Shabby Town — Michael Hemmingson

I was between jobs and felt just awful. Karin wasn't happy. We were surviving on her paychecks. It's not easy for two people to live on one income. I was sitting in my car, smoking a cigarette and sipping from a half-pint of Teacher's. The car was parked in the grocery store lot. Karin had given me two $20 bills and said, "Go get us some groceries, enough for the week, so we won't starve to death." She always sent me grocery shopping. I was good at finding the best bargains and stretching a buck. You get skilled at this sort of thing when you've been broke all your life. I'd been poor going on thirty-five years. It was a condition you slowly learn to embrace and accept.