I was raised on government cheese. As an adult, in my first marriage, my husband and I worked real hard just to go bankrupt. I happened to write some jokes about it. I did real well for myself.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Mom was a nurse's aide. She worked in various hospitals. She took care of us that way, and we ate government cheese. I survived.
I had a 20-year, stellar government career.
I could have made a fortune in cheeseburgers, but I finally chose politics.
My father worked for the railroad, and whenever a train crashed, we would go as a family and steal food from the boxcars. One year we stole a case of butterscotch pudding that was for export to Israel. It took us years to get through.
Growing up, I stayed in a child's place. My father was murdered when I was 20. I was a model and never had a real job and my parents took care of me.
When I was young, I grew up in a family of working-class people. Not just my parents, but my extended family, as well.
My grandmother raised me. She was a real no-nonsense but very funny lady. I drove tractors, made hay, milked cows, fed the chicken, fed the pigs.
I had the opportunity to go to law school, and my dad, who was an accountant, couldn't believe I wanted to walk away from that and start cooking.
I prospered very quickly. Very quickly, I became politically empowered. I was running my own business.
My father, who was jailed for stealing on more than one occasion, just abandoned his fatherly responsibilities and disappeared. I grew up working from the time I was nine years of age. Money was a big issue everywhere I lived.