He had scraped together the funds to traipse off to the latest Bonanza camp, to buy speculative stocks, liquor and fine Sacramento meals for his boomer friends and fancy women, while my mother cut pieces of cardboard and canvas into soles to stuff inside our shoes to stop the holes, and hand-me-downed our clothes.

Maitland got drunk at his parties and threw his arm around you and pulled you over to his wife and made you look down her dress, saying, The trouble with marriage is that the fucking you get isn't worth the fucking you get.

There in full Opulence a Banker dwelt, Who all the Joys and Pangs of Riches felt; His Side-board glitter’d with imagin’d Plate; And his proud Fancy held a vaſt Eſtate.

Her bank account was garnisheed to pay an outstanding tax debt.