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

[litenlarry]

Growing up in the late 50's,my brother and I ate mustard sandwiches..Occasionally a ketchup sandwich..On occasions, a slice of bologna ( baloney as we called it )..Ketchup and crushed potato chips between two slices of bread was a real treat !
I still like fried boloney sandwiches...

 

[wuluf]

...I had to walk 3 miles each way to school, barefoot. In the snow. Uphill in both directions...

 

[OFT II]

Where I was raised up all the folks were so poor that there was only one chicken in the whole community. All the families had to take turns stealing it.

 

[labworm]

My mother removed all the mirrors in the house.

She didn't want us to see ourselves starving to death.

My nickname in Reggie Ryan's pool room was "Skid Row Joe".

 

[Comrad]

...I had to walk 3 miles each way to school, barefoot. In the snow. Uphill in both directions...

Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!

 

[TenTea]

...daddy traded bushel baskets of chestnuts for our Sunday clothes which included a new apron for momma.

 

[the ringo kid]

We were so broke that we used hand-me-down toothbrushes.

 

[kraynky]

I actually ate mayonaise sandwiches growing up. In the summer we got to add a tomato.

Had to use corn cobs in the outhouse for..........you know......... had a hand crank gizmo that would strip the corn off to feed the chickens, the left over cob was pretty soft really. It was a different world.

 

[Vulcan Bob]

We were so poor that we couldn't pay attention to anything, we were so poor we couldn't pay our respects to the dearly departed! But seriously things were really tight and towards the end of the week things got inventive for meals. Once Dad won a bunch of Civil Defense surplus bomb shelter food in a drawing at one of the clubs, amongst which there were large cans of peanut butter with a few inch's of oil floating on top and needed mixing. You know I still really don't enjoy peanut butter!

 

[EQGuy]

Growing up in the late 50's,my brother and I ate mustard sandwiches..Occasionally a ketchup sandwich..On occasions, a slice of bologna ( baloney as we called it )..Ketchup and crushed potato chips between two slices of bread was a real treat !
I still like fried boloney sandwiches...

We used to eat mustard and mayonnaise sandwiches. I remember heating a brick on the wood stove and wrapping it in newspaper and placing it in the bed to warm it up. I had an old tom cat that used to sleep at the foot of my bed under the covers. He was a good foot warmer. The cats I have now are too spoiled to do that.

 

[Salty RI]

...I had to walk 3 miles each way to school, barefoot. In the snow. Uphill in both directions...

We must have gone to the same school.

 

[olcop]

So Poor

Where I come from, the poor folks had some money, we wuz PORE.
Our clothes were so ragged that when we walked to school, if there was any wind at all, we would hum.
So pore we couldn't pay attention.
Seriously though, I remember getting new flannel shirts in the fall, and my grandmother always bought them a couple of sizes too big, so we could grow into them, she then would fold the sleeves over so as to make them shorter, and sew it down. Next fall, when my brother got the shirt, it had a stripe of unfaded shirt on each sleeve, much to the merriment of our schoolmates.
Never had any dental care till I joined the Navy.
Unless you were gushing blood, you got treated with home remedies, it seems that my grandparents' favorite remedy for anything was castor oil, or what ever was on hand in the house, lots of times, you would get well just on the threat of being treated with castor oil.
Measles, no problem, they kept you in a darkened room for a few days till you got over them.
Mumps, no problem, you just tough it out
Chicken Pox. no problem, they made you lay down in front of the chicken house door and let the chickens fly out over you. (seriously)
I won't go into any details about the annual springtime worming my grandfather believed strongly in, but I still believe it was the same worm medicine that he used on the hogs
And there are many, many more.
olcop

 

[DeadAye]

We were so poor that we got a new pair of shoes at the start of the school year and a new pair of Red Ball Jets at the end of the school year. Each pair had to last a year.....
I delivered papers in sub-zero temps wearing the last year's pair of shoes with cardboard stuffed in the bottom so I wouldn't ruin my *good shoes*.
Those were the days

A friend was so poor that he ate egg salad sandwiches at school EVERYDAY! Of course they had chickens.

 

[Rustyt1953]

It would embarrass me to walk home with my friends and see toilet paper hanging on the line to dry.

 

[Salty RI]

It would embarrass me to walk home with my friends and see toilet paper hanging on the line to dry.

What, you didn't use a Sears catalog.

 

[M&P Freak]

My dad called the ice cream man the "music man". I was 14 years old before learning ice cream was involved, thought the guy just drove around playing music for the fun of it.

 

[427mach1]

We thought "Hand-me-downs" was a brand name!

 

[MOONDAWG]

We were so poor we spelled it with 3 0's...Pooor.

We were so poor my dad smoked cigarettes till the ashes fell behind his teeth.

We were so poor a burglar broke in one night and we robbed him.

We were so poor I wore Tom Mc Ann shoes...when Tom Mac and Ann outgrew them I got em.

 

[BigBill]

I had silver dollar sized holes in the soles of my shoes. I put new pieces of cardboard in them often. It sucked when it rained while walking to school. Bread? I had to return 5 cent deposit bottles to buy a loaf of bread. Dad didn't care and mom did the best she could. I became a man at a young age and learned how to work and make money. I quit school to go to work so we could eat.
I have no regrets but my kids/wife had a home, food and the bills were paid. They had new shoes. My kids have no clue I don't talk about it.

 

[RonJ]

I remember eating neckbones and kraut. what little meat was on them neckbones was sweet n tender.