Did You Ever Go Hungry?

jyl · jyl's Garage

I had dinner with a friend who grew up in Czechslovakia when it was still behind the Iron Curtain, in the early 1960's. His parents were doctors and they were fairly middle class by the standards of the time and place.

We were talking about the food of his boyhood. He mentioned that they almost always had food to eat, and only went hungry a few times, "nothing serious".

This got me wondering whether I ever went hungry as a child. My best recollection is that, except for one time when I was punished by not being allowed to eat for 24 hours (long story, and I deserved it), I never went hungry.

My father, growing up in rural China, did go hungry sometimes - not a routine occurrence, but during World War Two and later during the Chinese Civil War when his family were refugees. My wife, who grew up in a small town in Washington, never went hungry. My kids have never known the experience. I'm not talking about being hungry because one meal got skipped, I'm talking about being hungry because there was no money to buy food, or no food to be bought with money.

Did you ever go hungry as a kid? Did your parents ever not have food to eat?

A930Rocket · 11-12-2011, 11:10 PM

I've been fortunate in that I've never gone without food. Thanks mom and dad.

My parents families both made do when younger by growing a vegetable garden, canning food and raising chickens for eggs and meat. My moms dad had a cow for milk as well.

Rick V · 12:59 AM

When Beth and I got married we didn't have a pot to pee in nor a window to throw it out of and a newborn (who just turned 25) we did what we had to do for the kid and that was to get his supplies instead of things we needed, like food. Only happened a couple of time but yes, I have gone hungry

aap1966 · aap1966's Garage

Only at University. One loaf of bread can last 3 days.
Mother went hungry as a kid in rural Australia during WW-II. Only meat was the occasional chicken and wild caught rabbit.

Hard-Deck · 11-13-2011, 12:57 AM

Yes, and it does wierd things to your body.

sc_rufctr · 11-13-2011, 01:16 AM

Both of my parents experienced real hunger after the end of WW2. Months on end with nothing but olive oil, bread and an occasional glass of red wine.

The closest for me was on an Army exercise. I went 24 days with no food, Just water and black tea or coffee.
It was voluntary and you could withdraw at any time. About 140 of us started the exercise and 33 got to the 24 day mark.
Most quit at about the 10 day mark.

I was 66kgs at the time and weighed 50 by the end of the 24 days.

I'll never forget it but it did teach me one very important thing. You can go without food and it won't do you any harm.
Water is another thing all together. You have to have water... No exceptions.

on2wheels52 · on2wheels52's Garage

I grew up on a farm in the midwest, but I did wonder how eating everything on my plate would make the starving children of the world less hungry.
Jim

lm6y · 11-13-2011, 04:57 AM

Thankfully, no. Both sides of my family grew up pretty poor, and luckily, I learned the basics from them. I always have a full pantry stocked with canned goods. And I can get pretty creative with my cooking to make what I have in the pantry go even farther.

masraum · 11-13-2011, 05:32 AM

not even remotely. When I was very small, both parents worked. As I got a bit older, dad went back into the Navy and mom wasn't working. Despite dad not making tons of money as an enlisted guy, I'd say we did very well. They were frugal and good budgeters.

flatbutt · 11-13-2011, 05:40 AM

Not really. There were times (very few actually) that we didn't have enough. And I saw my Dad just drink coffee while we ate a bowl of spaghetti and nothing else. And there were plenty of times when we would eat things like bread and sugar because we had no butter. But I always had something to eat in my parents house.

College was something different. I didn't even think about asking my parents to help out, they had done enough. So with rent, books, tuition etc., there were times when I literally stretched a pot of spaghetti out for days. Hungry? Yes. Starving? No.

Thanks Mom and Dad.

sc_rufctr · 11-13-2011, 05:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masraum

not even remotely. When I was very small, both parents worked. As I got a bit older, dad went back into the Navy and mom wasn't working. Despite dad not making tons of money as an enlisted guy, I'd say we did very well. They were frugal and good budgeters.

It seems a lot of younger people could learn from our parents.

svandamme · svandamme's Garage

Yeah, but nothing like famine or anything, it was more a case of stupid mistakes with money when i was young and to much pride to go visit family around dinner time.. I've had some weeks where i'de get by on a couple of crackers and a kebab i payed for in small change i found in the sofa...

svandamme · svandamme's Garage

Yeah, but nothing like famine or anything, it was more a case of stupid mistakes with money when i was young and to much pride to go visit family around dinner time.. I've had some weeks where i'de get by on a couple of crackers and a kebab i payed for in small change i found in the sofa...After a while hunger sort of goes away, stomach shrinks, and water goes a long way..

imcarthur · imcarthur's Garage

Me . . . no.

My F-I-L tells a harrowing story of his time in a Soviet prisoner of war camp in the Ukraine at the end of WW2. They were near starving most of the time. On a work detail, he & another prisoner found a rotting cabbage in a ditch. My F-I-L only had a small bit of it but he ended up in the camp hospital for 3 months in a delirium. A kindly doctor took pity on him & kept him alive. The other prisoner was dead within 24 hours.

Ian

sc_rufctr · 11-13-2011, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by svandamme

Yeah, but nothing like famine or anything...

After a while hunger sort of goes away, stomach shrinks, and water goes a long way..

That's so true. We were built to be hunters not queue waiters at McDonald.

When a hunter gets really hungry they find that little bit extra to catch their pray.

Skytrooper · Skytrooper's Garage

not in a stavation sort of way, but as a young lad I was fed either a lettuce or ketchup sandwich for lunch everyday. I survived.

SXSMAN · 11-13-2011, 06:03 AM

Both parents passed when I was fairly young (I was 11 when my mother passed ,19 when dad died) There was a short time when I was layed off work and my own sister had sued me .

Those were literally lean times.

Guess I could use those again looking at my waist-line now......

944Larry · 944Larry's Garage

Fortunately never hungry, but I have worked places where hunger is not as rare as here.

1990C4S · 11-13-2011, 07:37 AM

I have seen a lot of people who look like they are probably going hungry. Most of them had a cell phone.

sammyg2 · 08:37 AM

I can remember a few times when I was young when there was no food in the house for myself or my three brothers for a day at a time, maybe more.
My father got paid once a month and there were times when my parents were not able to stretch the money quite far enough to make the whole month, and they were not the type to use credit cards to spend money they didn't have.
They went hungry longer than their kids did though, when the food started running out they made sure the kids ate first.

I can remember a couple of times when I didn't have money or food for a couple days when I was in my early 20's and even though i never let that secret out, I usually ended up being invited for a meal by a girlfriend or her parents of whatever so I didn't really get that hungry. Bills always came first, food second.

That might be part of the reason I am so "conservative" with my money. I see money as something to save, to keep, to collect.
Not as something to spend.