One too many

I was brought up in a country town, middle class family. We didn’t have much money, but we weren’t poor. It was wartime and we were facing rationing which was OK for families which were resourceful. The little town had its share of working class poor. they were the familes with too little money and too many kids. Our middle class snobbish attitudes had us looking down on these vulnerable people. Nothing much has changed since then. Unwanted children are still born and are still neglected. I remember a little Aboriginal child who was nicknamed “black penny” who wandered the streets of the little town. He didn’t last long. He died and the town went about its business without even asking how or why he had died.