re: The moment you realized you were poor growing up

When you grow up in the 90s and the class of tech is an N64, you don’t really realize whether you grew up poor or not. Especially when you grow up in a town of 20K and the nearest metro city is 1.5HRs away.

And while poor, my house had one of the best yards in the neighborhood so all the kids came to my place for capture the flag etc.

We were def poor though. Prolly just under middle class.

Though being poor is all relative to what the folks around you have, particularly your school peers/friends.

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I didn't get along with my stepdad. He was a drunk with all the answers. Always wanted to grow up and be someone or something people like he couldnt be, and I did. But now, hes too pathetic for me to enjoy rubbing it in. Lost his house, business, health, family and decades of life.

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That sucks man. I can't imagine growing up with a shitty step parent.

Our first vacation was probably when I was 9 or 10 and it was an overnight stay at the Ramada inn off i-20 (they had a pool!!) followed by a decadent breakfast at the ko-ko-mo.

Thought my dad was a total baller for pulling that off. We looked forward to it for months.

Yeah no shite. Window shopping in the toy department of department stores was exactly that. You didn't go home with a thing.

I remember looking forward to going to Sears with my parents because we'd play on the Atari for hours.

We had a lot of meat that my dad caught. Quail, fish, frog legs, rabbit etc. It was delicious so I did not know we were poor. Mom bought a lot of grocery items when they were on sale. I do this still.

My parents were depression era kids and frugal, we weren't poor but I realized in middle school had just enough to get by. They had far more money when most of us 7 kids moved out. My youngest sister the baby of the family made out like a bandit.

Relatively speaking.

It was around 12 years old when I realized that in the summer not everyone ordered their upcoming school year clothes from the Sears Catalog.

Started earning my own money at 6 years old and those lessons have served me well ever since. Wouldn't trade it for the world.

My dad never talks about it, but my mother told me.

My dad's parents divorced. He live with his mom and stepdad. His stepdad would make him eat food out of the trash. Also, took a jeep that my dad worked on from a junkyard as his own when my dad had it all fixed up.

We grew up eating nothing name brand. We wore hand me downs.


Life was ok though and I really love both my parents.


Was eye opening when I went to college and encountered spoiled brats for the first time. Handed everything in life and yet hated their parents.

At the grocery store and asked my mom if she could get normal hot dog & hamburger buns. She slapped my head and said “we’re not rich”. Everything had to be eaten on sliced white bread.

I still think about that moment when I am throwing some brioche buns in the cart. Man, I have frickin’ made it lol.

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Your story reminds me of how the Thenardier’s treated Cosette in Les Miserables. There is a great remaking of this classic on BBC masterpiece Theater.

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I feel bad for Cosette then.

Hand me down school uniforms and finishing all the food I put on my plate were the biggest for me. I thought getting pants altered yearly was pretty normal, and still till this day I eat everything in front of me whether I am hungry or not. It helped me learn portion control.