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Growing up in a money poor family, but, not a food poor family, taught me if you have land you will never starve. We had no money, but, we had 3 great meals every day, because we grew everything we ate. The only think my mom bought from the store was flour and sugar. And that was in 25lb sacks from which she made quilts. We had our own cornmeal ground from the corn we grew.
At first frost, it was butcher time and smoke house time. My mom grew a 1 acre garden and worked day and into the night putting up food for our winter. We went to the woods and picked wild grapes, she made into grape juice and grape jelly. She sun dried fruit all summer on tops of metal buildings and store that dried fruit in 1 gallon glass jars to make into cobblers and pies during the winter months. She made homemade butter in one pound molds that was better than anything I ever had from any store.
Our farm house was heated by fireplaces, which required a ton of firewood be cut during the hot summer. My 3 older sister went to the woods and fell trees with axes and saws that required one person on each end pulling back and forth...no chain saws. Then they hitched the horses or mules up to a big wagon and hauled all that wood back to the house where it had to be off loaded and stacked. (This was why most families were large) No time to sit around text messaging or social networking.
New news might be a week old by the time we heard it; but, honestly we were a family that worked hard each day; went to church on Wednesday, Saturday, and twice on Sunday. What was going on in the world was of little concern.
The best times were hunting and fishing with my dad and sitting on our huge front porch making homemade ice cream with a few neighbors. I can still hear that crank turning. The best part was not the ice cream, although it was delicious; the best part was to listen to our elders tell story after story, many true, many not.
One of our neighbors would bring his fishing tackle box over, not a book, and one by one, he would pull a lure from that old rusty box and tell a 30 min. story about the fish he caught with each lure. Then we had the ghost stories; religious stories ...but, the best part was the bond and camaraderie we had with each other. We had very strong tribe and didn't even know it. And, when someone started telling a story, everyone was attentive and listened without interrupting.
Never saw a beer or wine bottle or alcohol in any one's home all through high school.
When I was 10, a voice keep telling me to go to work. I would walk to town and go up to everyone I saw and asked them if they had work I could do? Everyone told me I was too little, but, that didn't stop me from asking. Finally, one day, a dairy farmer told me he would pay me $0.50 / hr. to cut brush on his farm. I was there ever day at daylight with my ax. I cut brush for 10 hours each day, drinking only water. I made $30 that first week at 10 years old. My first working milestone had been realized and accomplished.
I decided cutting brush was not my calling; so the next year my dad bought me a lawnmower on his credit with the agreement I would pay him back.
So the first day, there I was out pushing my bright red lawnmower home to home asking if I could mow their yard. $3 for small yard; $5 for medium yard; $7 for large yard...my largest yd was 7 acres...I figured out quickly, I misquoted that yard, so the next year, I increased my prices to $14 for that 7 acre yard.
Like now, word of mouth is the best way to get new business. People heard about how good I mowed yards and by the end of my first year I was mowing 20 yards and making some good pocket change. And, yes I paid my dad back in the first 3 months. But the biggest benefit was I got to know many people in my little town. The other huge benefit, which I never thought was how strong my legs became from pushing that mower from April to October. Since my main love was football, my strong legs caused many broken tackles in our games. I was in such great shape, I played running back; defensive back because of my speed; punter; kicker on kick offs; and return man on kicks to us...I seldom came out of a game and only got injured one time that required overnight in a hospital.
The next year he bought me an old car to haul my lawnmower around. Yes I was driving at age 11 or 12...back then, no one cared. I mean it was just around a small town...I was never allow to go out on a major highway.
So, all through my school years I mowed yards and finally got the school grounds to mow with their tractor. $25 for that job which took me all day long, but, hey it was 5 times as much as I was making cutting brush.
What drove me was to work all I could to elevate myself out of the current situation, even though we had plenty to eat.
The months the grass was dormant, my dad give me $5 / week as an allowance. But, as soon as I could go to work that big allowance stopped.
My whole point is having just a little ambition and wanting to improve your living standards go a long way in elevating yourself out of poverty.
Down the rode a few years I worked my way into what I thought were good paying jobs. Little did I know a full blown sales career awaited me in my mid twenties...within 3 years of taking an 18K a year sales job, I cracked the 100K barrier and never went below it for the next 20+ year. My best year was hitting the 250K level and after paying my taxes, I decided I wanted to go back below 125K/year.
What's a short story without a love story....My first love was in the 7th grade...she was an awesome girl, pretty, smart, Christen, and loosing her eyesight way too fast. In eight grade I would take her hand and walk her to where she needed to go. We were constantly together, because we felt great with each other and we supported each other in every way, even at that age. Even though she could not see me that well, she came to every game, sat in the bleachers and cheered me and the team. Our first kiss came 6 months after we met and sex never entered our minds. We were just very close friends that loved being tougher, even at that age.
So there is a quick short story of going from a min paying job to a well paying job and a fun career as well as my first love.
Anyone can do it, if they want to.
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