An American Dream........

  Life went on for a couple of years,   completing another years of school, working nights.    
     Then life happens and a child was expected.  More expenses, and and the completion of the 2nd year of college.   The future parents moved nearer to family, where it was cheaper, but a wonderful mother in law would help with child care during classes.   There was a wonderful Women's College near by that had a program called "Return To College for young mothers .   One class a semester, reduced tuition.  
      The soon to be family moved onto a Chicken farm, .  The husband wanted to change work, the  mom could still go to college.   They lived in an old trailer.  There was more money.   The conditions weren't the best, though.  The kitchen sink drained under the trailer.  The sewage system didn't drain well, either.  It often drained out the front steps.     When there wasn't food to feed the child,  a chicken would be killed from the  Coops.
        Life was hard.  The baby grew, college is completed.   Mom wouldn't leave the baby to work until it was old enough to go to school.
      Meantime, Hubby drank more and more.   Sometimes he would steal the last  $1.25 from mom's purse which she kept for milk.   Thats what a gallon of milk cost in the early 70's.
       Fast forward 5 years. the child was school age.  It could go to Kindergarten.  Mom hunted for a job to support herself and the child.    Alcohol flowed way too freely in the house, tempers flared and it was really  a dirty and awful living in that trailer.  
      The mom knew what poverty felt like.  She lived that way for too many years.   But it was a struggle to  work through marriage vows and commitments  vs destroying the family.      Hard times and many sleepless nights.