WGBH visited Franklin recently when preparing a report in their continuing series on Rediscovering the Middle Class. They talked with Erin Lynch, Executive Director of the Franklin Food Pantry, and interviewd Doug and Karen Mow.
In his living room in Franklin, Mow is keeping a close eye on the clock. He’s waiting for a client to call; a call he cannot afford to miss.
"Looking down at the two phones right on the table right in front of me and my urge to go look at it right now while I’m talking to you," he said. "I have a lot of concerns that way."
Concerned about holding onto clients; Concerned about paying the bills. His wife Karen learned about the growing need at the food pantry and called to volunteer.
"I guess you don’t really see that a lot of people are in need," he said.
"We’re living in a very different economic reality that is really on thin ice, and it really doesn’t take a lot to just send you right into the depths," Mow continued. "And I think the scariest part of the recession was we all got really close to that. My mortgage is already underwater, and how am I going to pay for that? And my kid’s going to college, and how am I going to pay for that? And then if you’ve had a stable life that whole time, what’s it going to be like when the rug gets yanked out? What’s it like living on the street? I don’t know. I don’t know how to do that."
Mow doesn’t think he will ever be homeless. But he keeps an eye on the clock on the wall of his home — now deeply submerged in mortgage debt — and waits for the next client to call; a reminder of his precarious position in the middle class.
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| screen grab of WGBH webpage with article |
You can read the full artcile here
http://wgbhnews.org/post/underwater-i-495-middle-class-crisis
You can also listen to the podcast of this article here
http://cpa.ds.npr.org/demowgbh/audio/2015/01/495MIDDLECLASSSREPORTMixdown1.mp3
