Sandra, your post brought back memories of hoeing field corn out of beans (10c/hr), Social Security card and Woolworths job at 16 (35c/hr), Kamp Music (50c/hr) and my first short story (at 19, 1959): penny a word, $15 for 1500 words! And yes, I remember that first credit card--and the dangers that came with it (something we don't always want to think about). Thanks for a brave post!
Thank you Susan. Do you still have a copy of your first published short story? I wish I had a copy of my first published poem, and/or a copy of the essay I won a $3 first prize for at twelve.
A prize! That recognition is such a boost, at any age! I don't have it, but I remember the title: "Her First Violin." It appeared in a Sunday School "newspaper" published by the Southern Baptist Convention.
Oh Sandra, I suspect writing this piece conjured more memories for other stories. It is as if they feed off one another. I found out today, thanks to an article in The Guardian, that I have been a ‘Dusker’ all my life and did not know it! I will write about it on Friday. I love the photo of you writing, what, aged 29? Life is. Always has been. Always will. I think what I love about you is your tenacity - you just keep going at what you love and hope. ❤️🐰
Sandra, thank you for this piece on our relationship to money. Your story feels familiar to me and brings back memories for me. I have been working since I was 11. Until I left home at 18, all of the money my siblings and I earned went to support the family. My people are immigrant working class folks. There was no generational wealth coming to me. I started in a pasta shop hand packaging cavatelli, but had many of the typical jobs available to children like newspaper delivery, childcare, fast food etc. I believed in the “American Dream” and worked so hard to try and achieve it. I put myself through school, and became a nurse. I married and became a mother of 3, working the whole time. I lived with debt from school and from the home we purchased which needed constant repair. All of my money went to my family, home and my children. When I divorced my husband after a loveless life of servitude to our family, I had no savings, no money for a lawyer, and eventually lost my house. I have started over more times than I can count. When the pandemic hit, I had just started over once again, using all of my money to start my small business. I spent the pandemic houseless and in a borrowed RV. At 62 I was able to take my Social Security which is my current only source of income. Long Covid has made it impossible for me to work in any traditional sense, so I am getting by as best I can. This is not the life I had pictured for myself. I had worked for 50 years by the time the pandemic hit but had no financial security. I don’t often share my story because many would see me a victim. I am not a victim as much a surviver of a system that was not built for me. I cannot change my past, but hope that sharing my story will help other women to make choices that bring them financial security under this patriarchal and capitalistic system. As my 90 year old mom tells me, “Just keep going!”. So every day I wake up with gratitude for all of the beautiful gifts that this world has offered me that live outside the system, and I just keep going.❤️
Thank you so much for sharing your story! May I offer this advice? If you're not yet official SS retirement age, go after full disability. I represented people for years to get their SS disability benefits. There are plenty of those who do, and their pay is contingent on your getting your benefits, and has a cap. SS pays them. Please look into this if you can.
Sandra, your post brought back memories of hoeing field corn out of beans (10c/hr), Social Security card and Woolworths job at 16 (35c/hr), Kamp Music (50c/hr) and my first short story (at 19, 1959): penny a word, $15 for 1500 words! And yes, I remember that first credit card--and the dangers that came with it (something we don't always want to think about). Thanks for a brave post!
Thank you Susan. Do you still have a copy of your first published short story? I wish I had a copy of my first published poem, and/or a copy of the essay I won a $3 first prize for at twelve.
A prize! That recognition is such a boost, at any age! I don't have it, but I remember the title: "Her First Violin." It appeared in a Sunday School "newspaper" published by the Southern Baptist Convention.
I love that.
Oh Sandra, I suspect writing this piece conjured more memories for other stories. It is as if they feed off one another. I found out today, thanks to an article in The Guardian, that I have been a ‘Dusker’ all my life and did not know it! I will write about it on Friday. I love the photo of you writing, what, aged 29? Life is. Always has been. Always will. I think what I love about you is your tenacity - you just keep going at what you love and hope. ❤️🐰
Thank you Robert. Hey, what's a Dusker??? I look forward to learning about it on Friday.
Sandra, thank you for this piece on our relationship to money. Your story feels familiar to me and brings back memories for me. I have been working since I was 11. Until I left home at 18, all of the money my siblings and I earned went to support the family. My people are immigrant working class folks. There was no generational wealth coming to me. I started in a pasta shop hand packaging cavatelli, but had many of the typical jobs available to children like newspaper delivery, childcare, fast food etc. I believed in the “American Dream” and worked so hard to try and achieve it. I put myself through school, and became a nurse. I married and became a mother of 3, working the whole time. I lived with debt from school and from the home we purchased which needed constant repair. All of my money went to my family, home and my children. When I divorced my husband after a loveless life of servitude to our family, I had no savings, no money for a lawyer, and eventually lost my house. I have started over more times than I can count. When the pandemic hit, I had just started over once again, using all of my money to start my small business. I spent the pandemic houseless and in a borrowed RV. At 62 I was able to take my Social Security which is my current only source of income. Long Covid has made it impossible for me to work in any traditional sense, so I am getting by as best I can. This is not the life I had pictured for myself. I had worked for 50 years by the time the pandemic hit but had no financial security. I don’t often share my story because many would see me a victim. I am not a victim as much a surviver of a system that was not built for me. I cannot change my past, but hope that sharing my story will help other women to make choices that bring them financial security under this patriarchal and capitalistic system. As my 90 year old mom tells me, “Just keep going!”. So every day I wake up with gratitude for all of the beautiful gifts that this world has offered me that live outside the system, and I just keep going.❤️
Thank you so much for sharing your story! May I offer this advice? If you're not yet official SS retirement age, go after full disability. I represented people for years to get their SS disability benefits. There are plenty of those who do, and their pay is contingent on your getting your benefits, and has a cap. SS pays them. Please look into this if you can.
Thank you Sandra, will do.