Tell me you grew up poor without telling me you grew up poor.

• Bowls, plates and glasses from dog food bags.
• Knives from the 1940s with rotting wood handles.
• Trailer park.
• A good week was when you got the brand-name hot dogs. A bad week is when there was only old bread in the refrigerator.
• Family car repossessed.
• K-Mart clothes and shoes that fell apart in weeks.

Seeing my dad build a go-kart from a discarded lawn mower engine from the dump, some sheet metal, some lawn mower tires (also discards) as well as some metal tubes was pretty cool though. We never could’ve afforded one otherwise. He was ridiculously good at things like that.