For those of you who didn’t grow up with money or privilege…..

hollydolly said:
we laugh at ourselves in the uk.. we always undercut each other in a joking manner..

One person says they lived in a house with no roof... so the next says.' house.. ?.. you were lucky.. we lived in a hole in the road...

Hole in the road?..says the next one... you were lucky... we lived in a mouse hole in the skirting board...skirting board?..says another.. you were lucky... we lived in a rotten sandwich that a beggar had thrown away... and so it goes on...

:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...

When you can't laugh at yourself you know you are really bad off.
 

MarkD said:
When you can't laugh at yourself you know you are really bad off.
Click to expand...
I honestly thik that's how i survived , and not only survived but thrived.. because if I'd allowed it to keep me down .. I would still be struggling today... no better life for me or my children... ...

My daughter is very upper middle class.. she has never known deprivation for herself.. or witnessed it as any part of my life or past life... that's what I wanted to be able to provide, and I achieved that despite and maybe because of the deprivation and abusive first 18 years of my life

..and due to that she was given every opportunity in life that I could give her.. that meant satying on at school to get the best exams.. going onto college... ( which was all denied to me).. so that she could start her working life half way up a ladder.. and not scrabbbling around at the bottom , with little hope of advancement
 
hollydolly said:
Your post reminds me that.. we never got any take away food at all ever... or taken to a restaurant... but on the odd occasion if I went shopping on my own with my mum, she would take us both into a cafe, and I could have a coke...:love: ..and also once from memory we also had a picnic in the layby by the roadside... but only because we had my aunt and uncle with us....for a day out.... I still have the photos from that day taken by my aunt and uncle

We did take a trip once.. to the beach ... just for one day... but they brought fish paste sandwiches with us and tea in a flask
Click to expand...
We both might not have grown up in a rich family, but we were rich in other ways. I have some good memories of childhood and some not so good. (I lost my parents early just like you) I'll never complain. There are so many out there before our time, during our time, and now that were and are struggling just to survive.
 

TeePee said:
We both might not have grown up in a rich family, but we were rich in other ways. I have some good memories of childhood and some not so good. (I lost my parents early just like you) I'll never complain. There are so many out there before our time, during our time, and now that were and are struggling just to survive.
Click to expand...
yes you were a little different to me... you have good memories of childhood, I don't.

I had a very abusive childhood.. so poverty and abuse doesn't make for good memories. What it does however in some people..like me.. is make me abe to endure much more in life .. and not fold.. that may break other people

It instilled a deep personal ehtos in me for improvement.. and never to to allow anyone to go through any similar situation
 
hollydolly said:
yes you were a little different to me... you have good memories of childhood, I don't.

I had a very abusive childhood.. so poverty and abuse doesn't make for good memories. What it does however in some people..like me.. is make me abe to endure much more in life .. and not fold.. that may break other people

It instilled a deep personal ehtos in me for improvement.. and never to to allow anyone to go through any similar situation
Click to expand...
I hate that you had an unhappy childhood. My father was an alcoholic (I didn't know what one was as a child, but as an adult I know he was when I think back on it.) He passed away when I was 9 yrs old. After dad died, I got a lot of whippings with belts and switches. I'm sure I deserved some of it but thinking back on it, it seems kind of harsh compared to nowadays. I had a couple of relatives that tried to sexually abuse me but never got by with it, thank goodness. Those were some of the bad memories. The good memories are mainly of my mother who died when I was 20 yrs old. I always felt loved by her.
 
In my teens I was a member of the local boat club and frequently crewed in races and regattas. I was asked why I didn't have my own boat and I said that I couldn't afford one. The reply was 'That's what parents are for'. Not my parents.
I was acutely aware that we were not well off and sometimes I thought my parents should have done much better for themselves and the family.

Shortly before my mother died, she gave me the impression that she felt life had dealt her a bad hand. Would that have changed her? Would she have treated me differently? Would she still have filled me with hatred? Would she have done things I could never forgive her for?
I will never know. I just hope I am never like her.
 
You know, I look back at my childhood and I can't remember being upset or envious because some people had more than we did. It was just the way it was. Most of my friends lived just about like we did. Dad came home from WWII, got married, they started having babies, mom didn't work, money was tight. There weren't a lot of luxuries.

Yes, some of my friends had nicer houses, TWO bathrooms (oh, heaven!), got a new car every 5 years, went out to lunch after church on Sunday, etc. But then, some of my friends didn't have as nice as house as we did (and we didn't have that nice a home). I always had my own bedroom. Yes, I didn't have a "princess bed" like one of my friends had (Oh, I coveted that bed) but at least I didn't have to share my room with the younger brats. Some of my friends shared a bedroom with multiple siblings. I had good parents, some of my friends didn't.

There was a lot of alcoholism out there that I didn't recognize until I got older. Homes where the dad was an indistinct figure in a lounge chair with a beer in his hand. Homes where the mom was always in a dark bedroom lying down with a "headache".

One thing we always had was LOTS of good food. Nothing fancy, but we always had full tummies. I had friends who were astounded that we could come home from school and eat snacks. Of course, we'd better darn well make sure we weren't eating what Mom was going to use to make dinner with, but there was always cheese, crackers, peanut butter, fruit, baloney sandwiches. Friends were always finagling a way to stay for dinner. Mom would just sigh and throw in a couple more potatoes. Nobody ever got turned away.

I recognize now that we didn't have much money, but my mom could squeeze a nickel until the buffalo's nose bled.
 
C50 said:
My dad was 59 when I was born, I never remember him having a job but he did work when younger, mom was 35 and also never worked or learned to drive. My dad made some money with odd jobs but drank that money away, mostly we lived on SS benefits. We got the house we lived in because my oldest brother had been hit by a truck and had serious leg injuries that resulted in a $15k insurance settelment, the money was for future surgeries but my dad used it as a downpayment on the place I grew up.

When you have nothing you expect nothing. I didn't know we were poor, I had no exposure to nice things or properous people. We never went anywhere, didn't have family or friends visit, so again I didn't realize some people had it better.

I'm sure I may have asked for things but I honestly don't remember doing that or what I may have asked for. I started working at a very young age, at first my dad took my earnings but eventually I got smart enough to hold money back, then I bought my own stuff.

Oddly enough even in high school while my friends had nice cars and fancy clothes and I had trash I was never envious of them or their stuff. I admit to being a bit self consious because by then I knew we/I was poor but I just accepted that as life.
Click to expand...
You were wise beyond your years. I always felt like I missing out on things that other people had. When I got older, I realized how immature that was and the only thing I was missing out on was my parents when they died before I was old enough to appreciate them.
 
When we first came out to Australia we lived in a one-bedroom flat, Mother, Father and 2 girls. . We never had a kitchen and used to eat at a little cafe down the road. My sister and I shared a meat pie, dad had a small steak and vegetables, and my mother had what was left over on our plates. We never knew we were poor, but we did have a happy life. When my parents eventually could afford to build our home, we were as happy as a Fox with a gold tooth. We wore hand me downs, but that didn't bother us. They gave us the best life and so many happy times.
 
Rae said:
I didn't have many nice clothes like other girls and I envied them with their variety. Those girls seemed so confident and always looked nicely dressed. When I was old enough, I was able to get jobs to have enough money to buy better clothes and then I felt more confident.

My parents were not poor but some of the things we wanted were just not as available to us and other priorities had to be taken care of instead.
Click to expand...
I had a mixture of homemade clothes, garage sale clothes, and some from Sears Roebuck. My mother (I felt) dressed me old fashioned. I wasn't in style like a lot of the popular girls at school. My mom did without a lot of times so I could have something reasonably nice. I couldn't wait until I got older and get a job. I daydreamed about all the pretty dresses I would buy and give to my mom. I never got to do that because my mom died when I was 20 yrs old. I've always regretted being so unappreciative of her sacrifices when I was younger.
 
oscash said:
When we first came out to Australia we lived in a one-bedroom flat, Mother, Father and 2 girls. . We never had a kitchen and used to eat at a little cafe down the road. My sister and I shared a meat pie, dad had a small steak and vegetables, and my mother had what was left over on our plates. We never knew we were poor, but we did have a happy life. When my parents eventually could afford to build our home, we were as happy as a Fox with a gold tooth. We wore hand me downs, but that didn't bother us. They gave us the best life and so many happy times.
Click to expand...
You were rich in that you had good parents and mature enough to appreciate what you had.
 
Little money bought much more stuff back then. My Dad earned $28. dollars a week when I was born.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top