This is Rumble Strip. I'm Erica Heilman. Today is the third episode of the seventh season of

What Class Are You? Today is a conversation with Kay Phipps. Kay lives in Montpelier. Right now,

she works as a custodian in a local grocery store. She's also been a florist, a housekeeper, and a house

cleaner. She's had a lot of jobs. But even though she's sometimes

working multiple jobs, she often comes up short. In this episode, Kay talks about how having a

limited income makes her feel like a child long into adulthood. Here's Kay. My grandparents

on my father's side for my birthday every year.

I'm pretty sure since I was born, I would unwrap all the presents, and then when I got to their presence,

it would be this weird little certificate from the government.

I think a bond? Is that what it's called a government bond? And so I'd get these when I was

like unwrapping Lego sets and stuff. I'd open up this thing and it would be, it would say

$50 and have like a picture of Abraham Lincoln's Treasury Secretary or something on it. And I had

no idea what it was, but all the adults in the room would go,

oh, like, oh, this is the big gift, you know. And I could never figure out what it was.

And the way they would explain it to me is like, oh, it's like having $50, which is so much money when you're a kid.

I'm like, okay.

So it's like, well, where can I spend it?

And they're like, you can't.

And they say, you can't spend it now.

You have to wait until you grow up because it's not worth anything right now.

It'll be worth something in, I don't know.

A hundred years.

...