My mother grew up poor. She married a man who could provide financially, not wealth but enough to raise two girls in a decent home in an okay neighborhood, and provide a normal life, not a rich, spoiled life but one that had more than its fair share of fun, and my sister and I were pretty well taken care of. We always had nice toys and clothes, but instead of from the specialty shops at the mall, they’d been from Kmart and Sears. We earned our keep too, doing chores and helping out around the house.
When my sis and I were small, my family went camping every weekend in the summers and we fished, swam, and did go on lots of road trips, but didn’t do things like I’d heard other kids do, like go to Disneyworld, or go to the malls every weekend with wallets full of spending cash. Plus when I was 11 up til the end of high school I babysat often, earning my own ‘allowance’ if you will. When I was in fourth grade my dad let me order a few records and tapes from his Columbia House catalog a few times. Music was always something that filled our house and I loved all kinds of it so my parents encouraged me when I told them I wanted to be in the choir at school, which I did from 2nd until 6th grade, also joining the band in 5th & 6th. I played a brand new trumpet, leased from Schmitt Music company, which my parents reminded me every day was costing them so I’d better practice! We did dine out fairly often but my parents were somewhat frugal with such things so they would get coupon books and specials, we did go out alot on special occasions, sometimes to somewhat fancy restaurants even when we were small. Folks would come up to our parents and remark about how we were well behaved young ladies (every restaurant I go to nowadays the kids are just terrible out in public with their familes). We didn’t get cars from our daddy on our 16th birthday although birthdays were fun and generous, just never full of all the cool stuff other kids had (mom always said be a trendsetter, not a fad follower). We never really wanted for anything, meaning we never said ‘Mom I want this’ and then got it, like most kids we grew up with.
I’d never seen or heard too much about designer clothes like Guess? jeans until the 7th grade when I went to the junior high in Woodbury, the next town over (ours only had an elementry school), then again I don’t think too many other kids had heard of them until then, either. Back to school meant Sears outlet, and then maybe a short visit to the boutique at the small strip mall so we could get some Esprit or Guess? T-shirts and cute accessories in order to fit in a little with the kids from Woodbury who looked down on us kids from Newport, ‘river rats’ they called us (the Mississippi is right on the border) and if your dad didn’t have a law practice or work at 3M as an engineer, you were treated like a second class citizen.
His life was a little different, on the other hand. From what I know his dad was a filanderer and left when James was 15 which explains some of the behavior, the apple never falls too far from the tree. Plus him and his brother went to private schools most of the time. There was never a shortage of money, trips, or getting things they wanted, when they wanted them, things like video games and nicer clothes (not that they were spoiled, but his folks seemed a bit more in tune with popular things for their kids and could afford it). Christmases were always very generous and eating out and going to neat places was common, so it’s slightly different. Also no one in his family ever worried about saving or the future too much because family business took care of that, and business was always fairly good, it seemed. No one in my immediate family really ever felt or taught me that working for yourself was the way to get ahead, there was always this need to “get good grades so you can get a good job or persue college for a better one”.
Same day, different year..
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