Just for sharing - Ever experienced any form poverty/hardship at some point in your life? Doesn't matter really if it's of the 1st world or the 3rd world kind. For example, back when i was 21 years old, i experienced working as a domestic Au pair, where in the work site I literally slept on the floor with only newspapers on it. I only ate twice a day and it was the leftovers of the host family. My daily pay was less than the equivalent of 2 US dollars.
My bad, hehe. I guess things are just kinda different where i live. Anyways i guess just wanna hear our fellow poster stories. Not that i want to compare mine or anything, or that I had it harder than anyone else.
my mom used to peel shrimp for $0.25/day. any hardships i've experienced doesn't even come close. never even close to what you've experienced either.
During my first semester in college, I had to do my own laundry. It was terrible. I quickly found a girlfriend who had a maid.
There was a time when we were poor. We had nothing to eat. We had no money to spend. We were so poor... the maid was poor, the chauffeur was poor, the gardener was poor, the butler was poor... I mean, it was poverty. Everywhere. Hardship and pain was had by all. Then we weren't poor anymore.
We were never impoverished..but we were dirt poor (in US standards). My parents divorced when I was 3 leaving my mom to raise three kids with no help. She had never had a job before and only had a 10 grade education. I remember her bringing home stacks of vinyl decals that were about 5ft by 2-1/2ft wide and on the weekends we would help her peel the excess vinyl off of them. Her company paid her 10 cents per sheet. She worked really hard, and went to night school at night while my sister took care of us. She eventually got a GED and took some college classes at San Jac North. Yes, I had 2 pair of Pay less shoes - one for church, one for school and about 3 pairs of jeans from TG&Y. I got a lot of crap for being poor while growing up..but I worked summers to save for college. When I graduated, I asked a kid I graduated with were he was going to college..and (while driving a new mini-truck and wearing Fila and Polo) that he couldn't afford to go to college. I wanted to punch him in the face.
Not personally, though we did see some tough times right after my wife and I got married. I grew up surrounded by poverty and still live in the same neighborhood. So I see it everyday.
My mom worked two jobs and my dad worked but smoked and drank heavily. My family of ten (niece included) lived in a two room apartment. Life was pretty rough at that time I remember going hungry a lot. Thankfully, my parents insisted on education and I appreciate money a lot more because of our poverty.
Alot of times. . .you do not know you are impoverished until you are no longer impoverished. I know I have been in poverty but it just seemed like. . . .life it just was .. the only thing I knew. . . until i knew better later on I grew up in rural North Louisiana . . . . it had its moments Rocket River
PLease, don't ever do that again. Put a spoiler tag and a beware message before it- before describing such a horrifying scenario.
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haha..yep you are right. I wouldn't have known how poor I was growing up if it wasn't for the other kids letting me know it. That reminds me of "My Fair Lady" where the poor drunk dad is seen at the end of the movie now sober and middle class. He says he is miserable because he lost the freedom he had when he was poor. Its really a pretty good play/film about the societal differences in class. Rich not caring about the feelings of the poor, the poor not understanding the responsibilities of the upper class, etc. Both need to learn from the other, etc.
I haven't experienced poverty, but my family did experience a major drop in socioeconomic status. My dad was a building contractor in Houston in the 60's and early 70's. He built custom homes in Memorial and apartment complexes in town. At our peak we lived in Memorial, owned a 200 acre ranch near Caldwell, as well as a gas station, night club, and bar, also in Caldwell. My dad became seriously ill and as a result had series of major business/financial setbacks, which I'm sure were added blows to his health. After about two years of this he died of a stroke. My mom was left to raise a family of four on her own. Our home in Memorial, the ranch, and businesses were sold to pay my dad's outstanding medical bills. We went from living in Memorial to living in my parent's first house off of Post Oak Rd. in SW Houston. So, certainly not poverty, but a pretty rapid decline in family circumstances.
