This is Rumblestrip, I'm Erica Heilman, and this is the last installment of what class are you,

a periodic series that I make for Vermont public about everyday lives in the American class system.

Susan Ritz grew up in a wealthy family in Minnesota, and for the past 36 years,

she's lived in Central Vermont, where she writes books, and she is an active philanthropist here in Central Vermont.

In this episode, Susan talks about the complexities of having more than most.

In the town where I grew up, I was not the richest person at all, but my grandparents, they had butlers and maids and, you know,

you'd go to their house and you'd sit down and somebody would serve you dinner, and both of my

grandfathers were, started from nothing and ended up running two of the biggest companies in North

America.

Is this the first time you've, that anyone has asked you this so directly?

Yes, and I'm recently been working on some writing about my life, and the person who's been mentoring me asked me to write about the absolutely hardest thing, the thing that I didn't ever want to reveal, and that was it.

Really? Yeah.

What makes it so hard?

Judgment of other people, I think.

Because I have the same judgments about rich people.

They're arrogant.

The arrogance of wealth, I'll just say that.

And I grew up with that thinking, I came from a special family. I was special.

And it took me a long, long time to get over that and realize I was not special in any way.

The only difference between me and everybody else was that I had a lot of choices that other

people don't have. And that's what I think the best thing about wealth is a choice.

But I think the thing that's surprising is how much shame goes with it, at least for me. The fact

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