ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I offer narratives from my early life that speak to and re-member experiences of growing up working-class poor and how interactions with my father reinforced working-class identity and a troubled father–son relationship. Exploring questions about my identity and my middle-class academic working world continues to be informed, inflamed, infuriated, and infused with the crafting of my working-class poor identity. As I remember and examine these times, I complicate the instances of learning work ethic and pride with the underlying toxicity of physical and emotional distance and the nascent emergence of working-class poor identity.
