I'm not sure whether or not this series has any real future past November, however I know I have at least one more of these in me and since the in-laws will be here in just a few hours it's coming today rather than tomorrow. Trust me; it's better this way.
Growing up I wouldn't call us poor exactly, but there were times when even "middle class" was a stretch. Our most threadbare moments came when I was too young to fully realize them. Dad's job was in a viciously cyclical laid-off/hired back on phase, and mom - who would have loved nothing more than to stay home with her two little ones - had no other option than to go back to full-time employment at the bank.
It wasn't until much later in life that the details of this time were fully explained to me, when I learned that a much-needed new winter coat came from Grandma Margaret and that Uncle Jim and Aunt Rosemary (themselves not exactly wealthy) often helped provide toys and clothes during the times when money was especially tight. Or, that during a particularly long jobless spell, my dad had to swallow his pride by taking a late-night shift bagging groceries in my uncle's store. And I certainly didn't know that grocery store was located in a neighborhood so bad that dad took to carrying a handgun to work in order to safely manage brazen shoplifters, loitering gang bangers, and the short yet scary walk to and from him car.
Understandably so, Bruce Springsteen got some pretty heavy rotation during this period.
And although unaware of these details at the time and despite a generally happy childhood, I did have a vague sense that things weren't always the way mom and dad wished they could be. Even still - and whether due to love, luck, displays of false bravado, listening to The Boss singing about believing in "The Promised Land", or some combination of all of the above - I remember having the utmost confidence that things would eventually work themselves out.
And you know what? They did.
Growing up I wouldn't call us poor exactly, but there were times when even "middle class" was a stretch. Our most threadbare moments came when I was too young to fully realize them. Dad's job was in a viciously cyclical laid-off/hired back on phase, and mom - who would have loved nothing more than to stay home with her two little ones - had no other option than to go back to full-time employment at the bank.
It wasn't until much later in life that the details of this time were fully explained to me, when I learned that a much-needed new winter coat came from Grandma Margaret and that Uncle Jim and Aunt Rosemary (themselves not exactly wealthy) often helped provide toys and clothes during the times when money was especially tight. Or, that during a particularly long jobless spell, my dad had to swallow his pride by taking a late-night shift bagging groceries in my uncle's store. And I certainly didn't know that grocery store was located in a neighborhood so bad that dad took to carrying a handgun to work in order to safely manage brazen shoplifters, loitering gang bangers, and the short yet scary walk to and from him car.
Understandably so, Bruce Springsteen got some pretty heavy rotation during this period.
And although unaware of these details at the time and despite a generally happy childhood, I did have a vague sense that things weren't always the way mom and dad wished they could be. Even still - and whether due to love, luck, displays of false bravado, listening to The Boss singing about believing in "The Promised Land", or some combination of all of the above - I remember having the utmost confidence that things would eventually work themselves out.
And you know what? They did.
Labels: music, saturday songs
2 Comments:
This video is awesome; thanks for posting it. I love this song. He just makes you feel it; it's so damn earnest.
"Mister, I'm not boy! [Raise your fist] No! I'm a Man!"
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