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« on: March 13, 2024, 12:35:04 PM »
My family earned poverty the hard way.
We were poor white trash.
Our family was known as the really poor family in the neighborhood, but we always ate even it wasn't enough, or nutritious.
My father was brutally disabled and my mother was illiterate.
You do what you do to survive and we all but one made it to adulthood. The baby was killed before he turned six.
It left my mother a husk, barely functional.
There was only one way out for people like us. Education was number two in importance, but work - hard work - came first.
We both (my older brother and me) studied as hard as possible and graduated ahead of almost everyone else. It wasn't enough to win any scholarships,
but when I took the military aptitude tests I did so well, it kind of helped me get assigned to training that would help me
in my career after the military.
The service offered the GI Bill in those days and it became the end all - be all for me and my older brother. The idea of a military
career never once entered my mind. I wanted the GI Bill and a chance out of the cycle of poverty that trapped most of the rest of my
loved ones.
My older brother chose the Army and communications as his desired field. He was exposed to tremendous radiation and spent the rest of his shortened life fighting cancer. It is my hope that his troubles were
caused by the fact that we didn't know enough about shielding in those days, and not because he was not important enough to protect.
Once my obligation was complete, I went straight to night school four nights a week and worked two, or three jobs during the day. Eventually (in my 40's)
I went back to graduate school and survived... barely.
Dated infrequently and married the second woman I dated more than once, or twice. We intend to stay married forever. So far - so good.
Dreamed of flying since I was 8 and didn't have a prayer of finding enough money to go with the boy scouts to Oshkosh and volunteer there.
It was Boys Life magazine, of all things, that ran a long feature of Oshkosh and got me started. Once that fire sparked to life, nothing could stamp it out for me.
Some think I came by my grumpiness because of my childhood, but that is not the case. Lots and LOTS of people were just as poor and struggled just as much.
There was nothing unique about my experience.
I HATE dealing with lazy, entitled, assholes. For your edification, I couldn't care less about your voter ID, your sexual peculiarities, or your skin color. If you are sincere about
living up to your obligations, raising the children you made, and paying your own way, I am all for giving you a hand up. If not, then fuck you.
I mean that in the most non-biased way.
Anyone else want to play?