re: The moment you realized you were poor growing up

I grew up in Niagara Falls, New York which is a pretty big shithole...rows of old houses stacked on top of each other, mostly rundown. Dad worked shift work in a local chem plant, Mom patched our clothes and put things on layaway at Kmart. We only had one car, an old Chevy. Tiny house in a sketchy neighborhood. Dinners were mainly macaroni and butter. We’re Italian so Every Sunday we went to my dads parents for Sunday dinner. It was a 3 family apartment home (like a tenement) and my great grandparents (Born in Sicily) lived there as well as my grandfathers brother (my uncle Nick and Aunt Marie) and his family. All the cousins showed up. Each left their apartment doors open so everyone can pass along freely through the house and visit and eat. Bunch of loud Italians laughing, yelling, arguing...with the wonderful aroma of all the different foods wafting in the air. Nobody had any money to speak of...but we were rich in family and love and we never went without the necessities.

I grew up average middle class, but my dad grew up on the lower side of it and I enjoy his stories from his youth.

His grandparents were depression era children from south of Kaplan in the Cow Island area. His grandfather grew up on the rice farm but by his late teens/early 20's had became a trapper in the marshes near Grand Chenier in Cameron parish. Later in his life by the time he had grandkids he had acquired a small lease of land down there and built a camp (no electricity and wood burning stove). My dad, his siblings, and cousins grew up going out there almost every weekend and during the summers hunting, fishing, and trapping. He said everything was tied into one another. Duck gizzards from the morning hunt baited trot lines, catfish guts off the trot lines, baited home made crab traps etc. He remembered his grandmother not making overly large meals bc the intent of the weekend was to bring in the overall kill/catch to supply their families for the weeks to come. All week they ate wild game supplied from their weekends at the camp. The wild game was suppled by the huge garden his grandparents had. He said he didn't realize until later in life that to the kids it was all fun camping, killing, and catching, but it was his grandparents way of providing for their families.

When my brother shot a rat the size of a nutria with a .17 inside the house. It apparently had been living in the bottom cabinet in the bathroom—one night it made a little too much noise and my brother finally had enough.

Straight up blasted a hole right through the floor (raised house) and to this day it is still there.

Car got repo’d and my neighbors bought our groceries a few times.

Also cleaned toilets with my mom at the Montessori school she taught at. I was 10-12.

Shittiest years of my life.

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Also cleaned toilets

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Shittiest years of my life.

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clever girl

holla at yer both this week

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When a friend came over to spend the night and said he’d never slept in a trailer before.

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the first house I remember was the basement of our Church

my bedroom was the kids SS school room
every Sunday my toys got fricked with

In college I took a g/f out to Sicily’s Italian buffet off of Siegen. I had a buy one get one buffet coupon that I proudly used when paying and openly bragged about how awesome it was that we ate there for so cheap. My g/f at the time did not share the same childhood money-wise and pointed out that my behavior was a tad trashy. I then realized how often I talked about being thrifty. I had never given it a second thought and figured people were genuinely interested in how much money I saved on some deal. That’s when I realized we were not as well off as I thought growing up.

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The moment you realized you were poor growing up

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Start of middle school (6th grade). I wore a lot of hand-me downs or payless shoes (black shoes) in elementary school, but this was middle school. I had to start fitting in ya know?

I wanted reeboks, my parents couldn't afford them or maybe they just didn't really want to spend that much on shoes I'd tear through. I remember being a little bitch about it, didn't get them to start the year, and for christmas I got them. Wore them for the next 3 years, cherished them like no other. One year, it was the scooter trend. Razor were the hot item, but they were EXPENSIVE. So my brother bidded on ebay to find me a different brand, substantially cheaper. Still rode it for a long time, the wheels weren't as smooth, but I still enjoyed it with my neighborhood friends.

Now its like 20 years later and I'm looking back, I didn't get much growing up. One christmas present a year, one birthday present a year, nothing north of $100. But I was happy.

These days, all over social media, people have to have THE MOST PRESENTS and the MOST LUXURIOUS all the fricking time.

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figured people were genuinely interested in how much money I saved on some deal. 

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I can relate. If someone compliments something I own, I reflexively tell them the good deal I got on it.

we were part of a Co-Op.. fruits and vegetables every Saturday
plus a plus-sized jar of Flinstone Vitamins

I would eat those like candy they never made it to Monday