Thursday, July 10, 2014

Throw Back Thursday...Humble Beginnings...

We had nice things when I was a young child.  My daddy worked hard and we had the best of everything!  We had fancy TVs, China cabinets filled with China and dolls from all over the world, fancy tables and furniture, all the best toys!! Then one cold day in December right before my  fifth birthday and Christmas only weeks away, we got a knock on the door.  Upon answering the door we were told our house was on fire!  Within thirty minutes our house was burnt to the ground and we were left with nothing but the clothes on our backs!


This here was my house when I was the age of ten!  We had no running water, no electricity, no restroom, or kitchen.  We lived in this 8x10 shack...the five of us.  Were we embarrassed?  Were we ashamed?  Were we sad?  The answer...No!  You see before we lived in this shack that my daddy built with his own two hands, we lived in a camper shell.  The camper shell was tight!  Come time to move into our 8x10 shack it felt like a mansion!  We had two sets of bunk beds inside and my older brother slept in a small loft above us.  We played Johnny cash on a small fisher price radio and danced around our tiny room with the sound of the wood floors creaking under our feet.  We were happy!

What did I learn from living this way?  You do not need thousands of square feet and granite counter tops.  You do not need your own bedroom or bathroom.  You do not need the top of the line appliances.  These things are all material!  What you truly need to be happy is love.  My parents loved us with all their heart and we knew it!  I grew up feeling like the richest kid in the world...was I?  It all depends on your perspective!

13 comments:

  1. very true! and knowing that your parents love you and would do anything made you one of the richest kids in town.

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  2. So amazing and inspiring in today's 'poor, pitiful me' society in which people complain that it is 'humiliating' to require people to get drug screening before being given other people's money when they don't have enough.

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  3. As long as you are happy, have your family, I think you can overcome anything. I grew up poor, but we always had each other and never went to bed hungry. I agree 100% with you that there is no need to feel ashamed of being poor, I most certainly never was, and never will be. Great post !

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  4. Ronda, this happened to our family four years ago. We lost almost everything. I think it permanently ended my desire to accumulate things.

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  5. What a sweet post. I love the way you tell the story. The richness is in your family.

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  6. I know, I have so much to be thankful for today. But I sometimes miss the simplicity of the old days.

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  7. Ronda, this is a fabulous post and reminder of something that is so easy to forget. I, too, sometimes miss the days when we had a little less. I'm grateful for all we have, but at the end of the day, as long as I have everyone I love around me, then I can be happy.

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  8. I think there are things we miss from having too much stuff and too much space. It is good to have enough, but after that, sometimes is just too much.

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  9. Perspective is everything. That's how we are able to control our outlook on life and live happily.

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  10. You are a brilliant writer! Thanks for the reminder about what truly matters in life.

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  11. What a lovely message! You are right, this is a great reminder to be thankful for the things that we have :)

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  12. Great story about what is important in our life, family is everything.

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  13. sadly, I grew up the same way....but there was no love in that home and all 6 of us escaped when we could....abandoned by father, resented by mother...a truly horrible life & I have let it define me to this day.....no one can know the relief when my kid's father loved them to distraction.....thankfully he lived to an old age and they all enjoyed each other til his dying breath....

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