My BLIND Aunt went on the Dole for six months back in the late 40’s when she lost her JOB.
Our Family didn’t have a Pot to piss in or a Window to throw it through. My Parents and my older Brother lived in two rooms in a Brownstone Basement. No heat, no running hot water and Rats the size of a Viking Kitty.
My Mother MADE my Father forcibly take my Aunt to the Welfare Office because my Aunt, who was living in what my Father described as squalor, refused to go on the Dole.
It was embarrassing.
My Aunt sewed Garments in what would nowadays be considered a Sweat Shop in Brooklyn. She got up every day, got dressed, took the Bus and worked all day to pay her way.
Again, this was a BLIND Woman who contracted Glaucoma in her teens when there was no treatment outside of removing your eyeballs to ease the pain.
She passed away less than two months ago at the age of 89.
The first time she heard Obama on the radio she told me he was a Phony.
She was a wise Woman and as feisty as they come...
My M-i-L contracted polio at 3 (born in 1913). Her parents were told she'd never walk again. No one told her. She got a college education, married, had 3 children and taught school. Her right arm was withered and her left leg barely held her weight. She never received a handout in her life but gave everything she could spare to charities and her church.