Karaoke Forums

My family was very poor when I was little.  I didn't have many toys that most kids had.  For example I had only two dolls:  1 barbie that had no feet and a Mrs. Beasley doll.  (does anyone remember her? she was awesome - but that is another thread)

Back on topic Sharon!!!  

Anyways, I remember eating nothing but pinto beans and fried potatoes for weeks on end.  And if you didn't eat what was was given to you, you literally went hungry cause that was all the food we had.

How did this affect me...I'll tell you...to this day I have an obsession with food...I don't over eat...I have to have mass amounts of food in my pantry...Just paranoid I guess....

This wasn't the only time I've been poor, I'll share those later....

And just an FYI...Being poor is not a bad thing...many great people were dirt poor..I believe it makes you appreciate things more and gives you great character....

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

heh when I was a kid my family was tight on money but not the the extent you were. My mom made a lot of preserves to save money and they sacraficed a lot so I could have stuff. Funny cause now... "stuff" doesn't mean a lot to me. I do the opposite of what my mom used to (she would horde food to ridiculous levels, she would have to throw a lot of freezer stuff out) cause her family was poor. I guess I learned what NOT to do from her .

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Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)

I didn't remember being poor when I was a kid but I do remember hearing my parents argueing over whether to buy toilet paper or milk in the other room. Milk lost out, often.

I dunno how my parents afforded what they did when I consider how little they actually made. I can remember them going to auctions quite often.. one trip they brought home a pinball machine for me. I think my dad was making like $3 an hour when I was a little kid.... working in a factory, and my mom drove bus. Mebe they were dealing drugs on the side!  LMAO

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Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)

This becomes a rant toward the end. If you don't want to understand then don't read this. If you are squeemish or week of heart don't read this. If you are easily offended, don't read this. This is not a subject for pansies.

My dad was in the Navy in the 70s and mom couldn't work due to physical limitations.
She occaisionally did plays in dinner theater though and I got to do one professional show myself.

Things got a little better when my dad started doing civillian work after the first stint in the Navy. I still had to get a job at 13 to buy new clothes for school every year. When I got older and my parents got divorced, things went bad again.

My mom had fibromyalgia but was able to work a full time job bringing in about $800 a month. There was a little child support from my dad, but I still had to get more hours at work to make ends meet. Before this I was taking voice lesson. I was very serious about music, my mom and sister were too attached to eating and sleeping indoors though. I had to give up singing nearly altogether. I also sold my drums before I was able to get good at playing them.

I remember going to the youth group meeting at church on sundays. One day they decided to hold the next  meeting at a pizza place and everyone had to bring $10. I told them I couldn't go and didn't want to discuss it. They pried and got it out of me that we didn't have $10. They couldn't understand not having such a small amount of money to spend for something as important as a youth group meeting. They ASSUMED that we just didn't want to spend the money. The acted like I was holding them back for not having the money to go. I quit that day, the youth group and the Church. Spending that money on pizza for me would mean that my mom and sister would have nothing to eat for a few days. They didn't get that. Nobody gets that. We were already on the RAMEN noodle diet. I even know how to spell it and even though it causes my heart to beat about 120 beats per minute because of the MSG, I still ate it.

Working in restaurants meant that I got half price on ONE meal per day that I worked more than 4 hours. No other discounts besides that one. It was still cheaper to bring food from home.

I still don't go to church anymore. People don't listen, they just talk until you give in to their way of doing things.

Anyone who doesn't believe this is full of (@$%&#!). If they don't understand it is because they are still ASSuming that it never happens.

I'm not saying that we were the poorest of the poor, we weren't. I'm not asking for sympathy. I am leaving a little note to educate the few who can't get what it is like.

It still pisses me off when people ASSume rather than listen to what I am saying about this kind of thing. People have two ears yet only one mouth and still the mouth does all of the work for too many of us.

Yes, it became a rant, if you don't like it, simple, you didn't have to read it. This may be toned down in a few minutes when I calm down.

I agree with what you are saying Chuck. There are way too many people who can't understand what it is like not to have money, and those people usually love to try and put people who don't have it in their place. I had it done to me enough when I was a kid, getting made fun of for wearing second-hand clothes etc. Human self esteem and drive is easily crushed, especially when you are a kid. I didn't sing for about 15 years because of reasons you already know, I am basically a novice vocally. Also, I don't go to church either but I have other reasons. Rants are ok by the way when they make sense... and that one was even on topic!  

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Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)

Thanks Lisa.

It wasn't too offensive?

Picking on poor people is just another way for people to make themselves look good. A lot of us know that people make fun of others for things they are afraid to see in themselves or things that could happen to them. There is a user here who has a signature that explains this statement.

I hate fighting but I wound-up having to do a lot of it to defend myself, sometimes just because I wore old clothes like you did.

I gottcha!!!  I lived in Florida a few years back and unfortunately the person I was with was a hard core drug addict.  I virtually lived off of Ramen for 6 months and was lucky to get that.  He was too busy selling everything I owned, to get his drug, including my paycheck when it came in the mail while I was at work (which by the way he would sometimes take me and drop me off, in MY car, and leave me there and I would be forced to walk 5 miles or so home in a dress and heels.)

It's not fun being poor...  I got out of that as soon as I could without getting hurt...Thanks to some very nice people at my job that helped me....  I am still very thankful to them...  

I probably wouln't be alive today if it wasn't for the people that helped me....I am very thankful for the help I have received....That may be one of the reasons I try so hard to help people in need these days.....I know what it's like....

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!

Yep, sounds familiar. I had some pretty fugly clothes back then, ugly plaids in gross colors, and kids acted like I wore them out of choice. I had this one t shirt that had a bowl of fruit on it that I wore to school ONCE when I was 11. It had a stray peach on the chest (and me being naive didn't think twice about wearing it). I had some of the grade 8 boys making comments about my peaches, and one accuse me of stuffing my bra.... man I was mad . I had breasts at like 8 years old so by the time I was 11 I was a B cup. I hated it cause I was about the only girl in my class that had an actual figure. I came home from school that day and gave that t shirt to my mom. Of course my self esteem was pretty much squashed by 11 so it never occurred to me to ask what the boys were doing looking at my breasts. If I only knew then what I know now  :no:

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Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)

sorry, double post.

I help everybody I can in every way I can but still have to keep some time for me too.

That's another thing people don't get, even some women, how resourceful a lunatic or junky can be if you leave. You have to pick your timing and plan your escape very carefully. Sometimes they even go after your family, like my brother-in-law did once before when my sister left his abusive (@$%&#!). He showed-up here in Texas beating on my mom's door and yelling at her through the door. He scared the hell out of her. She called the police but it took them 15 minutes to get there.

That's a pretty decent response time for here. A lot can happen in 15 minutes though and you can only expect the law to do so much when their hands are partially tied in these situations. Not to mention that it is one of the most dangerous calls they get. If I could have gotten to my mom's before that jerk left I could have gotten away with kicking his crazy (@$%&#!). I have one advantage in that case physically, I'm crazier than he is and I have more discipline. The proof in my self discipline is that fact that I've gotten treatment for my problems and I've never hit a person who didn't hit me a few times first. Not just once, I have to make sure that I can't walk away, and I make no excuses because I can't be sure I'll stop once I reach my goal, before he's dead.

When I left my ex, I lived in an 11 by 11 room for about a year and a half because it's all I could afford. It was tiny, but it was mine. After 13 years of being told what to do and being just treated like crap in general, it was just nice to have my own space. I literally lived on my tip money from the coffee shop I worked in many days.
My boyfriend (Papa Bear) moved me in here in an emergency when I had someone reef open the bathroom door on me while bathing. I am in a much better situation now, but back then I was making less than 1000 dollars a month. I had an online friend who worked for microsoft who wanted me to teach him how to live so cheaply  LMAO

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Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)

I'm glad you are doing better, Lisa.

I hope that didn't wreck your self-esteem and kill your dreems as it does to a lot of people. People don't get how easy it is to be reprogrammed by someone. We don't even know how deeply it goes. It cuts very deep.

It did for a while Chuck... I was a different person then, I didn't believe in myself when I was with him. When I got that tiny little hole in the wall, it spelled freedom for me. I found my fire while I lived there... I started going to karaoke, and actually singing in public. I guess I found myself again during that time. It's scary to think what might have happened had I stayed with my ex.

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Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)

I'll let you know the minute my unemployment comp runs out.  Should be interesting!

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Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)

Oh yes and talk about having the rug pulled out from under your feet!! I don't discuss it openly but my family was pretty well off as my dad was very successful in the restaurant and night club biz.  He died.  Owed casinos boodles in markers.  There were no laws in place in Atlantic City at that time regarding payment of gambling debts of a deceased person by the surviving family members.  They got their money.  My parents had been divorced so my mom flew in from California to take over the business.  Things went well.  The son of someone running for mayor rented an apartment above our restaurant.  Some idiot from the other side threw molatov cocktails in his window, practically burned the place down.  Restaurant shot to hell--pop never had insurance on the place after all.  Had to sell the place for nothing.  Mom got terminally ill, could not work and I was doing what I could to make money in radio and working dishwashing jobs.  

I can remember vividly sitting down to a dinner of spaghetti with ketchup for sauce and found out much later my mother was not only pawning all her jewelry to stay afloat but shoplifting as well.  This breaks my heart to have to say this; she was a proud woman.  Like all things, this too passed.

So yup! I know what THAT's like!! And what is funny is now, I have all these things, more than I need actually, and yet there are times when I remember way back when I was on my own for the first time in my early 20s when my mother died and how excited I was the day I bought my own $49.00 stereo system at a department store.  I kind of miss that feeling.

Good luck to you Don. I hope all goes well.

Both financially, and in terms of esteem, yes, VERY.  I did what I had to do, and survived it.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I just got a job in late April after being laid off for 7 months...Wow did that hurt...Now I make about half what I did before the lay off.  We are still getting caught up and adjusting to our new lower income level...

I'm thinking about ya!!!

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Will sing or fish for food!!I'm not quite right!!