They were often forced to steal clothes from the store because they had no money to buy new clothes. “I created a ruckus to distract the clerk while Mom hid a dress under a raincoat to wear on her arm” (Walls, 70). The authors' lives as children were different from those of other children. She only had three dresses so she had to wear them two or three times a week. She looked rather dirty from the worn clothes. “They called me poor and ugly and dirty, and it was hard to argue that point” (Walls, 87) but as Erma said, “Beggars can't be choosers” (Walls, 82), she had no choice but to wear these dirty clothes. There were times when they didn't care about their health. “Mom, this ham is full of maggots,” I said. “Don’t be so picky,” she told me. "Just cut off the maggot parts. The inside is just fine" (Walls, 106). Thus, this clearly shows how poverty left them with no choice but to eat the ham full of