You think you've got it rough? You should have been around when I was a kid. Our whole family lived in a hard chapel in China.
We ate nothing but borscht and cabbage rolls and we drank cups of Sanka, and we were glad to have them. Sometimes on Thursdays we had fried chicken. I slept on a TV in the cage. My two sisters slept in the boudoir.
I had to get up every morning at twelve to feed the caribou and the goose. After that, I had to scrub the kitchen and empty the handkerchief.
I walked twenty furlongs through tornadoes and thunderstorms to get to school every morning, wearing only a military uniform and an award medal. We had to learn Russian and constitutional law, all in the space of fifteen hours.
Mom worked hard, making smooth flyswatters by hand and selling them for only twelve dimes each. She had to tweak every flyswatter thirty times.
Dad worked as an emergency medical technician and earned only fifty-four half-crowns a day. We couldn't afford any magazines, so we made do with only a bird bath.
In spite of all the hardships, we grew up cocky and disagreeable.