“My mother has a lot of information about your Lynch family,” the school teacher said. She would like to meet with you.” I’d gone to the nearby school in Claddaghduff, Ireland, to volunteer to teach poetry to the primary students. My quest for information about my family had hit one bump after another and I needed a break. I decided to take a few days off and let the children’s good spirits wash over me.
Thank you for writing this story, Mary. I loved reading it! The Irish, oh we Irish, have such a lovely way of looking at life- some of the time anyway 😉
Having enough toeat and shoes seems rather minor to us here in the land of plenty, but I grew up with Depression parents that past on to me what seemed rather harsh at the time, the realities of having little in some odd ways. I specifically recall how my dad would get to shouting if he discovered an empty can of Campbell's soup in the trash and we hadn't any meals that included soup! We walked to a country school and it was a hike both ways, and lunches were often sandwiches and milk in a thermos, after a hard day of school and a few innings of sortball at lunch, coming home to change clothes and start chores seemed impossible if you didn't have any energy left! pulling down a can of campbells noodle soup and adding a bit of water on the stove and walla! you had something to pull you out of your slump! A ten cent can of soup that would bring the house down on you, or so it seemed! We didn't consider ourselves poor by any means, everybody around us on this dead end road was no different than us, so being poor required you to have someone who was markty different than you to compare with. None of us were rich, and looking at each other, we all looked the same! We had what we needed, enough to eat, a roof over our heads, something to wear and plenty to keep us busy! Perfection, no, but we got by! Hard realities when years later our family of five survived on incomes of seven thousand dollars, I've got the tax records to prove it. Making due was an important lesson, it came in handy while I spent two years in Vietnam, or while I hitchhiked around Europe after I got out, and it was essential for me to keep things together when I had an affordable but old house and often found myself without a job for weeks or months at a time. They don't teach these skills in school, they never have. I'm not sure that they could! Today, at 74, I scrouge aluminum cans and bottles. It keeps me busy and the money is used to fund people who have good ideas, but for lack of some start up cash normally would get past go! A hundred bucks can be very incouraging to someone with nothing! You have to work at it, but it is far from piddly as most won't stoop to such things! With mostly an investment of time I made $2,200 from a single dumpster in 3 years, and in only 4 months each of those years! From a single dumpster at an apartment house of 18 apartments of mostly "poor" people, I rescue approximately fifty dollars worth of deposits each month! Not to mention all the other material I donate to charity that others simply throw away! Currently I'm sitting on close to nine hundred dollars that gets spent on people trying to do right by the public in some way that makes sense, and I'm happy to be able to do it!
Lovely story, Mary. Reminds me of a quote my dad said many times - “I thought I was poor because I had no shoes ‘til I met a man who had no feet.”
That says it.
Thank you for writing this story, Mary. I loved reading it! The Irish, oh we Irish, have such a lovely way of looking at life- some of the time anyway 😉
Thanks, Kathi. Always good to get your response.
Enlightening as always,Mary.
Thanks, Robbie. I love having you as a reader.
Thank you for the story and the poem and putting everything into perspective so vividly.
Thanks, Elizabeth. Yes, I almost fell off my stool when I received that final bit of information about the shoes.
Mary, loved your essay. Thanks for writing it. :)
Thanks, Caroline!
Having enough toeat and shoes seems rather minor to us here in the land of plenty, but I grew up with Depression parents that past on to me what seemed rather harsh at the time, the realities of having little in some odd ways. I specifically recall how my dad would get to shouting if he discovered an empty can of Campbell's soup in the trash and we hadn't any meals that included soup! We walked to a country school and it was a hike both ways, and lunches were often sandwiches and milk in a thermos, after a hard day of school and a few innings of sortball at lunch, coming home to change clothes and start chores seemed impossible if you didn't have any energy left! pulling down a can of campbells noodle soup and adding a bit of water on the stove and walla! you had something to pull you out of your slump! A ten cent can of soup that would bring the house down on you, or so it seemed! We didn't consider ourselves poor by any means, everybody around us on this dead end road was no different than us, so being poor required you to have someone who was markty different than you to compare with. None of us were rich, and looking at each other, we all looked the same! We had what we needed, enough to eat, a roof over our heads, something to wear and plenty to keep us busy! Perfection, no, but we got by! Hard realities when years later our family of five survived on incomes of seven thousand dollars, I've got the tax records to prove it. Making due was an important lesson, it came in handy while I spent two years in Vietnam, or while I hitchhiked around Europe after I got out, and it was essential for me to keep things together when I had an affordable but old house and often found myself without a job for weeks or months at a time. They don't teach these skills in school, they never have. I'm not sure that they could! Today, at 74, I scrouge aluminum cans and bottles. It keeps me busy and the money is used to fund people who have good ideas, but for lack of some start up cash normally would get past go! A hundred bucks can be very incouraging to someone with nothing! You have to work at it, but it is far from piddly as most won't stoop to such things! With mostly an investment of time I made $2,200 from a single dumpster in 3 years, and in only 4 months each of those years! From a single dumpster at an apartment house of 18 apartments of mostly "poor" people, I rescue approximately fifty dollars worth of deposits each month! Not to mention all the other material I donate to charity that others simply throw away! Currently I'm sitting on close to nine hundred dollars that gets spent on people trying to do right by the public in some way that makes sense, and I'm happy to be able to do it!
Beautiful-talked to my soul.