My SIL calls me to ask for help.
His mom has a chest freezer on a back porch that has quit running and wants to take it to the dump.
Problem is they found out the freezer quit running by their sense of smell.

So we get this freezer loaded and headed for the dump.
We are going down a small country road when this old man chases us down.
He wants the freezer for scrap.
I figured one whiff of this freezer and the guy would change his mind.
But no he still wants it.
I tell the guy; Look if you are that poor let me give you $20 cash and
I will take this thing to the dump.
Guy says "NO" I do not want your hand out but I will take the freezer.
I found that very strange especially in this day in age.

OK have it your way.
We back into the guys yard and he instructs us to just let the freezer
flip as we push it out the back of the pickup.
"The coons will clean up the mess"
I about gaged from the smell as the contents poured out onto the ground.

I have pinched pennies many times in my life
But have never been; and hope to never be; that poor.

I hauled my share of junk iron and I can vividly recall keeping track of the tally in the grocery cart at the super market and telling my Wife the total, sometimes she would put something back because she needed something else worse never really thought much about it at the time. We would save 20 bucks out of every pay check to buy the kids school clothes and Christmas, kept the lights on and food on the table, sometimes beans and sometime steak, I like both. That feller is far from poor in my opinion, he has pride and gumption which are worth more than mere 'filthy lucre'.

We used to eat our cereal with a fork so we could pass the milk down to the next kid.

I was that poor the 20 years of my adult life.

There could stand to be a few million others nowdays who could stand to be that poor for a few years. We would be in a lot better shape than we are now.

Lots of folks use them for feed storage or other projects. I am sure he has a project in mind for it and you happen to just come along at the right time. Strangely, dont try to out think em. It would seem that feed would mildew in them but lots of hunters store corn in them. Uprights are used for storing welding rods after you install a 60watt light bulb in them.

We were so poor we couldn't even pay attention. Also my mom cut holes in our pockets so we had something to play with.

One of the neighbor boys I grew up with and I were talking recently he said, "You don't know you are poor until someone tells you you're poor."
Later in the conversation he spoke of eating lard sandwiches. Well, we never had lard sandwiches when I was growing up, but I guess we were both pretty poor growing up we still probably are by some people's standards. But we're both living by a higher standard than back then. I guess if you have food and a place to live that is somewhat comfortable, and a means to provide for that you're not poor.

Growing up on a farm we never had any money but we ate real good.
I remember when I was about 12, picking apples one fall for the cider mill so Dad could get new "recapped" tires for the pickup truck.

Now that your adult life is over, what life are you in?

I had to lather up one side of my face then save it when I shaved it off so I could use it on the other side.

We never even had a fridge or freezer till 1980.
We had many a meal that we scrounged out of the kitchen scraps (potato peelings vegetables and bread)that came from the neighborhood to our farm to feed the dairy cows.
We never felt poor though.

I grew up on a farm for my youngest years. My father was killed in an accident when I was ten. Mom couldn't run a farm and my brother and I were too young to work it, and my sisters couldn't run it either. First harvest without Dad, the neighbors brought it in. In time, we lost the farm. Mom raised all five children by herself the first year in a rented 30 travel trailer. Second year without Dad, kids out mowing lawns, babysitting, helping Mom that worked night shift, and with the help of friends, we purchased a new 60x12 mobile home, no frills, not an extra penny. Lot of macaroni and cheese which I still love today. But I will never forget that first year without Dad when the new school year was starting and we needed paper, pencils, things like that and Mom took us out shopping one Sunday for that. As a special treat she had a couple of $$$ left over, so she splurged and stopped at the new Hardees over in that town and bout us each a hamburger, and as we ate the treat, she asked each of us it she could have a small bite of our burgers. Just a small bite. As God is my witness, I will never ever forget that in my life, and as long as I'm able bodied and minded, that will NEVER EVER happen again. I now farm again and Mom lives with me. She took care of me as a kid, and now its time for me to take care of her. She will NEVER EVER have to ask me for a small bite of anything, NEVER EVER.

All of that truly did happen when unlike today, back then it was accepted that life wasn't always fair and never will be. We grew up a hell of a lot stronger physically and mentally than ANY future generation in our nation ever will. We did for ourselves, with love and pride, and still do. We didn't ask for hand outs, and we sure as hell didn't demand them or demand that someone else demand them for us.

Mark

"One of the neighbor boys I grew up with and I were talking recently he said, "You don't know you are poor until someone tells you you're poor".

Grin. That is so very true. Thank you so much for reminding me. Thanks much for helping keep me grounded and focussed.

Mark

For many years I've had the belief that poor people are happier than rich people. You don't have worry about losing what you do not have. You don't need to live up to an image.

I don't like to confuse the term poor and broke.

When I was just out of high school in a small apartment with a room mate, barely any food and barely making rent, with a crappy little car, without two nickles to rub together, I was poor.

When I was working days and nights with a nice house, two cars and a motorcycle, plenty of food, but couldn't afford to go to the movie theater, I was broke.

When you've got everything you need, most the things you want, and still cash in the bank, that's rich by my definition.

I don't like to make light of the word poor. I was there once, just like many others. You can either complain or work hard and get out of it. I chose the latter.

I was on my own at 15,,, not complaining just the fact,, I had three jobs and worked 7 days a week from 3:00am to 10:00 to 12:00am every day to pay for my apartment and car payment ect,,, I was so happy when Mini Mart came out with three hot dogs for .99, that meant I could have food for 7 days for .99, I cut them up in to seven parts, I thought life was Real good to be able to do that,,,, most of my friends at the time had no idea what it was like not to eat for 3-4 days at a time,, But this made me what I am today so its all good now
cnt

I've had the same opinion; kids should be a little poor when they are growing up. They seem to try harder, work harder and take care of their immediate families more.

I was born in the early 1930's; my toys were a rock and a stick. Never though about being poor, just knew I had to pitch in and help the family survive.

However, I was puzzled that the neighbor kids had all kinds of toys while I had none, even I knew that their folks were on welfare.

On the other side, my uncle and aunt spoiled their daughter and SIL New Buick for wedding present, bought them a new house and service station - SIL lost the station in 6 weeks playing poker. They ended up with 5 kids, all but one of them were absolutely worthless, whiners, complainers and beggars. You can ruin people with too much financial help.

Mark You give your GREAT "MOM" a big hug from me for being a great mother to you. Your also doing a good job as a son to taking care of her now.

Just came from spending a week in Providence, Rhode Island. Stayed at the Hilton Biltmore downtown. You could not walk out of the Hotel without a swarm of homeless bums attacking you like a swarm of bees looking for a hand out. One guy kept saying that he wanted 14 dollars. I gave to some on the first day but then it got very old. Most looked like they could work if they would just clean themselves up but chose to live this way.

We have always had the basics but we have never had it easy. It scares me that the times ahead look tougher. I was hoping by this point in life that things would start to get easier. Stuff would not bother me as near as much if the area economy had not been as dismal as it has been since 1980. Should farming not work out then I think we would have to leave the area. Most of the people I know are struggling and they are all of high character. Not sitting around bemoaning life or waiting for the welfare check. Anymore, I have an uneasy feeling as to where things are going.

I have never been without food or shelter so I guess I never really was "poor". Now there have been several times in my life that I did not have any money to spend. Almost all of my childhood was without money but we always had good meals. Now my Mother had to pinch penny's for many things. We eat a lot of dried beans and corn bread because she had some ham so it got cut up in the bean pot. We had many a meal in the summer that was all out of the garden so there was not much "meat" showing. LOL

My first wife grew up truly poor. Her father was a drunk not the fancy alcoholic just a MEAN drunk!!! They had a rocky farm that had been farmed to death and it would not even raise a very good garden. Her Mother raised some garden but it never yielded much. I know my wife went to bed hungry on a regular basis as the oldest child. She and her Mother would eat "light" so the younger kids would have enough. She was shocked when we got married and had a full cellar of food an a freezer full of meat. She would make larger meals to take the "left" overs to her Mother. We NEVER talked openly about it. She was embarrassed to have been that poor. So I just made darn sure we never where without food. It did get close in the mid 1980s so I went to work at the dealership. Her growing up without anything hardly drove her to have a "better" life.

I am with many on here in that I think growing up a 'little" poor is better for kids than growing up with everything handed to them.

Poor is a state of mind. I never knew we were poor until LBJ told us. We always had clothes, food and shelter. When I was a kid we didn't have indoor plumbing. We got plumbing and a telephone the same year, 1965. We didn't get a TV until 1974 and I didn't get a color TV until 1985. Things looked up for a while in the late 80's and 90's and we got A/C. We quit burning wood in 2000. In the last 6 years we have slipped back, we're back to burning wood and the TV is going back to antenna. At the rate things are "progressing" I expect to build an outhouse in a couple more years.

I would like to think most of us would prefer the chance to earn that $20 also but I know it isn't true. Those days are gone and us old folks that knew them are dying off pretty quickly. I can't handle smells like that and don't have any small children to force me to do it so I would have had to pass on both counts. Sometimes it just is.

Same as CNT, was out on my own at 17, for years it was not easy, always worked and had jobs, some were really awful to be honest. Paid my bills, but ended up short when I needed food,so you learn to deal with hunger or similar. Simply did not earn enough to cover everything, even with 2 jobs, one with overtime which at the end I got stiffed by the owner on, who was a wealthy cheapskate. You just could not win at times. It did not get better until I found other kinds of work later in life, and was able to go to college and move upward in a career. Hard times were never any fun, one needs a good start in life, better than that at least. Its a great feeling when the landlord's manager knocked on the door each month for the rent, and when you handed it over to him, you had nothing more than lint in your pocket and you needed food. I remember a fellow driver who was 20 some odd years older, had just taken a job there as a favor, because a driver quit unexpectedly. He helped me get my Class 1 (CDL A now) and was generous to buy lunch one day when I said I had not eaten in 2 days, paid the bills, but was short til the next paycheck, at which time I bought lunch to pay him back. He was a genuinely good person who helped me out quite a bit, got the class 1 license because he took some time to help me. He was great with small block chevy's too, my old K10 had a worn motor in it, he helped me keep it running until I found a replacement. I was most appreciative, and fortunate to have made good friends when in bad situations. I try to do the same today and help someone whenever possible. I finally got a small raise and was able to manage better, not so long after, but there were those times when it was like this, vehicle needed a repair, or one lousy thing goes wrong or comes up and there goes the budget LOL !!

One period of time, in NJ, far from home, I did not have a place to live after a bad situation unfolded. So I had to scramble, motels, co-workers homes who were generous to invite me, even then, I'd mix it up so as not to be a pest. I went to work every day regardless if I had to take care of personal hygiene in a public rest room or not. No one would know the difference, did the laundry at the laundromat so I had clean clothing. I had everything else, just no place to live. That work ethic kept the cash flow going though, and I finally ended up in a boarding house for 6 months until I could afford better. It was $90/week, had daily maid service and 2 bathrooms for 8 people, it was kept clean, was relatively quiet until someone passed away upstairs one evening, then it was chaos for a bit ! It was still a roof over my head, and served a purpose until I could do better. Owner was a wealthy businessman in town, had a kitchen cabinet company and a few of these boarding houses.

Found that boarding house on streetview, link is attached, looks the same now as it did then !
Boarding House

I remember walking home 3 miles , from school to save money so mom could not have to buy gas for the car . Also when it did rain , We , the younger kids would go out and dance in the dirt driveway , we felt so relieved , for Dad and Mom as we felt we were going to get a corn crop. Just keep in mind as I do that history has a way of repeating it self .

43 years ago I stood before a divorce judge,( drunk as usual at that time) because my wife had taken me to court to divorce me... I was real souce . The judge looked at me and asked" are you drunk now?" I said I suppose so and he turned to my wife and said""I award the business, house, cars, boat and airplane to you and anything else you have. I award your husband the clothes on his back right now. There I stood, with all my possessions and any way to produce income all gone. Slept in a shelter that night but determined to put my life back together. Found a janitors job and went on from there to rebuild my life. Thats really poor

My old man was a worthless drunk and my mother was not much better. She would get people to take us in and then wouldn't pay for our keep. So we had abuse like you wouldn't think possible. So I left home at 13 years old .Walked a few miles down the road to a farmer that offered me 7 dollars a week with bed board and tobacco. Yes I did chew when I could get it. Then I hardly ever got the 7 dollars and then the wife did not want strangers sleeping in the house so I had to sleep in an old car down by the woods. That's how I started. When it got so cold I couldn't sleep in the car, another neighbor took me in and was very good to me. After I got old enough I got my chauffer's license and went to driving truck and then we had to get a class A to drive trailers. and then on to a CDL with all endorsements and I was in the Teamsters Union for 50 years when I retired and I'll tell you something I am retired and live in Fl. and with my Teamsters check and my SSI my income is about 10 dollars less than full pay. So Mr. Hoffa was very good for me. I worked for a nation wide trucking firm and I was never out on strike and I never filed a grievance in my life. Yes I remember being poor and no one gave a hoot about us but I got going and made it by myself. no one gave me any thing. I owned a house in Fl. And one in NY and all paid for. I also never made another car payment after 1980 I drove some rough cars but they were paid for and then I was able to buy new pickups and pay cash. What a feeling. My little brother did good also he retired Kodak. Yes we took care of our mother until she died and we took very good care, A lot more than she did for us on the other end. So now life is good.

I was poor enough to see my father. Cry because he had to use food stamps. Before that it was govt surplus food.When we moved to Southlake north of Ft Worth. We were allowed to have some milk cows and a garden.He worked until the day he died at 73.Never had much but whenever he could he put money back for birthdays and Christmas.Raised seven kids and we were poor but we turned out ok.
I retired 23 years Navy/National Guard.
Brother retired 25 years Air Force.
Sister four years Air Force
Brother four years Navy.
Sister deputy sheriff
Sister Manager at Wal-Mart
Brother runs the local feed store.

Not bad for a bunch of poor dirt farmers kids

I was a teamster as well, Local #669 Albany, N.Y., just a few years though.

Local 284 Schenectady 1957 to retirement 2007

Tried to email you but it wouldn't go through.

I remember my mother making a dress for my sister out of a chicken feed sack.

oh ya ! All three of my sisters had dresses made from feed sacks(1950's).
Those cloth feed sacks were made to do that. came in many designs & colors.
just pull the thread out and you had a big rectangle of usable cloth.

I could give away all the old bad freezers I came across. Fishermen always used them for a bait pool to keep minnows in. Aquarium pump provided the oxygen.