"We Were So Poor" Sayings or Stories

[SHOOTER12 8800]

We were so poor my mom cut holes in the pockets of my jeans so I would have something to play with...

[Parliament 14231]

Farming in the 1980's was very though.  More than once we kids got our savings accounts cleaned out to pay bills.  My cousins had the same thing. Just the way it was.

[Jiggy-Z 3432]

I pretty much lost all household possessions in a divorce when I was 30.

After that I had just spent all I had on a new place on the country which was basically a shack.

On one of the first nights after I moved in it was my night for visitation with my son and I decided to grill up some burgers.

When the time came to slice tomatoes, I discovered I had no knife that would do the trick.

It was one of many such moments that I had realizing I pretty much lost everything.

Nevertheless, I solved the tomato slicing problem by going to my tool box and used a pvc pipe saw, after washing (with hand soap)of course.

[Superhero 8827]

My dad was the 4th of 9 kids growing up during WW2. Sanitation wasn't great in that part of the world, and 2 of my uncles, and an aunt died of unknown diseases while they were still young. My grandfather took my aunt out to the barn to die, and instructed my dad not to give her food or water because she was going to die anyway, and not to waste it on her. I never asked how my uncles died...

Being the only surviving boy, my dad got to go to school while my aunts stayed home to help the family. He eventually graduated college and became a diplomat. Of the surviving aunts, only one has made it past elementary school.

When my dad was a kid, he wore hand me downs from American GIs, and had to use a string to hold his pants up. A "nice" meal was to actually have rice with butter donated by missionaries. Otherwise their typical meal was sweet potatoes and vegetables.

 

My dad is retired now with a pension. Everything him and my mom don't spend goes to my aunts or to his elementary school. I guess his elementary school was his first step towards a white collar career. If you saw him now, you'd never know he grew up dirt poor. He doesn't have the mindset of a poor person - pinching every penny, trying to protect his own. But he's frugal to himself and carefully considers everything he buys. Him and my mom are coming to visit in June, I should sit him down and find out more about his childhood and may get the low down on how my uncles died.

[CHIEF 5075]

3 hours ago, Parliament said:

Farming in the 1980's was very though.  More than once we kids got our savings accounts cleaned out to pay bills.  My cousins had the same thing. Just the way it was.

Yep. My savings account got hit up for Christmas after the scorching summer of 1980. Somehow we still broke even on 55 acres of Sudan, that meant enough for a pup tent and a canteen.

CHIEF