A Christmas photo from a long time ago.
From left to right… Eddie, Sharon, my sisters Carol and Jean.
The gifts in the photo ( a cap pistol and holster for Eddie and a doll for Sharon )… were the only presents they got that Christmas.
Their single mother could not afford to feed or clothe them…. so we and the neighbors ( the Jatzlaus, Littles, Jordans, Wrights, Garrets and Carlsons, ) would alternate feeding them breakfast, lunch and dinner one day each week ( no family could afford to do it more than one day a week )…as well as hand me down shoes and clothes… those patches on Sharon’s jeans were not a fashion statement…. Mom did the sewing and patching on their clothes
It was not much but it did allow Eddie and Sharon to graduate from high school and to move into a working class middle income life that would not have been available without that community support.
In today’s world, no such support network would be available… neighbors hardly know each other even when they have been neighbors for many years….
as a result children like Eddie and Sharon, at best, end up in group support homes like ours.