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Yet I ate like my stomach was a bottomless pit.

And I remember my first paycheck. I went down and cashed it, went to the local newspaper to tell them that I owed a bill. They searched for it, but couldn't find where I owed any money. I remember saying that I knew I owed it, so I left the money on the counter and walked out. My next destination was my dad's office. Several years earlier, I had been hauled into jail for failure to pay a traffic fine. My dad made the trip where I was in jail and bailed me out. It cost $56.00. He then gave me a ride to the closest freeway onramp and dropped me off. How I could have done that to my dad I'll never know. But things were different on this day that I walked into his office. I paid him the $56.00 and with tears in my eyes, I hugged him and let him know how much I loved him.

I went from that job at Sambo's to a job in a hospital laundry. I was really moving up in the world: from $1.35 an hour to $2.50 an hour. And the promise of a pay raise of five cents an hour per year. And with that big money, I got married.

And then the kids came. One, two, three. And I worked to support that little family. I can't say that I have forgotten a day that things were so lean, that I went to a construction site and literally begged a job. I remember opening my mouth, and telling that boss that I have to eat, and that I have two kids (the 3rd one wasn't born yet) at home that had to eat. Not only did he hire me, but he gave me a per diem pay because the distance was over 100 miles round trip.

But I paid my bills. I don't know what it is like to have a bill collector call me, I have never had a call from one. Even when I realized that in a business I was running, I was over $100,000.00 in the hole. Long story. But I woke up one day and totaled up our credit card bills, and the cost of the existing lease, and decided I was going to have to bite the bullet. But biting the bullet didn't mean walking away, it meant dragging myself there for the next two years to do nothing but pay off that stinking debt. But I did it. All without ever getting a call from a bill collector.

So I raised my kids. No, I didn't have the money to put them in college. They went to the local junior college. I watched my daughter as she made some personal sacrifice to teach kindergarten at a Christian school while she went to the junior college. I couldn't believe her dedication. Then I remember her telling me that she felt college just wasn't for her. She felt like a fish

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