Until 1943 I received no stipend. I was able to support myself as my mother was the daughter of a relatively wealthy cotton manufacturer.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
In my early years, my father was away as a soldier in the war. When he came back, work was very difficult to come by. Even though he was a highly skilled man, a maker of furniture, the payment for that work was very poor.
Last night, I had a telephone townhall for my constituents back in Vermont, and we had 11,500 people on it. And I had people on Social Security saying if getting fewer benefits will help us on the debt, they're for it. And I had a farmer saying that he's had subsidies for 35 years but we can't afford them anymore.
I had a pension that I was paying into for 27 years... It's now worth less than a Herman Cain endorsement.
I pulled cotton at 6 years old and worked on the peanut farm and paper route.
My father died when I was nine and a half. We were on relief for two years. They call it welfare now, but it was relief then... I never forgot the generosity of New York.
I grew up in an era when money was not readily available. We were into the post-Depression years and World War II.
In 1981, I borrowed 2,000 pounds - a lot of money back then - paid 50 quid for a seat, packed my own sandwich, and hopped on a plane to America. It was a mighty leap, but one that paid off. A week later, I got a job called 'Remington Steele.'
My father was raised in the mountains of New Mexico, and he picked cotton for a dollar a day. He was working for the family from the time he was 7.
My father was unemployed and I was the eldest of seven children. We were very poor. And when you ask how did we support ourselves, the only funding that we had was unemployment payments.
I was on food stamps until I was 18 and became an adult.