Growing up Hungry......zzzzzzzzzz

Team Drinkwater too. What a fucking, whiny brat. In the time she went begging, she could have learned to cook lentils. If you're really going hungry, you don't turn your nose up at unspoiled, edible, even if it has to be cooked, food.

I can relate to the writer's experience in that my dad was always broke but clung to the delusion of being upper middle class. As a result we lived in rented homes in nice neighborhoods with the shitty furniture and electricity being turned off from time to time. It was super important to dad that my sister and I went to "good" public schools. Looking back I wish he would have been honest with himself and chosen to live in a working class community we could afford because going to the "good" school really sucks when don't fit in because of your cheap clothes and are too embarassed to have anyone see the inside of your house.

That said, it never once occurred to me to go beg a neighbor for food. I would have been mortified. I agree with others here being puzzled over why the writer is angry at some neighbor she barely knew and not her parents who clearly made stupid choices.

Being poor, I know what that's about. Going near hungry? Yup. Having your utilities shut off? Almost. But never ONCE did I go begging for food. I would've preferred to hang myself first. I was old enough to understand my parents fucked up and made us poor. I was old enough to understand that the reason why the family didn't care about us was because dad was brown-skinned and spoke Spanish. But I also was old enough to understand that to avoid the situation that we're still in is to NOT breed and think of yourself. AND ONLY OF YOURSELF. If that kid was on my doorstep I would've given her some crackers, told her to stay outside and called ACS and the cops. Shabby looking clothes and rotting food? She and her brother would've been in the back of that black and white faster than you could say "trial date." Hopefully that'll teach the kids some self-sufficiency and dignity because their pahrunts obviously didn't!

She also says that she was 8 or 9 but in middle school. Middle school kyds are older than that. So was she undecided as to whether such a young child or a hardworking middle school student in charge of a younger sibling with no food or the house was the most pitiful story? And just went with both?

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Snark Shark

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kidsuck
Call me a bitch, but if I see some dirty brat at my door, I'm not gonna open it, period. Don't give a shit if they're selling chocolate for cub scouts, giving out pamphlets for the Joho's or looking for a hand out. If you come to my door unaccompanied by an adult, go the fuck away cause I won't be opening it!

+1!

This. The only thing Mrs. Drinkwater did wrong was open the door.

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"Not every ejaculation deserves a name" - George Carlin

Most kids eat lunch at school around 12pm. She probably got home around 3pm. So in that short period of time, she became so famished that she needed to beg?

And had Mrs. Drinkwater gave her anything, anytime she didn't like what what was in her own house, she'd head on down to Mrs. Drinkwater's for a marshmallow and peanut butter sandwich.

There was much hunger in my childhood, but I can assure you we never in a million years would have begged from the neighbors. My parents were on drugs and I remember times when all we had in the fridge were packets of ketchup. Begging at the neighbors?? Never.

What a self-pitying piece of shit. There's hungry... and then there's just fucking greedy. I know which category children fall into.

"All I know is that at that moment I was certain that my father was at his job in Boston. Because that’s where my father always was. At work." Yes. And earning money.

Sorry, what was the problem again?

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"The death of creativity is a pram in the hallway"
- Cyril Connolly

I made some rice a couple of months ago, and while rinsing the rice, as I always do, I noticed some little mealie bugs floating on the water. I still made the rice and we both ate it and still alive to tell the tale. Okay. I'm lying. I didn't tell DH about the bugs in the rice.

True starvation stories remind me of the movie Empire of the Sun, about a spoiled british boy who lived in Japan during the years leading up to WWII. All foreigners were put in detainment camps and fed rations. At first, the spoiled boy complained about the bugs in his food, pushing them off into a corner. By the end of the film, he exclaims that the bugs are actually good sources of protein, and still collects them in the corner of his plate, only now he counts them and writes the number of bugs he found on a calendar, just before eating the bugs.

Now that's hunger.

bump

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yurble
bump

You're having too much fun!

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Miss_Hannigan
I'll abbreviate this tale of woe to spare you:
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I remember my brother whining. He was hungry. I felt it too.

I climbed up onto the counter to get a good look inside the kitchen cupboards. I found only jars of dried lentils, spices, and boxes of tea. A bag of cereal hidden away in the back of the cabinet caught my eye. I poured the contents into two bowls, only to find worms crawling inside. I screamed, and then quickly pretended there was nothing wrong.

I realize that probably more adults than not have this type of organizational problem (even I do, sometimes). That is, if you have rotting food of ANY kind, you're simply Buying Too Much Food and Not Cooking and Freezing It in a timely manner! (Or, in the case of cereal, remembering to EAT it - but if you're REALLY on a tight budget, Amy Dacyczyn, author of The Complete Tightwad Gazette, would tell you that cold cereal is one of the first things NOT to buy.)

But this is inexcusable for many reasons, especially when helpless kids are involved.

Of course the kid's feeling were hurt and MAYBE the neighbor should have helped if she wasn't in the middle of something terribly important - but as an adult, why couldn't the writer acknowledge that the woman was simply mad at her parents and had the right to be?

lenona: Of course the kid's feeling were hurt and MAYBE the neighbor should have helped if she wasn't in the middle of something terribly important - but as an adult, why couldn't the writer acknowledge that the woman was simply mad at her parents and had the right to be?

If Mrs. Drinkwater started feeding those kyds, they never would have heft her alone. They would have come to her door every single day begging for food. I've seen this happen for myself. I don't blame the lady for not wanting to get involved.

The only thing she could have done was call CPS and reported lazy moo for allowing her kyds to go hungry.

My parents were always about keeping up appearences. I would have gotten beaten to go to a neighbor and open the lid off what life was at home. One day, in my teens, I walked home with a friend and invited her in. My dad was lying on the kitchen floor drunk. Mid-afternoon. I was told never to bring anyone to our house. Later, my folks gave me crap about hanging at friends houses. Because, I could not reciprocate.They did not want me being around much, and thought all other parents felt the same. My friends parents, to this day, tell me how polite I was and not a pain in the behind at all. My parents do not understand why I keep in touch with and visit the wonderful people who opened their home and hearts to their kid's friends.

Wait a second--she includes a picture of herself. That is not a starving child. She looks fine. Not even particularly skinny, as we were. We had plenty of food and a very nice middle class upbringing but dad had heart disease so mom cooked boring heart healthy food. We just ate tasteless food to stay alive. I am grateful to mom for doing this. I love good food but on a day to day basis I eat the same type of food so I won't blow up like a balloon.