The 1940 U.S. Census lists my Dad’s occupation as “Day Laborer” and so he labeled himself all his life, turning aside every opportunity for advancement because he believed himself to be “dumb.” It still makes me furious every time I think of it.
My Dad never made it through the fifth grade. He tried hard and it seems obvious that in the small West Virginia town where his older his brothers worked in the coal mines, the one room school, like nearly all in those days, wasn’t equipped for children with special needs.
Dad went to work doing odd jobs for the neighborhood grocery store. And finally, unbelievably, his mother began begging him to bring items home from the store for his brothers who couldn’t work. Of course he couldn’t pay for these things and finally he was fired, left West Virginia, joined the Marines then became a cowboy and a roustabout in the oil fields…