Over the Tracks

He’s good. She’s good. He’s just Duckie. ~Pretty In Pink

Remember the movie “Pretty In Pink” where Andie Walsh, played by Molly Ringwald is from the other side of the tracks and is constantly taunted by the rich girls? Well, this scene has been constantly playing over and over in my head for the past week. Just for the record…I loved that movie and dyed my hair the same color as Molly Ringwald’s hair. I even started wearing a ton of pink too.

The difference between Andie Walsh and I was that I grew up in an upper-middle class neighborhood. I had everything I needed and everything I wanted. At the time it never occurred to me what side of the tracks I lived on because I didn’t see people that way. Looking back I can know see that the friends I had were also from upper-middle class families. Perhaps we were just all in the same school classes or after school clubs. Or maybe subconsciously I did see a difference.

Last week my daughter went to a science camp that was held at one of the middle schools in our school district. The same school district where I went to high school. Every day when we went to pick her up I noticed we passed some HUGE homes.

I also took notice to the very fancy and luxurious cars of the parents picking up their children that were in the parking lot. It’s not that Dude or I drive beat up, old cars. He drives a Toyota and I drive a Honda…both pretty nice cars, but they are not a Lexxus or Mercedes of which I saw many. I also noticed the way the other parents were dressed. Again, we don’t dress like paupers but when people are wealthy they tend to dress that way. There was an obvious difference between us and them.

On the last day of camp there was an open house for the children to show off the experiments and projects they worked on all week. At the open house I ran into an old friend I went to high school with. In high school we lived in the same neighborhood but I remember she was pretty poor compared to the rest of us. In fact I remember that she had to borrow a prom gown one year because she couldn’t afford one.

I said, “hello” and was pretty excited to see her. Then she asked me where I lived. That’s when the conversation went south quickly because I apparently live on the wrong side of the tracks. She, on the other hand lives in one of the wealthy new developments on the right side of the tracks. SERIOUSLY.

It never occurred to me that the railroad tracks…and river…were the class dividing line in our school district. It also never occurred to me that I was considered as part of the lower class for living on this side of the tracks.

Me? Low class? There is no way.

So now my kids have been labeled as low class because they are from the other side of the tracks. My oldest one starts middle school in September and she is starting out like Andie Walsh…Pretty In Pink…because pink is her favorite color. Now if I could only find her a friend like Duckie.

It was never my intention to stay in this neighborhood. I went back to school in 2002 so that I could get a better job. I never thought I’d get cancer and I never thought the economy would be this bad six years later. Unfortunately things drastically changed.

I had a long talk with my children about living in such a small house and living in this neighborhood. They told me that they love this house. They told me that they don’t want a big house. Teenie told me that one of her friends has a big house and her friend’s father is always at work, making money to pay for the house.

They both told me that they don’t care what other people think. They both told me that they would rather have two parents at home who love them than have two parents constantly working to put a BIG roof over their heads.

My little neighborhood is far from low class. We are the working class just like most of the United States. I’m not sure how my town got labeled the way it did but how fortunate am I that I have kids who think the way they do? That will get them very far in life. So perhaps I screwed up my master plan to get us out of this neighborhood and over to the other side of the tracks but I must have done something right with those kids of mine.

So why can’t I get the theme song from “Pretty In Pink” out of my head? Duckie???

Filed under It Is What It Is, Kidz | Comments (27)