We were so poor that ...

Lawrence00

Lawrence00

Senior Member
We didn't have it as bad as some. I expect that our grandparents helped my mom some after the divorce so we had a roof over our heads. My dad was a mess with world war 2 ptsd so did not contribute for awhile.

The bags and cans of government food were appropriate and a much better use of money than the food stamps that are issued today. Plus we had government cheese. :giggle:

With Christmas we were one of the grocery recipients from the local Church.
 

One year my sister and I gave each other wrapped library books for Christmas. My mom said we were just being silly. It was a great idea though.
We had a house and land but not much in the way of cash.
 

My mother was only permitted to buy one loaf of bread per week.. for 6 people... our lunch consisted of one packet of Chicken noodle soup, and a banana between 4 kids.... and we walked 2 miles home for it from school, and the same back again. Father got Pork chops and veggies for dinner .. we got Campbells canned meatballs 2 small tins shared among 4 kids and mother... or cheap breaded fish

We always had holes in our shoes.. never ever given haircuts... never had carpet on the floors... no sheets or blankets on the beds ( the children) .. our Blankets were Old adult coats....My parents had blankets/sheets and pillowcases.. we kids did not..

Barely ever any Christmas gifts... what there was were so cheap they were broken in minutes
 
...so poor, I didn't know they made shoes in children's sizes until the neighbor left us a box of stuff their kids outgrew.

Actually, I'm kidding, but we went without a lot of things that other people could afford.

We didn't own a TV until I was 15.

Dad drove a 1947 Chevy Thriftmaster until 1968, when his friend sold him a used '67 station wagon.

I mostly wore my older brother's old clothes. Santa was the only person who gave me new clothes; 2 pairs of jeans, 2 shirts, and 4 pairs of underwear every Christmas.

I didn't have my own bed til I was 14, and I didn't have my own room until I married...just when I'd gotten used to sleeping alone.

I didn't own a radio until I was 13, and it was a gift. I also got my first watch that year.

My brothers and I shared one bicycle.

When I was a tot, Mom sold baked goods every Sunday. That was our grocery money. Her best-sellers were her homemade raisin bread and her cinnamon rolls. I remember her setting up all her baked goods on every available surface in the kitchen just before the Catholics got out of afternoon mass. Man, it smelled good.
 
We were poor, but as far as I was concerned we ate well and looking back I still think so! Grandma sewed most of my clothes,back then girls wore skirts to school. Christmas was always a super fun time for me, I think the whole family felt sorry for me because my mother left when I was five.Everyone made sure that I got an abundance of gifts, I was the youngest till I was 10.

Those days we kids still played outside, the street we lived on wasn't paved yet, so that very few cars were on it. We played all over the street, & the yards. I do not remember any adult yelling at us. I lived with grandma and grandpa until I was 12 the next 3 or 4 years were not worth talking about and I got back to my grandparents when I was 15.
 
@-Oy- , that was a funny video.

I was about to say that my family was not poor. My father ruled the roost and he was mean. He drank too much.
I was given home chores like a lot of kids to earn any pocket money, and that was not much either. Worked at a grocery store on Saturdays packing potatoes in paper bags and swept the place at closing.

Ha, this reminds me, my uncle owned a fish and chip shop. I was expected to work there preparing fish batter and chips after school till closing. I did not get paid nor anything to eat for my labours. Then one day I brought a friend to give me a hand, and he got paid plus food to take home. That really upset me.

The bus fair to school and back was 5 cents. The primary school was a good mile away. All my school mates had pocket money, especially in winter, to buy a meat pie (5 cents) for lunch. Though I had a sandwich from home, I felt missed out on a hot pie. So I decided to run to school and back, so I too could buy a hot pie. All that running contributed to being a good athelete as I later entered into high school.

Fortunately my mother was a sweet soul, and she made sure we got good food. She was a great cook, and many others thought so too.

My grandparents (mother's side) lived out the back. They were Polish, and their cooking was polish, and my grandmother was also a good resourceful cook. Grandfather (Opa) was very handy, and repaired shoes, tools, etc., I learnt a fair bit from him. A quarter of my own tools, when I started work on earthmoving equipment, were repaired throw-aways. Later I learnt how to make other tools from broken ones. I still use a few of these now (50 years later).
 
Like Murrmurr, my brother and I shared a bicycle.

One Christmas, parents bought a full size 26" Sears bike my little brother and I "would grow into".
I was 8 and Mike was 7.
About three years later, they bought my brother a smaller bike with high-rise handle bars and a banana seat.
That way, I kept the old Sears bike to myself ... wish I still had it except it was just about worn out by the time I sold it to a neighborhood kid for $10 when I was in high school. He painted my red bike green :puke:

I never would have said at the time, that we were poor, although my grandparents helped us out big time, seemingly all the time.
Grandparents never asked for anything more than love they got from family ... priceless
 
After reading the posts above, I feel kind of ashamed to say my family was well off thanks to my Grandparents that came here from Greece. My grandfather came to America as a professional fighter and did well, but got hurt in the ring and was told by the doctor to quit. He started with one restaurant and ended up with 9 different restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. All the restaurants were profitable and he invested wisely.
 
Actually, my parents were never poor, but my sister and I grew up thinking that we were, because my father was shaped by the Great Depression, which affected all of his buying habits. He didn’t buy anything for himself or us that he or we didn’t absolutely have to have. We didn’t get a color TV or home air conditioning until many years after other households routinely had them, and only then because my mother would shame him into such purchases.

This would affect my future buying as well. Because I just had one pair of shoes at a time as a child, as an adult I own many pairs…compensatory over-buying. I now own several winter coats because as a child, I had only one that was worn until grossly outgrown. The child is father to the man, so they say…

I’m not complaining or faulting; I had everything I needed, just no frills, extras, or luxuries. Many lack even the basics, so I was fortunate. My father squirreled away his money, and after his death my mother blew through much of it by going on multiple luxury trips one after another… 😿

IMG_2396.jpeg
 
I commented earlier about not realizing we were poor, I think that was because we lived a very isolated life so I had no perspective. But I've been thinking back on my early life and the memory that comes to mind that made me realize we were poor is yellow lunch tickets. We had paper lunch tickets that the school lunch lady would punch a hole in everyday after you got your lunch, most all the kids had white tickets, mine was yellow. I can't tell you exactly how or at what age I realized yellow tickets were for poor kids who got free lunches but once I got into middle school I stopped eating lunch because I was embarassed.
 
hollydolly said:
My mother was only permitted to buy one loaf of bread per week.. for 6 people... our lunch consisted of one packet of Chicken noodle soup, and a banana between 4 kids.... and we walked 2 miles home for it from school, and the same back again. Father got Pork chops and veggies for dinner .. we got Campbells canned meatballs 2 small tins shared among 4 kids and mother... or cheap breaded fish

We always had holes in our shoes.. never ever given haircuts... never had carpet on the floors... no sheets or blankets on the beds ( the children) .. our Blankets were Old adult coats....My parents had blankets/sheets and pillowcases.. we kids did not..

Barely ever any Christmas gifts... what there was were so cheap they were broken in minutes
Click to expand...
We children were not valued as children are today.
 
I guess we were poor.
Kinda poor.
My dad had some kind of falling out with his brothers that caused him to leave the farm and get a job.
We grew up on a ranch in the Sandhills, and I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything.
The job provided a house, utilities, all the beef we needed and a little money.
Dad worked hard to make sure we had what we needed, but like some of you, we didn't have any extra.
When we were about 11, Dad bought us a used motorcycle because the neighbor kids all had one.
Their motorcycles were new and ours was about 10 years old, but we didn't care.
We wore our clothes until they were wore out, or the start of the school year.
My grandparents would load us up in the car and take us to Denver where my aunt lived and they would buy our school clothes for the year.
There was never much money, but when Christmas and birthdays rolled around, were never lacking in gifts, food and lots of love.
It's too bad that I didn't figure out how good I had it until my parents were gone.
I'd like to be able to tell them "I know".
 
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