[fintstone]

Having grown up very, very poor...I can say that the hardest thing was to realize that there were alternatives. My parents were poor, my relatives were poor, my neighbors and friends were poor.

As far as buying quality boots, etc...we never had anything of quality, so we assumed that here was no difference. They were not even sold anywhere we shopped. No market for them. They were just "rich people stuff" to us.

Everyone I knew was equally poor...other than a few that had inherited land that they could harvest timber or grow something to sell...and they really lived as lower middle class. Everyone worked very hard from daylight until dark. Many had day jobs and came home and worked in the fields every night and weekends. It never occurred to me that these seemingly smart people could all be victims of their own poor choices. Very few people I knew went to college and those that did usually did not finish nor have majors that would necessarily result in employment. All that I knew came home and worked the same minimum wage jobs as anyone else (that is all there were). From my perspective, our school teachers were the richest people because they had decent cars and dressed pretty well. The best thing that ever happened to me was joining the military and moving away...where I learned there was much opportunity for anyone willing to work as hard as I had become accustomed to doing...as long as I didn't ruin things with poor choices.