What you wrote reminds me of my parents. We were lower middle class but I never realized that until I was an adult. Looking back at school pictures and thinking about my classmates, I realized that most of the kids in my school were poor. Some were really poor and I'm sure they missed meals. One kid wore the same shirt every day for months. I think he owned two shirts. More than half got free school lunch and I think all of our parents were blue collar with the exception of a few kids whose parents were school teachers.

I guess we were poor, but I'm happy that I grew up where I did and I wouldn't change a thing. I'm also so grateful that my parents taught us to work hard from a very young age. I hate that my parents had to constantly worry about money for the first 30 years of their marriage, but they taught us to be frugal and grateful for what we had.