Alan and others, thanks for sharing your stories.
While I have some personal triumphs to be proud of, it would pale besides the hardships that some of you endured. How bad could it be to a kid who grew up indulging in Franco-Belgian comics, get to read not just
Les Misérables but also T
he Adventures of Tom Sawyer in French?
But I would like to add that my life wasn't always gravy. Just for entertainment, I will tell my story.
My family got trampled by a "black swan" when I was in my late teens. For a while, we thought that we would have to go back to making a living like the grandparents that I never knew: to live off the land. Except that we had no land, and also lost our home, a 3-story house with 12 rooms and 3 kitchens, one on each floor. We lost everything! And it was through no fault of my parents.
Things looked quite bleak. Though I had very good grades in school, college was out of reach. My parents rebuilt with what they had left and kept, mostly in their heads. Us kids pitched in doing odd jobs, and luckily, we did not end up being day laborers as we had feared. And I even got to go to college, a state university even, thanks to Pell Grant. Isn't this country great or what?
We all stayed at home to help out financially, and only moved out when we got married, all 4 of us. When done with school, I had enough money saved to even get me a custom-made suit for job interviews. I was so skinny that nothing off the rack fit me; this I recently mentioned in another thread (I liked the custom suit so much that once I had a good job, I had two more made, one for my wedding
).
But talk about deprivation, how about this? I never went to one party while in school.
Other than my sweetheart, I had no other friends. I once took 21 credit hours per semester, though I normally averaged around 18 to 19. My children now labor under a load of 12 hours/semester, just barely enough to qualify as full-time students. I worked 20 hrs each weekend to contribute to our household expenses. Party?
I once wrote here that compared to others, I have lived the life of a monk, and it is not too much of an exaggeration. My parents did not allow a TV in the house until I was about 15. When they finally did, I did not know if that was because they thought we were old enough to be safe from the seduction of TV, or it was because they themselves gave in to its entertainment value.
Now, you know why I became a bookworm!
And frankly, I did not miss TV. Nowadays, the state Child Protective Service might come to the rescue and take custody of such abused children.
PS. It was the life-changing trauma that caused me to lose my knowledge of French. When you get bogged down with plebeian concerns, your priorities get all mixed up.
And then, when you get your wallet filled again, have some free time for yourself, you find that your memory is gone. Sigh...