Poor Ron (was other stuff 3 times before!)

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 44841

At 21:32 02/10/02 -0500, Richelle Votaw wrote:

I'm going to pick on only one sentence...

>Does Ron really
>sit around worrying about his hand me downs as much as it seems he does?

As someone who was been in *exactly* Ron's situation in this respect (apart 
from the Wizarding World connection, of course!) :-) I identify with him 
quite completely and his behaviour is *absolutely* true-to-life for me. In 
fact, I cringe during some of his scenes as I recognise myself at that age.

A bit of background: I'm the second-youngest of seven kids and we were 
*poor* when I was growing up. VERY poor. However, we always had food to eat 
and a roof over our heads (though not necessarily a floor under our feet - 
long story!) - in fact the very roof under which I'm sitting right now! The 
first item of clothing I got brand new which wasn't a hand-me-down from my 
brother (18 months older than me, ideal difference for growing kids, 
especially as I was bigger than him until puberty struck) was a suit for my 
First Communion (hey, seven kids=Catholic family, doesn't it?). :-) Irony 
of ironies: my bother's - university - Graduation photo which has pride of 
place on the wall opposite me features me in my brother's old shabby suit, 
while he's wearing the one I bought for myself especially for the occasion, 
because - of course - it was inconceivable that I could look smarter than 
him! (we're exactly the same size as adults)

Ron's line that "everything I own is rubbish" is something I probably said 
every single day of my life until I was about 12, and by that stage I'd 
gone off to a boarding school (thanks to a scholarship, of course), at 
which stage I had not my family to compare to, but my schoolmates, most of 
whom were very, very comfortably well off. Boy, was I a jealous and envious 
teenager! My clothes were rubbish and unfashionable (we didn't have a 
school uniform), all the kids walked around in jeans, except me of course, 
as my parents considered them too expensive (not to mention that neither of 
my parents have the slightest sense of style).  :-)

Add to that the fact that I've worn glasses since I was 8 (of course, the 
cheapest ones available), and you have a mix of neuroses which were a prime 
target for every single Malfoy type in the school.

Little wonder that the first thing I spent my first proper wage packet on 
at the age of 14 (when I worked all through the summer holidays) was a 
down-payment on a decent pair of specs and a pair of Levis with which to 
impress the guys at school!

If any of the above sounds like a whinge or a put-down of my parents, it's 
not meant to; I've tried to be as objectively factual as I could; I've 
certainly outgrown all of those problems and nowadays don't care a jot 
whether what I own is new or not, fashionable or not, even though I can 
afford to be choosy...