew up poor, like so many have stated poor is relative, to those around you.

Now what would really be bad, as an adult, is to have a few extra bucks and lose that, then realize that you are now poor. That would be hard.

I was so poor, we went to Burger King and put value meals on lay-a-way!

I was so poor, we ate cereal with a fork to reuse the milk!

I was so poor, our neighbors had dirt floors and I was jealous!

I was so poor, the cock roaches brought us food!

I was so poor, Daddy found a possum and we named it Fido!

I was so poor, momma's car had a bumper sticker that read, "if your reading this, get off our property"! Because it sit in our front yard on blocks!

I was so poor, burglars broke into our house and left us money and a TV!

I was so poor, we thought salt and pepper were side dishes!

I was so poor, we thought watching the mail man was entertainment!

The kids above and below my pay grade let me know what I did or didn't have.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

I knew we were poor from age 5 on. It was almost impossible to not realize it where I grew up. I can't say it was a big deal, just that we were poor compared to others. We were never so poor I went without a meal, but poor enough for a while there that it was nip and tuck on even that. All my clothes until about age 10 were hand-me-downs from cousins who were not poor. Holes in my jeans were well patched and it was not a fashion fad.

My dad was not an educated man, but he was smart and strong, and dedicated to his family. He got out of the military well after WWII ended and most of the jobs were taken by then where we lived. So for a couple of years there it was tough, but we relocated to Houston, a real boom town and suddenly my dad had two full time jobs (no car he walked to both jobs one at Hughes Tool machining steel all night, and another at something called the Rice Mill where he was a construction carpenter during the day. We were still poorish, but by then we were moving to what I would now call upper lower class economically. Many people I knew, liked to consider that middle class but I knew better even at age 10 and 11. It was a long way from middle class economically. Still it got us into a decent subdivision in our own home for the first time, and it was pretty nice compared to being dirt poor. Being poorish was a real step up for us and I never forgot what it meant to be without money.

The public schools I attended were ranked pretty low (dead last) compared to other areas around Houston, but this was before forced-integration, and the schools I attended back then were still better than most are today. I don’t think it hurt me being poor as it prepared me well for retirement. LOL

Also by before I turned 14 I had a large Chronicle route and a few months later I had two of them, so while my family was still poorish, by that time I had plenty of money for a kid my age, and soon bought my first motor scooter, then motor cycle, then worked after school in a grocery store and bought my first car at age 16. I was also buying my own clothes and schools supplies and took some of the burden off my Dad as I did not cost him much at all compared to most kids. In return he gave me a ton of freedom to come and go as I pleased, with the cravat that I keep my nose clean.

I managed to work my way through a Master’s Degree and made and lost a fortune and lived a pretty good life. The stock market crash of 99 wiped me out and sent me back to the upper lower class economically. LOL I picked exactly the wrong time to get into technology stocks.

Actually in my case I think being poor early on helped me in some ways, to understand things a lot better than I might had I been raised in a more pampered style. But there was always a part of me that felt that early poverty, especially in social settings.

I wasn't poor but we had to work for everything starting at 13,eventually started my own business and did fairly well.Married and raised a family with a professional victim/wino which ultimately was a horrible mistake.Ive ended up poor because of it.

I guess we were poor, but for the most part I never knew it. There were always kids that had more than others, it was just accepted and I don't really remember any whining about it. At 8, we lived in the country, but not on a farm. I had miles of countryside to roam in, and I did. We then moved to town and I had a whole city to roam in. Having to walk 2 miles to school was a big adventure. In those days there were alleys-- You never knew what you might find-- and did. then there was an island in the river-- Mississippi River where it flowed through Rock Island-- was an old factory that was closed down-- that is where I really learned to shoot a BB gun-- Plenty of fishing-- I did't have money for tackle but hit on a idea that kept me in fishing gear. Some where I had some long heavy-duty rope, don't remember where I got it, but I attached some small trailer ropes and made some treble hooks out of some wire, acquired from some where. You wouldn't believe the stuff I pulled up. Once a like new tackle box, fising poles, all kinds of lures, lines with sinkers, all kinds of stuff-- then on the way home, we would stop at the ice house for a couple 5 cent cokes-- MAN! were they cold. Only money I had was from mowing lawns and returning pop bottles, at 2 cents apiece. Wasn't much, but it seemed enough, at the time. I also would hunt night crawlers at night and sell them. Try going around at night with a flashlight in todays world. Shortly after turning 17 I enlisted in the Corps, and left-- never been back except for a visit but haven't done that in 40 years-- This Christmas will be the wife's and my 50th Christmas together-- where does the time go. April 1 we will have been married 49 years-- Hmmm, no wonder I feel old.

A little bit the opposite for my family, I thought we were poor.
My parents we married in 1930 so they started out on the farm at the height of the depression and had my 2 older sisters within 2 years. I came along 14 years later. But my parents depression era mentality was firmly entrenched. My socks were darned, my clothes were homemade from feedsacks, the only thing that come from a grocery store was things like flour, sugar, coffee, and some fresh fruit in season(like peaches & pears) which were canned for the rest of the year. One present for Christmas, stocking held an orange and a red delicious apple and sometimes new socks. I had a hill to sled on and a creek to fish in. Life was good.
About age 10 or 12 I started to realize my classmates' parents had lake cottages and boats and 2 cars and horses to ride. I thought we were poor folk.

I didn't realize the difference until I was an adult, my parents were actually wealthy, owned 480 acres of Iowa farm land, absolutely no debt.
And money in every bank in the area. I just wish they had enjoyed life more.

as kids, we never thought about poor or money...........we were warm, had clean clothes, home cooked meals and plenty of family love............mom and pop saw to that........i remember dad working a full time job and had a couple of part time jobs on the side....he NEVER complained.....

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There's nowt so queer as folk

I grew up with 9 people in a 900 square foot house, but like most of you I didn't know I was poor. My Dad worked two jobs and we always had food and Christmas presents. I remember not being able to go in the kitchen when my Dad was paying bills, but the first time I realized we were on the lower end of the economic scale was when I was making fun of my friend for having real milk. We only had powdered milk, which my parents had told me was "astronaut milk". He set me straight.

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“What you got, ain’t new.”

Poor is a relative term, and really just a state of mind.

Compared to the Kennedys or Bill Gates, I'm quite poor.

Compared to many in the projects and trailer parks, I might be considered wealthy.

Reading all this did set me to thinking. Once my daughter after she was grown and married asked my wife why she kept so much junk stuff in the pantry, and my wife replied that was for me. She saw me too many times counting canned goods in the pantry wondering if there was enough to go around for the week.

Now I can never tell you how much money I have on me, as I don't count it except when I need to do that. For too long I could tell you to the penny how much I had, as I had to be constantly aware of if
I could afford a soft drink with the guys.

People complain that I keep my house hot, but after freezing all those years growing up in a minimally heated house, I plan to never be cold again.

My folks gave me two years of college and then I spent ten years doing home study to improve my own education. Put wife and both daughters through college and two of them have masters degrees today. The children went to private schools to assure good educations. Ate a lot of rice and beans but it was worth it.

I learned to do my own repairs dating from when if I could not do them myself, we could not afford to own things. Learned a lot which made me a decent mechanical engineer and allowed us to advance financially over the years.

I think if a person does not have a tough time in life, he is never able to actually master bad times or really enjoy his possessions.

Wanted hand tied nets, so learned to make them. Wanted custom knives, so learned to make them. Wanted hand made duck calls, so learned to make them. There is a lot of satisfaction in being independent.

it never occurred to me that we were poor until I was about 13. I thought everyone lived like us. For us kids every summer was spent working during the day and playing in the evening and nights. As soon as school was out it began. Pick strawberries, then pole beans, then black or marion berries, and finally Hazel nuts. All the earnings, except a small allowance for fireworks on the 4th of July, went for school clothes and costs.
Somewhere in there would be a week long camping/fishing trip or visit to extended family. Entertainment centered around friends, family, and church.
Our parents worked full time at jobs that paid minimally. Never any sort of "public assistance" and parents too proud to accept it had it been available. We had a large garden and fruits and vegetables were canned all summer. One of my favorite dinner "entrees" was my grandma's fried dumplings & onions.
Looking back, we were poor, but we were happy. There were always gifts for birthdays and Christmas and a loving supporting home. We learned the value of a buck and the rewards of saving.
I wouldn't trade my childhood for anyone's.

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SWCA #1917

Reading these posts has made me so thankful. It reminds me of my mother and father, may they rest in peace. My Mom was trained as a nurse in the US Army during World War 2. They were going to need every nurse they had if we had invaded Japan. When the war ended they offered all the nurses a commission in the US Army medical corps or they could just take their nursing degree and go home.
Dad was an 18 year old rifleman in the infantry. In 1945 he saw 6 weeks of wicked combat taking the city of Manila in the Philippians from die hard Japanese. (He used to wake up screaming when I was a kid). When he got home the GI Bill gave him a free education plus money to live on. He went to medical school, where he met a young nurse. They were both dirt poor during the depression. I did not grow up poor, but my parents never forgot.

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Have Gun Will Carry

"Poor" is a subjective term.
I learned that when my family moved to the United States from Ireland. We always had enough to eat. A nice home. A vehicle which ran reliably and clothing for the season. Now that I am on my own, as it were, I still have those things with the exception of a vehicle. So, in my eyes, no. I am not poor.
I am a non-traditional college student who goes to class full time, owns two businesses and has only a limited time to work at those businesses, which means I do not make as much money as I could. But, it is more than enough for me and mine. In my parents eyes, I am a raging success compared to where they were at the same stage in their lives. However, I look around campus and see younger students refer to other students as "poor" because they are using a mobile phone from two or three years ago. Or because they shop at thrift stores.
The idea of who is "poor" and who is not changes. I do not think I am poor. I have plenty. But, in other people's eyes, I may be.
As long as you are happy, why should your bottom line matter?

Had no idea, I shared a bedroom, wore hand me downs with iron on patches on the knees but so did everybody I knew.
We never threw a bite of food away, socks with holes in them were repaired. Come to think of it we never threw anything out.

Now I have to ask, how did the starving children in China benefit by me cleaning my plate?

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Back to back World War Champs.

When Dad came back from WWII we moved to a project that was built for returning servicemen. In 1951 we moved into a new home. Dad had a good job, we didn't have a lot of money, but we always had food on the table and good clothes. My parents had 9 children and us siblings all get along great to this day, because of how we were raised. Mom and Dad instilled into us a good work ethic from the beginning. Unfortunately both of them are now gone, but they will always be remembered for how they raised us and how we were all loved by both of them.

Well I would not say we were poor, but definitely lower middle class on the scale. My neighborhood was pretty much all in the same boat so I had no real comparison. In answer to your question, no I did NOT realize how the other half lived until I went away to college. That opened my eyes. When I saw kids my age at the time ( 18 ) owning beautiful sports cars, nice clothing, and their parents paid 100% for college (I paid my own way) I realized I had grown up on the other side of the tracks. That is when I decided NOT to be poor.

We didn't have electricity until I was 5. No indoor plumbing until I was a freshman in high school. But my folks shielded me from our poverty. I would have made different life choices if they had been more open about our financial situation.

Another thought on this--If I was poor I stopped being poor the night I met my wife-- Since then, nothing else has really mattered. The kids are all doing great on their own and we are expecting our 9th grandchild in February. I just don't think one can be richer than a half century of Love --

I lived so far out in the country, I had nothing to compare my childhood with.

I had good food, patched britches, but so did everybody else. I worked for an allowance and started getting paid $5.00 a day for a full days work when I was 12. Signed up for Social Security on my 12th birthday.

If I was poor I didn't know it.

Now I look at it, it ain't money that makes you rich, it's the friends you've earned that makes you rich.

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Eccentric old coot

Ahahhahahaaa!!!! Again already?

We were so poor we had to post links from an earlier thread on THE SAME EXACT SUBJECT!

We were so poor growing up that ......

Financially, we were poor. But I had the love of family & friends.
Guess I was rich after all.

I lived in a small town in a neighborhood where most of the families had similar means, and while it was obvious some of my friends had nicer homes and more stuff than others, there was no huge disparity so the subject was not something that we considered much. I do remember a grade-school friend who lived on the next street over from me. He would invite me to come home from school with him for half a peanutbutter sandwich. At first I didn't realize it but when my Mother got wind of this she figured out that most days peanutbutter sandwiches were his dinner, and without me, he would have been eating alone. He had no father and his mother (a waitress) worked until well after he went to bed. His teenage brother, 5-6 years older, was "responsible" for him, but like most teenage boys, he had other things on his mind and paid little attention to his duties with my friend. I recall very distinctly thinking to myself how lucky I was that my Mom was always there every day after school and any time I might have needed her, and my Dad was home every night after work. It was a form of "wealth" I came to understand due to the misfortune of my little friend down the street.

I thought I was poor until I realized I already had all I needed, then I felt rich.

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Isaiah 41:10

This best sums it up for me i guess !!
Dad was an enlisted Marine and we grew up moving
base to base on the East Coast and living in base
housing. We always had what we "needed' and on
Birthdays and Christmas we always had presents.
We never asked for much. We knew dad worked
his Butt off and money was tight.
We had friends of course in officers housing and we
just accepted that some folks were a little better
off financially than others. Not a big deal.
Dad retired Gunny Sargent after putting in 20 years
with the Corp and he was and will always be my Hero.
Regardless of how much he made.


Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

I don't want to talk about it.

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dd884
JMHO-YMMV

I had holes in my shoes I had to stuff with new cardboard everyday. I walked to school and when it rained the cardboard became wet. I took back nickle deposit bottles to buy a loaf of bread so we could eat. I finally quit school to go to work.

When I got married I worked 6 1/2 days a week, three jobs so my kids/wife would have a better life than I had.

Money doesn't make us rich. It's our family and Freinds that makes us rich.

To this day I make a excellent P&J sammich.

I came into the world with nothing, never expected anything given to me, never wanted anything given to me, I worked for everything I have. Sometimes life can pick us up and spit us out like yesterday's lunch. Never give up no matter how bad is gets be thankful for family and Freinds.
Remember there's always someone worse off than you. I never asked why me. The harder life became the stronger I got. We need to take control of our lives. Make our own decisions. Don't wait for it to happen on its own.
Only you can change your life.

I grew up in a family of six kids on one income. We somehow managed to always have food and schooling. I didn't really think that we were broke until I was in high school and my friends started getting cars and I didn't.

I got a part time job at 14, and except for time on active duty, have always had one (in addition to a full time one) until I really retired last summer. Most of us have degrees, some have advanced degrees. All of us did so by working our way through. We are one retired CEO, 2 current ones, a VP, a retired soldier and a housewife.

Mom and Dad are gone some 20 years, but we all have fond memories of how we grew up "in each other's pockets". Tomorrow we have our family Christmas party. This year every one can be there, so we'll have all 6 siblings, and their families, a total of 45.

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Long Barrel
Retired Artilleryman

This is one of the nicest threads I have seen. Wealth is certainly relative and cannot be measured by money.

Dad was sent home from the Navy due to his health during WW2 and always felt bad about that. There were five of us kids plus three who had lost their fathers and been figuratively adopted by my folks. The boy and one girl lost their father the day after D Day. Two of the kids were girls who I was to treat like sisters and never even consider dating, as it was my job to be their protectors.

I understand the gentleman who said his wife had brought so much to the table over the years, and feel the same about my wife of 54 years. We toughed out the bad times and she is still my best friend after all these years.

I feel we are some of the richest people in the world and were even when money was way too tight.

yep sure did.

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Carpriver.

My uncle had a story of growing up during the depression.

“Everybody had it pretty hard during that time. Our family didn’t have a whole lot to eat, just what we grew in the garden. One year the garden didn’t grow so well. The only thing that thrived was okra.

I carried okra sandwiches to school for weeks. After a while I got real tired of okra and made up my mind that I wasn’t gonna eat okra ever again. Just before lunchtime, I went into the coatroom where the lunches were kept and felt all the sacks. There was one that was real heavy.

I grabbed that sack (accidentally, of course) and went out into the schoolyard and hid behind some bushes. I thought I was gonna have a good meal. I opened the sack and looked in there. It was a hammer and a dozen hickory nuts.”

I don’t recall any of my relatives, or myself, saying that we were poor, just that we all have hard times that we lived through.

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A gun has no brain.. use yours

I didn't realize that my family was poor until I was an adult. We never missed a meal, what we ate was put on the table by our own sweat and calluses. I spent a lot of time swinging a scovy hoe in our 3 acre garden. Some of the clothes my sister and I wore were home sewn, mom was a wiz on her sewing machine. We had a two seater outhouse until I was eight.

I was richer than others in many ways. I lived in the country and had woods and fields to roam along with neighbors who allowed me to fish their ponds at will.

If you actually do grow up poor you're probably going to know it.
There's nothing sentimental or romantic about growing up poor. As
mentioned above poor can be relative to your neighbors, or not. When
your neighbors have cars and your family doesn't you know it. When
your neighbors have lights at night and you don't you're going to
notice it. When you have nothing to eat, when nothing really means
nothing, and a local church takes up a collection of food and leaves it
on your doorstep during the night you're going to realize what your
status relative to your neighbors is. If you've never experienced being
poor then you don't know that shame accompanies poverty. There's
nothing good what-so-ever about growing up poor. I grew up poor
but that was then and it's in the past. Life goes on.

I did not grow up poor. We were solid middle class. My Dad worked too hard and wasn't home much. Owned his own business, and he was moderately successful. We had multiple vehicles, a small boat (sometimes two), a house considered large for the time (over 2000 sq. ft.), nice clothes, plenty to eat, pretty much everything.

My dad, though, grew up seriously poor. Born in 1929 to an alcoholic father and a mother who worked as a nurse's aid, he has told me stories of going to bed hungry when they didn't have food. Of moving out in the middle of the night because they couldn't pay the next month's rent. Of going to school with no shoes and no lunch. Of being kept out of school in the fall to pick cotton. Of chopping and burning wood for heat and cooking and oil for light when they could afford some. He grew up poor with a capital P.

His mom died of cancer when I was small. His father lived into his 90s, but we never really visited him. One time I remember going to his house when I was probably around 8-9 years old. The house was a shack built with 2x4s and tar paper. No siding whatsoever. He had married a woman quite a bit younger than he was, and they had three or four seriously grubby looking kids smaller than I was. He wasn't very friendly. He kept referring to my sister as "sister." I think he only called me "boy." Sadly that's the only memory I have of my paternal grandfather.

Well said. A bit of "reality therapy" for us all.

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SWCA #1917

Being poor really is relative..mainly to the others in your environment. Yep we were poor..I knew it but everybody else was not so well off. Yeah we were poor..the black folks locally were even worse off..but the worst was the tenant farmers and their families. This was my perception from the early 50s onward till about 1962 anyway. I did whatever from age 11 to make a bit of money. Not just for me either. It was family money. I hunted from the age of 10 and we ate what I might bag. As stated above..that was then..the now times are what we have made of them. What we have is what we worked for.

At least you had one. Mine died in 1925, 23 years before I was born. I've now got 7 grandkids, and I work overtime playing with them. I want them to know who grandpa was. The youngest is 3 and he visits here all the time. They call it babysitting, I call it playing together. I bought a fat man's chair, one that is 1 1 /2 wide. I sit on the right side, he's on my left. All the time. He even likes being told he's my buddy. He tells me that back. That is real wealth.

I'm still confused as to my poverty while growing up. Yes, the other kids don't miss a chance to tell you they're rich and you're poor. I grew up believing it. Kids down the road had 2 cars, both new. One was an Oldsmobile. Didn't have a lot of use for them. We fought on occasion, but then we fought with everyone. Kind of a pecking order thing. Didn't matter how much money their parents had, they'd better respect getting punched.

One of the things I do is remember their names from time to time. I google them. One of my enemies just croaked. Good. I don't even know why I thought of him, but when I punched up his name, he'd just died. I'd always thought their older brother was a jerk. He somehow got into a college down in Florida. All a big joke, but it kept him out of the army for a while. Then he took an elective, basket weaving! Not really so funny, the person teaching it took it seriously. So he flunked out because he thought it was a joke. I think he then moved to Canada. No respect in that. Gawd I miss the draft and how it equalized things.

I've never really figured out if we were poor or not. I'm leaning toward thinking we were. We kind of lived like we were. Looking back, Dad had a better job than most of the folks around us, but we didn't live "well". We had a chevy, and not new. But paid for when we got it. The house was paid for when I was young. But the other families took vacations to exotic places every summer. We didn't. I'm thinking wealth from the vantage point of a young kid is based on what you see and think. My parents didn't view things like that.

A poster above pointed out there was shame in being poor. Maybe that's the purpose of our welfare state, to remove the shame of poverty. But I still bet the kids with a little more material goods throw it in the face of the poorer ones.

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Dick Burg

Dad was a WW II vet, went to school on the GI bill and graduated in 3 years. He was an engineer for the DOD US Army. He bought a 200 acre farm. My brother and I had lots of chores, no allowance and hauled hay or other jobs for pocket money.

Later I saw Dad pay cash for a new 79 Jeep J-10 Golden eagle. I knew lots of other kids had cars gifted from their parents. We did have horses.

I worked summers to buy Levis so I wouldn't have to wear Roebuck jeans like poor kids.

Later in life I realized what Dad's objective was. Simple. My cousins and a few rich town kids grew up worthless. Spoiled, drugs and alcohol. melted livers by 40.

Mom and Dad were children of the depression, they had to work to get personal items because their parents who owned farms did not have extra money. Both Dad and Mom worked, we had 3 gardens, 1 large enough that a Case VAC did the tilling. Mom canned up to 50 gallons of tomatoes a year. We raised and butchered hogs and chickens and grew the rest. Their grocery store trips were Milk when the 2 milk cows were dry. The rest of the year I hand milked 2 cows and a truck would come buy and empty our milk can in the truck. Flower, cereal and lunch meat with Mustard and ketchup would cover the items except Friday nights in the winter, they would stop and get ice cream, a 6 pack of Coke and Chili mix. Mom would brown some deer burger fix the chili and we all would watch westerns on TV. Felt rich on Friday nights except during football season. I get home late and eat cold chili with a Coke and have ice cream in the dark because they went to bed after the last good western and it was lights out in the house.

After I figured it out, my siblings and I were not poor, we were in training. We hit life running with a great work ethic.

I did buy my kids 1 good used car each. All understood it they wanted $100 tennis shoes they had better get a job or it would be the 99 cent ones like I wore from the 5 and dime. They did get nice clothes but not all they wanted. It worked my 3 kids have good work ethics.

Poor is a state of mind. We always had food, Dad had nice cars and a pickup. Even though we hated chores there was satisfaction in growing all your food, eating well and we knew we had it better than some folks who lived out in the hills without running water or electricity.

Feeling rich too is a state of mind. Having lots of money and little else to show leaves one feeling poorly about life.

I knew quite a few self made millionaires in the 60's a couple were my relatives, none of them seemed to happy. They always had one pocket full of money and one pocket full of worries.

My Sister hated the farm with a passion. She did well in life. Due to poor selections of 2 mates she never had children. Last year she told me how she hated the farm but now, in hindsight, she said that was the best years of her life.

It is not always possible to realize you are rich in what matters until the brass ring is missed and is many years gone in your rear view mirror.

I came to the realization we were poor one day when I was 13 and my dad asked me for money because he had just lost some money at a poker game. He was a silversmith and not making much money in the 50s, averaging about $50 a week.

There were 5 of us in a nice three bedroom apartment. My dad owned, was paying off, the house that had. It had three floors and rented out the first and third floor for the money we needed. I later found out that he borrowed the money from a well to do Uncle. Nicest day was when my parents had a party for paying the house off.

After that, in the late 60s my dad got a new job. Utilizing his skill with his silversmith days he got a job as a developmental technician and things changed for the better. Soon we moved into a single family home away from Newark and a much nicer neighborhood.

Even with money being very tight my parents managed to send us to private schools for grammar and high school and it payed off with a great education.

I had to pay for college myself and work two jobs but that wasn't too bad.
Never made it rich but had a good life until my retirement.

Dad worked for the long Island Railroad for over 45 years. Last year he worked was the only year he made over 10K, and had they pay stubs to prove it. Mom worked in May's department store in Jamaica NY. back then all the coinage was going over to the clad type and she would swap out her clad stuff for the silver. When the Hunt brothers tried to corner the market her smarts paid off. She kept the S&H green stamps and actually used them. Had an old emerson tube tv that went bad every so often, got so you could pick out the bad tube and go to the TV and radio store and get a new one. They bought their only house for $14,500 and when it sold brought $250K. Wasn't money for stuff like bicycles so cobbled one together out old ones I'd find and bring home and see what worked and what didn't. I wouldn't say we were poor but certainly not well off. Always had a warm place to sleep and food on the table. By the way I hate tounge and liver. In a way I think that was a better way of living than today. Taught us to rely on what we learned and not seeking handouts. Did most of the repairs on my cars and the one boat I had. It's true about boats being a hole in the water into which you throw money. Reworked the transome on my boat with fiberglass and the boat yard guy was suprised at how it turned out. Thanks for the memories. Frank