I grew up in a small town in western Washington. We lived in a 100 year old house in the 80's and had no central heating. We had a gas furnace but heated the house with the wood burning stove more often than not. We had a small shed right off the back porch filled with small blocks of wood that we burned to heat the house. I need to ask my mom and step-dad, but I suspect we were given that wood. I remember it just was there one day. I was too young to even wonder about where it came from. My window in the winter would often have ice on the inside. I slept with 5 or 6 blankets to keep warm.

We at cracked-wheat for breakfast often, sometimes oatmeal. Never any cold cereal unless we were camping or a very special occasion. Camping was really our only vacation. The first time I ever flew anywhere was just before my mission. Flying was for the rich. For at least a year, we had hot dogs for dinner every Sunday. I loved it. Never once thought it was because we couldn't afford anything else. We were the family in the ward that people would bring presents to anonymously at Christmas time. I thought it was great as a kid. My parents did a great job of shielding me from how poor we really were. Never went hungry. Not once. Except for Fast Sunday. 🙂

When I got my paper route at 12 I had to buy all my own clothes. I saved and bought the stuff I wanted and thought it was great. It really wasn't until I was on my mission that I realized how poor we were.

Not having much growing up and getting a job so early taught me to work and that has been a great blessing in my life. My wife is the youngest of 5 girls and her dad taught in CES his whole career. They were better off than my family, but were still poor. We are wealthy compared to our parents growing up and we aren't wealthy.

Thanks for all the stories. It is interesting to see how many of us grew up in the 70's and 80's in similar circumstances.