Lucky or Unlucky 435 words

Lucky or Unlucky

During my teenage years it was commonplace for my friends and I to get around our rural area by hitchhiking to any destination too far to walk or too inconvenient to bike to. Hot summer weekend days often found us hitching to a neighboring town to swim at the reservoir. When a favorite band played in the city 30 miles away, we didn’t hesitate to hitch to the concert. If we were unable to connect with someone for a return trip home, we didn’t fret about hitching back despite the late hour.

We did have a few scares along the way, one that actually drove to a backwoods destination and gave us the option of providing favors or being left there. Needless to say, we walked a long, long way that day just to find our way to a road that we recognized. Despite the really close call, we didn’t stop hitching.

We were young and had dreams to dream, places to go and people to see. Our opinion was that being unlucky enough to be a member of a poor family, without a car our parents could lend us, shouldn’t stop us from exploring our world.

Even when I got my first job in the next town I often had to hitch a ride in, or home at night, and did so alone. After I was married and had my first child there were times, since we only had one car, that if my husband was late getting home I had to hitch in to work to avoid being late. Admittedly, I was more nervous then than I had been when I was younger. After all, one bad experience could leave my daughter without a mom.

Looking back I am amazed that we viewed that situation so backwards. We were poor, and everyone knows that that builds a certain kind of character.  Our families did not have the luxury of a car that we could borrow to provide our transportation. Granted, times were a little slower, a little safer then, or so it seemed without the technology to spread the word.
To think we felt unlucky to be poor. We had loving families, friends, homes, clean clothes and food on the tables. We learned how to save and stretch a dollar; how to fix things; how to make our own clothes. We became resourceful; we valued our earnings and developed strong work ethics. We understood the difference between needs and wants.

No, we weren’t unlucky to be poor. We were incredibly lucky that our risky behavior didn’t end very, very differently.