OpticBlast00

Before I can remember, we were poor.  When I was older we were never well- off, but we had enough money for the things we needed as long as we didn't buy too many things that we didn't.  To my child's mind, our basic amenities - soap, toilet paper, toothpaste - were so easily and automatically replaced as to seem practically free, yet I had a deep understanding of which foods cost too much to eat very often and why our house was so cold in the winter. There were also the relics from the time before I could recall, "before we had money," as my parents would say.  One such relic was several large blocks of harsh, dirty-white soap, bought in bu