For living in such difficult times, these families really knew how to pull it together, get by, and be happy about it.
During the Season 5 "The Rebellion" episode of The Waltons (the one where the Grandma threatens to become Methodist if she has to share the church organ with her nemesis), the mother, Olivia is despondent, and she wails, "I just want to crawl into a hole and pull the hole in after me and be left alone!" That perked my attention because it could not be said better to describe how I feel these days. However, the interesting part of this proclamation is that it is not related to life during The Great Depression as you might expect. She's mad at how her perm turned out, and even madder at her family for laughing at her.
(Seriously though, you'd have to kinda expect bad results from a contraption like this--and her hair was smoking)
But she finally found a nice do-rag and got over it.
The Waltons lived in a time of great hardship and had to make do. On one hand, I tell myself, that if the Waltons can make it through The Great Depression, I can get through these times too. Yet, they had each other. And it was simpler times. A person's word was credit and you could pay your doctor with a live chicken or sack of potatoes. And in those days, there was a poor house. Same stigma applied (the idea that if you're poor you must automatically be morally or criminally suspect), but seems like it was a lot easier to get into the poor house back then. These days to get any help it is required that applicants bend over backwards to PROVE that they are poor. Which is what I, ridiculously, find myself having to do now.
Up until recently I was doing okay. Freelance writing/editing and selling stuff online put me in the range of median income. But then the freelance work became impossible (as well as any permanent position) with The Butterfly's IEP schedule, no more napping, and erratic night sleeping. That left just my online income, which has floundered and failed too. Savings long gone. Debt getting steeper and deeper. Need to move somewhere cheaper but how to do that without verifiable income? Nowhere to go. No one to help. So where's this poorhouse and how can we get in???
I applied for SSI for The Butterfly. The phone interviewer asked me how I planned to pay next month's rent and I said, "Good question! That's why I'm talking to you!" Seriously, if I knew the answer to that, why would I waste my time and sanity on their asinine system? Then he asked me if I'd heard of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), but that actually I wouldn't be able to get TANF and SSI at the same time, so....(so why was he telling me that!?) And that it will take 3 or 4 months to decide if we're approved for SSI benefits. Well, then what is a person to do in the meantime? The system is set up so that you can't even apply until you are destitute, to the point of being on the street, and then the application process is so long that you end up on the street while you wait, because if you earn any money while you're waiting, then they will see that as income and deny your claim. WHAT THE F WORD!?
So far I have applied for welfare benefits online, and received a letter on the 13th, telling me that to complete my application I must complete an interview either by phone or in person by the 11th. And it was postmarked the 11th! After checking out the line and seeing the vacant look of those standing there for what I imagined to be years (which is the only excuse I can think of for the terrible smell), I decided to try the phone approach. What a lot of fun that was. Calling over and over for hours, pushing buttons through the zombie automated voice system, then being told all lines were busy and to call again. I finally got through and won a place in the line of calls. After 20 minutes of the fuzzy static communistic marching hold music, I was out of time because had to go pick up The Butterfly. !
Oh, but I'm not done yet. The information I gained from the public utilities lady was further enlightening as to the failure of our welfare system for those who really need it. Apparently, I do qualify for energy utility assistance, but in order to get it, I have to call this number she gave me, and she specifically told me to call it over and over--"Like calling a radio contest?" I asked. "Exactly," she answered--and that it might take one day or two months to ever get through. But to just keep calling. Then if and when I ever get through I will be given an appointment, two or more months away, at which time I can attempt to prove how poor I am.
But these waiting times don't compare to the government housing wait list. 1-6 years, depending on your given situation. While I'm at it, I might as well put my name in for senior housing too!
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