There has been a lot of talk in the media lately about the possibility of a recession. Having grown up during the 1992 recession and having my father lose his job and struggle to find work, I can understand the many hardships that many Americans will likely be facing in the next few months.

My dad in the early 1980s worked his way up the sales and marketing ladder to become the district representative of a major local industrial and commercial lighting company in the Albany-area. He sold energy efficient lighting solutions to businesses seeking either to modernize their lighting equipment or replace warn out bulbs or fixtures.

Things where going well until one day he was told that the company was on hard times and would be downsizing, and no longer needed his services. He worked incredibly hard for this company and made a significant amount of profit for their business, but the poor economic conditions meant fewer companies where expanding or seeking new lighting solutions. He was out of a job.

Things where tough. My parents still had a mortgage on their house that had to be paid every month. Electricity, phone, and oil bills had to be paid. Livestock needed to be fed. My parents, myself, and my sister had to eat. Our old cars where wearing out and needed repairs. Life was tough for several months, as my parents had limited income. We where able to scrape by as both sets of grandparents helped out, survived mostly on the food we grew, got a meager unemployment insurance check from the government.

It was difficult for my dad to find employment in these difficult times. He ended with a low-paying sales job selling frozen food off a truck in the worst of poverty stricken neighborhoods. He worked six days a week, often nine or ten hours a day, just trying to bring home enough money to make ends meet. The trucks where cold and icy, unloading food in freezing rain and blistering sun alike. After several years of struggle at this job, he was laid off yet another time.

He ended up taking a job working in the human services field, working with people with disabilities. While this job was readily available it was tough work for very low wages. It was a fraction of the money he made at previous jobs, but it provided meaningful work along with benefits. Our mortgage was paid off by now, in large part thanks to help by the grandparents and relatively low housing prices.

We survived. Yet it was tough as a kid knowing that we didn’t have what many others had. I never had any of those fancy electronic game systems, expensive toys, or designer clothes. Sometimes, my mom couldn’t pick us up from school as much as I would have hoped. Field trips where sometimes difficult to afford, and I certainly couldn’t afford the senior trip. Most embarrassing, however, was reduced lunch. I was poor enough to get lunch for 25 cents, but I always felt freakish doing that.

My mom went back to work when in the fall of 1998. With both parents back at work, we could occasionally afford to eat out or do something special like going to see the Symphony. Yet, money always was tight. We somehow made it, and where better off then many of our neighbors who lacked much of the skill and privilege that my parents grew up with. My parents both had advanced degrees, my neighbors barely made it through high school and many struggled with basic reading.

Most of my neighbors, friends, and colleagues I went school often where in worst shape. Many grew up in trailers and in conditions of serious rural poverty. Food stamps along with their dabbles in the livestock business kept them afloat and fed. Many worked at places like K-Mart and Ames, the lucky ones had good paying construction jobs with benefits. Many struggled with serious domestic abuse and illicit substance use in their households. Many lived in ramshackle mobile homes with leaky roofs, and struggled to make ends meet. I only fear what this recession will mean to them.