Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

People living in rural communities in Georgia tend to live in some form of poverty, which includes Ray’s family. Ray describes how she and the rest of her family attempted to save money in any way imaginable, such as mailing “cereal box tops […] [to get] a fifty-cent refund” (160) from the cereal company. Though Ray considers her family poor, she describes how row houses that housed people poorer than her own family existed next to the junkyard. These houses lack “electricity or running water” (161), and are occupied by residents in Baxley who have fallen upon hard times. Despite their poverty, Daddy always tries helping any poor and struggling people he comes across. In one instance, Daddy finds a drunk man with a wooden leg walking along the highway by their house. Daddy invites the drunk man and implores Mama to feed him. Ray sees Daddy’s generosity as evidence that Daddy has “a heart […] big enough for all of us and a world besides” (159), despite Daddy’s typically curt demeanor. Ray concludes by arguing that the incredible poverty that mires Georgia has forced its residents to exploit the land for their survival: “Most people worried about getting by, and when getting by meant using the land, we used it” (165).