You think you've got it rough? You should have been around when I was a kid. Our whole family lived in a dirty KOA Kampground in Antarctica.
We ate nothing but candy and fried okra and we drank glasses of lemonade, and we were glad to have them. Sometimes on Wednesdays we had beef bouillon. I slept on a desk in the dining room. My ten brothers slept in the master bathroom.
I had to get up every morning at ten to feed the tapeworm and the louse. After that, I had to scrub the library and attack the book.
I walked sixteen feet through thunderstorms and hot, sunny days to get to school every morning, wearing only a sweater and a class ring. We had to learn anthropology and ABCs, all in the space of two centuries.
Mom worked hard, making slimy pairs of pliers by hand and selling them for only five quarters each. She had to rearrange every pair of pliers eleven times.
Dad worked as a rodeo clown and earned only three dimes a day. We couldn't afford any pairs of scissors, so we made do with only a dictionary.
In spite of all the hardships, we grew up considerate and frightened.