Dirt Poor
It was 75 years ago. I was in the first grade. I was cutting through the woods on my way to school, and I found a cardboard box full of puppies. I spent the day with the puppies. I took them out of the box and lay on my back on the grass and let them crawl all over me. They licked my face and I fed them my sack-lunch sandwich.
When the sun began to set I put the puppies back in the box and carried them home. We were living on the sand lots of Long Island with my German/Irish grandparents, first-generation Americans, starvation poor.
My grandfather drowned the puppies in a tub of water.