My grandfather grew up poor, and got poorer during the Depression. He and my grandmother went hungry on more than one occasion, and I've wondered, over the years, whether malnutrition was one reason that their first child, my uncle, was born mentally handicapped. It's not good to go hungry while you're pregnant. My grandfather, Bob, got his first real break in the forties working as a salesman for Colgate (he had been rejected from military service because of his flat feet).