Barbikat60′s Weblog

Food Stamps, a back in the day way of life.

The late eighties, crack in the street, toothless hookers giving out the best blow jobs, burnt out buildings and the smell of shit in the air. New York Fucking City!!!! And if you were poor, The Lower East Side was the place to be, Alphabet City. Hanging out in Tompkins Square Park all night. Taking your sweetie for a stroll along the East River at East River Park. Shooting up with your friends in some squalid abandoned building. Yeah, life was good. It was made even better by the grace of the United States Government. Food Stamps.

On the first of the month and in the middle of the month, it was like Christmas. As soon as you got your food stamps, it was time to party. Every bodega accepted food stamps for candles, toilet tissue, pet food, beer and ummm, food. Ohh hell yeah and the Chinese places took them too. You could save the cash for drugs and while you’re waiting for your favorite dope spot to open, you could get some fried chicken with pork fried rice and a forty ounce of Olde English and the party could begin. If you were willing to leave the neighborhood, you could traipse uptown to the Upper East Side and buy some high class pate and all that gourmet shit at D’agostino’s and Gristede’s because they couldn’t turn down your food stamps. It was awesome to get a whole array of fancy food and whip out the food stamps. The rich bitches standing behind you would be scandalized as hell and you would give them a wink, pat the grocery bag and say..bon Appetit!
Later, in the park, after you copped your drugs and chilling with your friends, you could lay out your fine spread and your homies would exclaim “Damn, you got that with food stamps??” Ohh hell the fuck yeah!!!! Lets be real, the government never gave out enough food stamps for a normal needy family that played by the system. I don’t know how normal needy people did it. I mean, sure, you could buy loads of rice and beans in bulk but what about milk and veggies for the kids and yourself? The only people who could live on food stamps were druggie welfare cheats. Druggies don’t need to eat all that much, so as long they could cop a bag of dope, who gave a fuck about eating? Thats why druggies are so nice and skinny. I wish I was a druggie. I’d like to be skinny…sigh.
I hear that now they have a card for food stamps. That must suck.

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