Originally Posted by
Gardnr
The Netherlands. I asked Dad why we came. He said: "We couldn't have been any poorer". I had no idea we were poor until I was an adult. There was always a meal on the table x3/d. There were always school clothes and shoes with no holes in them. There was always a new dress and shoes for Easter (that were then school clothes the next year). I had a bicycle. The car was never broken down-that I knew of anyway.
When I moved out at 19, I realized my Mom could make a dollar stretch a mile and I couldn't. Hubby and I went through our "buy everything to keep up" phase but it lasted only 7years and I flipped out. We hunkered down and I channeled the Mom example by thinking about the way I was raised and what we didn't have, knowing it didn't matter.