When we talk about just about anything today, the root seems to be either money scams or the bitterness of partisan politics. It makes for a lot of ugliness. It’s hard to write a weekly blog and not get mired in the depressive stuff of the day. For this week, with Spring in its full glory, I didn’t want to write about negative and depressing things.
Searching through some papers I saved, I found something that made me laugh and I hope you’ll laugh too. These quips are from Colbert I. King’s piece titled, “At Darrell’s Barbershop” (The Washington Post, February 16, 2002):
Can you top this?
“We were so poor, burglars used to break in our house and LEAVE money.”
“We were so poor that our front door and back door were on the same HINGE!”
“We were so poor that when I was growing up, my pants had so many holes in them that when I ran they hummed.”
“That’s not poor, in my neighborhood the rainbow was black and white.”
“Wait a minute. I was so poor, when I was born, Mom and Dad bought me a stroller. I made the last three payments MYSELF!”
“I was so poor, my family received CARE packages from the Third World.”
“I was so poor growing up, my favorite food was ice.”
“I was so poor that once my arithmetic teacher in elementary school asked me, ‘If you had $2 in one pocket and $3 in another, what would you have?’ I told her someone else’s pants.”
These people were so poor that:
- on Christmas Day they got a battery with a note saying, “Toy not included.”
- they went to McDonald’s and put a milkshake on lay-away.
- they used to wave around a popsicle stick and call it air-conditioning.
- they had to join the Army to get a haircut.
- when somebody came to their house and lit a cigarette, their father would shout, “Clap your hands, stomp your feet, praise the Lord, we have heat.”
I need silly and corny sometimes. Do you?
Gwen Dungy 
I read your post, laughed, and then decided that the humorous sayings you shared were—and will always be—classic examples of people’s resiliency in the face of unbelievable hardships.
You and I have a mutual friend who is working on a memoir that he has titled Aspiring to Poverty. When I questioned the title, our friend shared a rough draft of his book with me and suggested I read the first few chapters.
I only needed to read one chapter to understand why the title was appropriate.
The remaining chapters simply confirmed what I already knew: the road from poverty to prosperity runs through education, elementary school teachers are the lynchpin of this country’s educational pipeline, and our friend eventually managed to break his family’s hundred-year-old cycle of poverty not only for himself but also for his children and grand children.
So, while we laugh at the jokes, let’s increase our efforts to strengthen this country’s public schools, mend its social and economic safety nets, and reduce the number of Americans aspiring to poverty.
Maggie, thanks so much for your wisdom and encouragement.