Growing Up Poor in America

Description: Moby recalls growing up poor in a wealthy suburb.

Transcript:

Well cause I grew up . . . primarily in Connecticut I grew up in Darien, Connecticut, which is a very affluent, suburban bedroom community. And I grew up dirt poor. My mother and I were on welfare until I was 18, which was very strange because every single person I knew in Darien came from, you know . . . they had very affluent families and came from a lot of money. And so it was strange. Up until I was 18, I was basically the only poor person I’d ever met.

Almost a sort of J.Gatsby almost sort of need to kind of prove myself sometimes. And on a positive side, luckily the public schools were really good. And all my teachers when I was growing up were very idealistic children of the 60s and 70s who saw public education as a way of really, sort of like, establishing this almost like progressive, utopian world. So I had great teachers and great public schools.