Well, I really don’t know what to say here other than to tell you the COMPLETE and total truth! I’m not going to tell you that I’m collecting money for a homeless person or anything like that. However, the truth is, I just want people to help me out of the kindness of their hearts!
Life for me has never really been easy. In fact, it’s been quite difficult. At the age of 10, I started carrying the local newspaper to help make money for my family. My dad was a high school drop out and my mom just never worked (I assume it was because she was adopted and spoiled, so she never felt the “need” to). Don’t get me wrong, my mother did have a few jobs, but they either didn’t pay much, she didn’t work hard enough, or she would do something to get fired.
With my dad being a high school drop out, he never had jobs that were very good. His profession was auto detailing, and as you can imagine there isn’t a huge “need” for companies to rush out and hire the “best car cleaner” in the area. With this said, I’m sure he tried his best but we never really had everything we needed. There were times that we didn’t eat for a day or two, the gas or electric would get turned off, we shared bath water to save money, we used bar soap for everything in the tub (so we all had dry skin and hair), and getting new clothes was something that never happened.
For birthdays I got a pat on the back, a birthday spank, and the typical “Happy Birthday song” being sung to me by my parents. There was no cake, no gifts, and no fancy dinner. We just couldn’t afford it… For Christmas we would get hand-me-down toys from some of the local churches which were sometimes missing parts and dad would put up a little four foot Christmas tree that he kept in the basement (completely assembled) in a trash bag… For every holiday our meals came from Meals-on-Wheels.
Life as I knew it (when I was a child) was about lying about what you got for Christmas or your birthday because I was too embarrassed to say that we were so poor. Life was about wearing cheap knock-off shoe’s that would come unglued on the sole and make a slapping noise when I walked, or they would come unglued near the toes and you could see my holey, dirty socks. We didn’t have a washer and dryer, so my dad would wash the clothes in the tub and wring them out by hand, then hang them in the basement to dry… Looking back, I guess we didn’t need a washer and dryer because we never had much clothing. In fact, I can remember a 2-3 year period in Elementary/Middle schools where I only owned 1 pair of sweat pants and a couple t-shirts.
Regardless, through all of this, I always had my paper route. I used my $50/mo to help buy food and to sometimes get myself some new socks or underwear. Occasionally, I would even keep a few dollars for myself and buy some candy. Another thing I would do is find old microwaves in the trash and fix them. I found that typically they would go bad because of a toggle switch, which could be replaced for a few dollars and a little bit of labor. Since microwaves were still expensive at the time, I could usually repair, clean-up and sell the microwaves for 10-20 a piece!
As I got older, I learned that hard work meant being dedicated to what I was doing, so I tried applying myself really hard in school. The problem was, since I was so poor and had crappy clothing, people would pick on me. However, I was no stranger to a good fight. I typically found myself getting jumped by 3-4 kids because I was the “dirty poor kid” in the neighborhood. So, I always found myself getting in fights, and getting suspended from school, because I was defending myself. Through all the whooping’s I got at home (for fighting in school) and being suspended all the time, I still kept decent grades. My teachers always said they “see something in me.”
When I was 16, the summer before my junior year of high school, I was running with some friends and we thought it would be cool if one or two of us carried guns. Of course, me trying to be the “cool one,” I jumped in and was one of the first ones to get a gun. It wasn’t long until one of my friends decided he wanted to buy it, so he checked it out and even had his grandpa look at it. He said he wanted it to shoot a deer where him and his dad camped at so he could make his dad proud of him… Well, later that day as I was dubbing my friend’s NWA album from CD to tape (yes, I didn’t even have a CD player like everyone else because they were too expensive), something tragic happened that changed my life forever!
As I walked over to the stereo to flip the tape over, I heard a couple of my friends saying stuff (that is all mumbled in my head) and as I turned around I watched my friend shoot himself in his head. For as long as I live, I will never forget that day. In fact, that was about 30 years ago, and I can still see it in my mind, all happening in slow motion.
To this day, I suffer from PTSD and depression from this, and it has taken SO MUCH out of my life! I have found that my life has been a constant struggle and sometimes it’s hard to get through the day, but I push on. Mostly because I have children of my own now and I want to do my best to give them a good life. I have been through two marriages/divorces, because my ex-wives have cheated on me, I’ve been in and out of jobs, my car is a piece of garbage, but I continue to push on.
I am now in my late 40’s and I just bought a house. What a heck of a time to buy, right? I’m sure I’ll NEVER get this place paid off before I die, so that’s why I’m here. I would love MORE THAN ANYTHING to be able to pay off this house and to buy a new car! I couldn’t buy a nice, expensive home, so this one is only at $140k. It needs some work, but I will be starting that when the winter passes and I have more daylight in the evening to get stuff done.
Basically, I’m just looking for kind, generous people who just have a little “extra” they want to give. No matter how much or how little, anything is welcomed. Like I told you in the beginning, I didn’t plan to lie about why I’m here but to paint the picture as to why I’m here.
Even though we never had much money, we were never short on LOVE. My dad was hard (very hard) on me, but it was only because he wanted better for me (because he loved me). My mom was always there with open arms to support me and give me a hug when I needed it.
Having this house paid off will enable me to have the extra money to save for my future and take some MUCH-NEEDED vacations with my daughters! I just want to be able to spend a little time with them while I still can. I have bad knees, bad shoulders, and arthritis in my hands (I assume all of this is from fighting, but I’m not sure). I have always wanted to travel out of the country, but have never been able to, and it would be nice to experience something like this with them so we can build some incredible memories. More than anything, I just want to explore and watch my girls smile and give them the life I always dreamed of!
Thank you for taking the time to read this and helping in any way that you can. 😊
- Cashapp: @$13scorpio
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