Oh yes, after the war, and we were all starving - we had no proper food or anything - no proper shoes.
I will never understand how so many young women can go out in the freezing cold wearing so little clothing.
The Army, as usual, are without Pay; and a great part of the Soldiery without Shirts; and tho' the patience of them is equally threadbare, the States seem perfectly indifferent to their cries.
Being poor with three small children is terrifying. You can't make any plans. You know you're not going on holiday, ever. There's no way you could ever afford driving lessons or a car. And the guilt I used to feel: they had holes in their shoes, and at one point, I had to send them to school wearing Wellingtons when the sun was shining.
There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.
Since almost all Negroes are workers, live on wages, and suffer from the high cost of food, clothing and shelter, it is obvious that the Republican and Democratic Parties are opposed to their interests.
Me and my brother lived in kind of a shed behind our house, and it was cold. We really lived kind of a dirty existence. It was tough to move away from my father and grandfather in California. I wore socks that were so dirty they were hard and black, and I would go into the lost and found box at school and look for clothes.
There's not a shirt and a half in all my company, and the half shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's coat without sleeves.
