Willie often plays away from the house (joining cousins and friends), but when he is at home, he seems content to spend time with Wendy. During the summer, while Ms. Driver and Mr. Fallon are at work, Wendy and Willie watch television on and off all day, sprawled out together on the floor in the living room. The two make their own lunch, and they follow house rules about not answering the door unless someone is expected and not answering the telephone except when their mother calls (using an agreed-upon signal). On breaks from watching television, they play games together. When they play Monopoly, Willie, without being asked, reads the cards for his sister, knowing that she has trouble doing so herself. Wendy sometimes does Willie’s laundry for him (in addition to doing her own). They seem fond of one another. They argue infrequently and only mildly, particularly compared to middle-class siblings such as the Tallinger brothers and the Marshall sisters. For instance, Wendy comments one afternoon that Willie’s girlfriend “dumped” him. Another day, she calls down the stairs to tell Willie that he left his bedroom light on, and then when he asks her to turn it off for him, refuses (requiring Willie to go upstairs and do it himself).
Wendy and Willie’s mother, Ms. Driver, is a tall, handsome woman with big bones. She is thirty-two years old. With her short blond hair, clear skin, and lack of makeup, she has healthy, almost tomboyish, looks. She has several tattoos, including a heart with an arrow on one ankle. She often wears acid-washed jeans, with sweatshirts or T-shirts, and sneakers. Ms. Driver has worked as a secretary for fourteen years, beginning immediately after she graduated from high school. She earns between $15,000 and $25,000 per year, working full time; her responsibilities include answering the phone and doing computer work. She says she “hates” her job. If she could afford it—which she can’t—she would quit.
After Ms. Driver and Wendy and Willie’s father divorced, she and the children moved in with her parents and remained there for five years (until Ms. Driver and Mr. Fallon pooled resources to rent their own house). Since Mr. Driver did not pay child support,3 and Ms. Driver also needed to pay her parents a share of the rent, she met her expenses by taking a weekend job as a waitress in addition to her other job. When she became pregnant, however, she had to quit that job, and except for occasional shifts, she has not resumed it. In her leisure time, Ms. Driver enjoys watching television, especially talk shows and soap operas. She makes an effort to schedule Valerie’s naps to coincide with the timing of her favorite programs.
Mr. Fallon is twenty-six years old. Like Ms. Driver, he is tall, broad shouldered, and tattooed. He has a rapidly receding hairline and a booming voice. A high school graduate, he is employed full time as a “houseman” in a home for disabled people, where, for example, he strips and rewaxes the floors. He wears a uniform—brown pants and a matching shirt—to work. He has held his position (which is unionized) for eight years and earns $20,000 per year. He works every other weekend and many holidays.
Ms. Driver and Mr. Fallon’s incomes do not fully cover the family’s expenses. Money is a constant topic of conversation: the high cost of items, the need to budget or undertake other money-management strategies, and the lack of funds available are subjects that come up during every field visit, often many times in a few hours. Ms. Driver sighs deeply when Wendy comes home announcing an upcoming school trip. She views these outings, which require a two-dollar contribution on the part of each student, as a major expenditure. The fact that the family has too much money to qualify for assistance but too little to meet their needs is an irony that frustrates Wendy’s mother.
It really gets me upset when I go out there and I look for different organizations to help me out with money for the kids, or money for—it’s like they turn to me and say, “You make too much money.” It’s like, “How could I make too much money?” Cause it’s like, I’m just barely making it.
Family finances often have a “zero-sum” nature. For example, when Wendy was in third grade, her mother hired a tutor for her. In order to meet that new expense, $20 per week, Ms. Driver had to walk to work; she no longer had enough money to pay for the bus. When Mr. Fallon’s car breaks down, they delay repairs. School clothes, Christmas presents, and major household items all are purchased on layaway plans. Neither Ms. Driver nor Mr. Fallon has a checking account; they pay bills with money orders. The three extended families in the Drivers’ lives (Ms. Driver’s parents, the family of her ex-husband, and Mr. Fallon’s family) also struggle economically. Ms. Driver’s father juggled two jobs his whole working life. Still, compared to poor families like the McAllisters or the Carrolls, the Drivers have advantages. Food is in ample supply and the children may ask for items when they go to the store. Also, Wendy and Willie are each allowed to request (and usually receive) one expensive item for Christmas (such as a $100 jacket). Ms. Driver squirrels money away for extended family gatherings; Wendy’s Holy Communion festivities, which included a buffet lunch for the entire extended family, cost $1,500.
THE DRIVERS’ WORLD
Just a few days before the field observations began, Wendy and her family moved into a small, three-bedroom house a few doors down from their previous residence. In this almost wholly white, urban, working-class neighborhood, the narrow streets are lined with houses just like the Drivers’. The rows of residences are squeezed so close to one another that they seem like one continuous building. Many of the houses have front porches that come right to the edge of the sidewalk; the porches are small, with only enough room for two chairs. There is no grass. Many residents, including the Drivers, decorate their houses for holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Easter, and Halloween.4 Children about Wendy and Willie’s ages live right up the street, as do many of the Drivers’ cousins. The girls walk to school together and play together after school and on weekends.
Although the Drivers’ home has three bedrooms and is considerably larger than the homes of many other working-class families, the entire downstairs, which consists of a living room area, a playroom for the baby, and a kitchen, would fit inside the family room in the middle-class Marshalls’ house. The rent is $650 per month. The interior of the house is immaculately kept. Wendy and Willie are reminded to put their backpacks upstairs in their bedrooms as soon as they come home from school, they are permitted to have only one glass in the living room, and they each do chores to help keep the house neat and clean. The family often spends time together in the living room watching television. It is cozy: there is room for two adults to sit on the love seat and for the children (and field-worker) to sit on the floor. Pictures of the family adorn the walls.
The amount of racial diversity in Wendy’s life varies. In her public elementary school, the student body is about one-half Black, and some of the teachers and key school personnel are African American. During free playtime at recess and lunch, however, Wendy plays and socializes with other white girls almost exclusively. Similarly, although there are huge neighborhoods filled with African American poor families not far (about a ten-minute car ride) from Wendy’s home, most of her social interactions involve only whites. All of her relatives are white, all of her immediate neighbors are white, all of the children in her dance class and religious study group are white, almost all of the local shopkeepers and their customers are white, and even the shopping mall she visits is frequented mainly by whites. Ms. Driver reports that her ex-husband was “prejudiced” and “hated Blacks”; she has tried to raise the children to be more open-minded than their father.