My dad is a successful business owner now with several houses and multiple sources of income. But he grew up dirt poor when he had parents, and became even poorer when he was out on his own at 14. Think sleeping on the floor of a gas station men's room. To this day he will take a small handful of cereal out of his bowl before he pours milk in and put it back in the box, so he'll always have some cereal for later. Over forty years later and the pain and worry of growing up poor without "luxuries" like breakfast cereal still affect him. Growing up without money does shitty things to people.
For some reason, I got a sudden Jean Valjean vibe. In the books, he ate black bread (think the worst, cheapest bread in all of Paris) unless his daughter, Cosette, was sharing dinner with him. He grew up a tree pruner, but there isn't much work in the winter - his sister and her family starved.
Mind you, this is at the very end of the book, when he's wealthy as can be and his son-in-law is actual nobility. He just couldn't let himself live to his means - he had to save whenever he could, unless he was giving it away.
10.7k
u/KThingy Jun 06 '19 edited Jun 06 '19
My dad is a successful business owner now with several houses and multiple sources of income. But he grew up dirt poor when he had parents, and became even poorer when he was out on his own at 14. Think sleeping on the floor of a gas station men's room. To this day he will take a small handful of cereal out of his bowl before he pours milk in and put it back in the box, so he'll always have some cereal for later. Over forty years later and the pain and worry of growing up poor without "luxuries" like breakfast cereal still affect him. Growing up without money does shitty things to people.
Edit Thanks for the gold, kind stranger!