000			03507cam a2200445 a 4500
001			56493600
003			MiTN
005			20190729105403.0
008			040907s2005 nyu 000 0aeng
010			_a2004020999
020			_a1582345864
020			_a9781582345864
020			_a9781582345895 (pbk :rebound)
020			_a1582345899 (pbk :rebound)
040			_cMiTN
043			_an-us-ny
050	0	0	_aF128.68 .B8 _bC48 2005
100	1		_aChilders, Mary, _d1952-
245	1	0	_aWelfare brat : _ba memoir / _cMary Childers.
250			_a1st U.S. ed.
260			_aNew York : _bBloomsbury Pub. : _bDistributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers, _c2005.
300			_avi, 263 p. ; _c22 cm.
505	0		_aCherry pie -- Sleepwalking toward the horizon -- Pants and jackets -- Triumph and shame -- Coney Island -- Moving -- Miracles -- Shakespeare -- Fresh air fund -- Huddled couples -- Birthdays -- A new apartment -- The watch -- Grand concourse -- Belonging -- Thigh gliding -- Lessons -- Carnival secrets -- Malcolm X and the Scarlet A -- Mace -- Summer camp -- Mother's helper -- Serendipity -- Ed Sullivan -- Advice -- Rumors and riots -- School strikes -- Sex and the Inner City -- Envelopes -- Dead man's float -- Rapprochement -- Country music, 1982.
520			_aAn intimate and frank look at poverty, abuse, and welfare dependence by a "welfare brat" who came of age in the blighted Bronx of the 1960s. Mary Childers grew up in a neighborhood ravaged by poverty. Once a borough of elegant apartment buildings, parks, and universities, the Bronx had become a national symbol of urban decay. White flight, arson, rampant crime, and race riots provide the backdrop for Mary's story. The child of an absent carny father for whom she longed and a single welfare mother who schemed and struggled to house and feed her brood, Mary was the third of her mother's surviving seven children, who were fathered by four different men.
520			_aFrom an early age, Mary knew she was different. She loved her family fiercely but didn't want to repeat her mother's or older sisters' mistakes. The Childers family culture was infused with alcohol and drugs, and relations between the sexes were muddled by simultaneous feelings of rage and desire toward men. Fatherless children were the norm. Academic achievement and hard work were often scorned, not rewarded; five of the seven Childers children dropped out of high school. But Mary was determined to create a better life, and here she recounts her bumpy road to self-sufficiency. With this engaging and thoughtful examination of her difficult early years, Mary Childers breathes messy life into the issues of poverty and welfare dependence, childhood resilience, the American work ethic, and a popular culture that values sexuality more than self-esteem.
600	1	0	_aChilders, Mary, _d1952- _xChildhood and youth.
600	1	0	_aChilders, Mary, _d1952- _xFamily.
650		0	_aWomen, White _zNew York (State) _zNew York _vBiography.
650		0	_aWelfare recipients _zNew York (State) _zNew York _vBiography.
650		0	_aPoor _zNew York (State) _zNew York _vBiography.
650		0	_aInner cities _zNew York (State) _zNew York.
651		0	_aBronx (New York, N.Y.) _vBiography.
651		0	_aBronx (New York, N.Y.) _xSocial conditions _y20th century.
651		0	_aNew York (N.Y.) _vBiography.
651		0	_aNew York (N.Y.) _xSocial conditions _y20th century.
596			_a1
948			_au375979
903			_a26741
999			_c26741 _d26741