When I was working at an vendor event, I was helping a lady choose what type of product she wanted. And when we got to talking about things like we do around the house and just in life in general. We both found that we are kind of what they call “Jack of all trades”. We knew a little bit about fixing or rigging a ton of stuff. Then she called it. “You used to be poor didn’t you?“ she shocked me simply because she was right.
I wasn’t just poor, I was dirt poor. My family lived in the ghetto since I was around 6-7 yrs. Growing up poor, there were several times where we didn’t have electricity, or our heating bill wasn’t paid. We couldn’t really pay for somebody to come fix something, so we had to figure it out ourselves. nowadays, that doesn’t seem like it would be as hard because we have Google and YouTube, but growing up in the 80s and 90s we couldn’t do that.
Is there anyone out there that is a “jack of all trades” that was not poor? Maybe you know how to change the oil in your car, hooking up a waterline or installing an electrical socket. There was a whole lot of reverse engineering and having to put screws and pieces all in the order that you took them out.
My thought process was if you had money , you would just pay for the professionals to do it. You don’t ask for a janitor to make a rocket ship.
I learned many things, one being, that I am very claustrophobic. I was the only small person in the house so guess who was sent in under the house to fix a leaking pipe? Mwah. It was one of the worst experiences I swear. I did finally get to the leaking pipe and fixed it, but I got stuck. They had to get some other kids to link in and drag me out. By the time I got out, I almost fainted due to hyperventilation and crying. I never ever went under the house again, even under the threat of punishment.
Do you guys have anything like that? Situations you had to learn because you were poor not just because you were interested in it. Were there certain things that your family, even though you were well-off, still did yourselves?
