Wanda Adams’s Reviews > Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth > Status Update

I heard an interview with Sarah Smarsh on NPR. My family history includes a father who comes from a similar background. He actually comes from a place called "Poor Valley." I was intrigued by her interview. My mother was also poor, but urban poor. I grew up in Boston. When we would visit our relatives in Poor Valley, I would get angry at them because they never seemed to want to leave, to better their "lot in life."