When You’re Poor, Payday is a Holiday

Just not a major one.

Cartoon by Lambert-King

When I was growing up and well into my married life, things were really tight financially. Because of that, payday was a big deal. Sometimes my wife would pick up my check and beat outstanding checks to the bank — sort of like our own version of Financial Death Race. I’ve dealt with variations of that theme for decades.

My dad generally got paid on Fridays, which made Friday night a big night. So, was it going out to eat at a restaurant? Going to a movie? Going to some other social event? Naw — it was going to the grocery store.

“Dad, can I get this?”

I really didn’t ask for a lot of stuff, grocery-wise. We would generally get something sweet, but that wasn’t where most of my monetary requests were used. I would go to the magazine section and look through the sports magazines.

That and comic books. Thankfully, despite our poverty, I could usually get something to read.

That’s what’s wrong with this country now! There aren’t enough kids using the family’s meager resources to buy comic books.

Fast forward 20 years

I had a job that paid every two weeks, usually just before noon. That meant Pizza Inn, here we come! And there was rejoicing in the land — or at least in the Lambert family.

As time went on, I took a job with the state of Oklahoma. I got paid once a month. Celebrations were less frequent, but the highs were higher. We would often go to dinner and a movie on payday.

Of course, dinner would sometimes be movie popcorn at the dollar movie, but by conditioning my family to a lack of money, my kids were still happy.

That was just good parenting on my part.

Finally, the big time!

By the time my youngest was getting ready to leave home, we had pretty well escaped poverty and were approaching lower middle class. I was working two marketing jobs, but payday was still an event. My wife and kids would still come and pick up my checks, hot off the printer.

I remember my wife and kids stopping by to pick up one of my checks. On one occasion I mentioned the family’s eagerness to get my check. My youngest son’s response was:

“Just sign the check, old man.”

I had come full circle — from asking my dad if I could get a sports magazine to being the old man signing the checks.

Ah, the circle of life.

Amazon.com: Trickle Down: A Blue Collar Cartoon Look At Ecomonics eBook : Lambert, Larry, King, Jerry: Books

If you’ve enjoyed what I’ve written, how about buying me some coffee? https://ko-fi.com/larryelambert89220