March 2, 2011

By Anonymous

My parents divorced when I was very young- this was many years ago. My mother raised my 3 brothers and I on her own. Though my father paid child support regularly, it was a modest amount and especially immediately after the divorce it was not uncommon for us to go hungry. There just wasn’t enough food and we were all growing… our school did have free lunches available, but my mother would have been mortified to accept charity. So to my great and enduring shame, I dug in the school trash bins and ate what I could find. I still hate the mingled smell of stale milk and blacktop. Also, like Scarlett O’Hara, I swore that I would never go hungry again. One of my secret pleasures to have food around and not eat it.