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When we moved from a lower middle class neighborhood in Ohio to a working class neighborhood in California when I was nine, and I realized that we were even poorer than most of the people living them. I noticed that most of my friends' homes were not rented, that they had more and new clothes, and that they had more fresh foods.
(Btw, we moved because of my brother's health, and the COL in California in 1963 was much higher than Ohio even then, so my parents definitely had to take a step down.)
when we lived in the "projects". Around 5 years old.
Then come first grade at a private school....Despite others having two parents, I was raised by one, Income with six kids and a dilapidated home was a given.
My parents constantly argued about money. They were neither poor nor rich but the arguments certainly left an impression on me. We lived in an upper middle class area in which most of my peers were better off financially than we were. My parents also constantly reminded me how "spoiled" I was and I found this confusing as a child.
If you don't know your poor....it really isn't an issue. We immigrated to this country when I was six. We were poor and it was ok.
We moved to California when I was 12. The dividing line between the rich and poor section of town was the railroad tracks and we ended up on the "rich" side of the tracks. The tracks were right behind our house.
Being poor in a rich school is awful. My father bought his FIRST car when I was 15. All the kids in the school were talking about the cars they were going to get for their 16th birthday. Somehow, I just knew I was NOT going to find a car for me in the driveway on my 16th birthday!!
I does color your view of the world. To this day, I have a problem with the "elites".
My daughter, however, had the exact opposite experience. She was 14 and made a comment about how "poor" we were.
We have a nice view home and a second vacation home. We traveled and took nice vacations in Hawaii and Mexico during winter, but somehow compared to her friends and their consumptive lifestyles....we were poor. I had to point out to her she had TWO bedrooms in different houses and that did not make us poor.
But we never had fancy furniture or bought cars every two years, no cable TV service, and no cleaning lady so we must have been poor!!
So I guess in the end....Dolly Parton got it right...."you are only poor if you chose to be". Sometimes...even the well-off think their poor.
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