growing up in the 50's

Andy, United States, Growing up in the 50's poor
We were pretty poor in the 50's when I was growing up, my parents were building the house themselves and the upper part of the house wasn't built , so we mostly lived in the basement. The roof was flat and coated with tar paper so when it rained we'd put buckets and pans around to catch the water that dripped through the leaks. The house was on a hill with farms to the north and east, an old mine to the west, and a highway south, and across the highway another farm bordered by another mine.


During the day you could see for miles in any direction as most of the trees on the hill top were gone, and at night the sky would light up from the steel mills in Pittsburgh where my dad worked .


It took my parents most of my growing up years to finish the house and was eventualy finished when I was 16.
Looking back my life was not that bad, Most of my friends had a similar lifestyle and we did not know any better , and each year as more was done on the house or we got our first black and white TV or a better car our lives got better.