When I was a teenager in the mid-80s, my parents laid out how my life was to be lived even before I lived it. As a girl, I was expected to find a job in a secretarial pool, or in a similar service-sector career, before marrying and having several children by the time I reached […]
About Celeste Harmer
“You Don’t Look Like a Homeowner”
For years my husband and I have nurtured the dream of homeownership, and when it finally came true last year, we were in heaven…but then reality caught up to us, as we ran into people who didn’t think we looked the part. We live in a condominium complex. All the units are privately owned, and […]
Hopscotching the Tracks
In my last essay, I spoke of my experiences of the disdain I receive as a working-class woman walking among the denizens of the middle-class world. Just yesterday I received another cool reception – in my old neighborhood, of all places. I still cling to my working-class ways, including shopping at thrift stores, and I […]
A story of crossing the tracks
I was born and raised in working-class Philadelphia. Growing up I did not see myself as an underrepresented and repressed segment of society. Certainly I saw that there were those who had more money and material goods than I did, but it was not something I dwelled on. This was because everyone I knew was […]
