Yardsticks of progress a can of beans long...

[sfwriter]

In 1987, I tried boiling popcorn to eat. My food budget was about $8 a week, but I could steal all the popcorn I wanted from work, so I made it a staple.

I was in my last year of high school. I worked until 1 am, was in school by 8:30 am and got out in time for work again at 3:30.

I'd buy crackers, peanut butter, bread and two cans of the cheapest pork & beans I could find, and I'd spring for lunch at school EVERY DAY. It was the only hot regular meal I got. Kids made fun of me for taking my milk home and asking if I could have theirs when they didn't want it.

I was grateful to have all of this. The previous six months, I had lived out of my car and eaten what I could scrounge from friends.

A Republican once told me I was a liar when I related this story. Another asked why I was too stupid to know about the food bank. I don't know, I just didn't. I was a kid. It's not like they teach you these things.

My principal, a Christian and also a Republican, didn't believe me when I told him. I just got detention after school for for being late in the mornings. Two days of detention meant missed pay equaling a week's worth of food.

That's when I started lying about my age and selling plasma.

This came up a couple of times today.

After dinner, a friend commented on the full pantry I keep.

"Expecting an Apocalypse?"

My wife jumped in and said I'd done that ever since I started to be able to afford groceries in college where she met me. She talked of how I would eat everything when we were first married and attributed it to my fear that the food would go away again.

Among the more common and useful staples of rice and pasta, dried fruit and canned vegetables, I've got 8 cans of beans, two jars of peanut butter and a sack of popcorn. Easily, a month's worth of food back in the day.

I almost never eat those anymore, but I always keep them on hand.

And I never forget that I'm lucky to have them. I never forget that there are others who don't.

That's how I measure progress and one reason I'm a Democrat I guess.

I was hammering out a deal today for the showing of my film, www.americanscary.com, at a local theater.

"Hey," the guy said, "You and your guests get free popcorn as well."

"thanks."

[NMMNG]

1. The "haves" never seem to understand what it is like to be a "have not"

They think everybody has it as easy as them, and that anybody who says otherwise is a liar trying to get something from them and/or tug at their heartstrings. The richer they are, the more removed from reality they are.


"How could you not know about (enter name of assistance program here)?" Don't they realize a person living out of their car and working nearly every waking minute doesn't have time or resources to research options? They don't have newspapers, telephones, televisions, computers and other tools at their disposal to help them learn about programs and charities that could help them out.


I remember my days of ramen and popcorn lunches well. Dinners were often hot dogs and french fries, mac and cheese with peas or some similarly dirt cheap fare. But of course people making six figure salaries can't fathom living on 10K a year.

Don't ever let the b*stards get you down. You know you're telling the truth.