Poverty

Much is said about the effects of living in poverty but most of the people discussing it have no idea what it really is. There are two kinds of poverty...living on very little money but living clean and decent...or living on very little money in a drug and criminal infested environment. I primarily came from the former.

As a child I lived with my mother, sister, and grandparents in a tiny two room apartment. There was very little income between the three adults but the apartment was always clean and there was always healthy food on the table.

My mother, sister, and I slept together in one bed in the bedroom. My grandparents slept on the sofa bed in the livingroom/kitchen. There is no way to describe this other than poverty but we children never felt poor.

Our apartment was one of four in a converted townhouse (that townhouse has since been converted back to it's original state and is now highly priced and highly sought after). A prostitute occupied the apartment behind ours but caused very little disruption in our lives. At rare times she would become despondent with her source of income and open her door so everyone could hear her telling her "john" what she really thought of him...prostitutes apparently think their customers are disgusting and pathetic creeps. The only other criminal activity in our neighborhood was in my own apartment because my grandmother was the neighborhood bootlegger. I've already written a blog describing how that affected my life...it was mainly an interesting and mild part of my growing up.

My husband and I married very young and had our three children before I was 24 and he was 27. He was never without a job but our income was on the low side for most of our married lives. We did without luxuries but always had the necessities...then our income and lifestyle improved as we grew older. Since he also came from a rather poor background we were the first generation to really do well for ourselves. We never forgot our poorer beginnings and were able to appreciate how far we'd come from them.

Poverty can breed the "poor me, take care of me" syndrome or it can prompt you to try harder for a better life. Most of the people I know came from so-called "deprived" backgrounds but they had the drive to better themselves.

There is no disgrace in poverty but it can either destroy you or make you stronger. It's your choice.