William Prentiss

Looking at my life from the eyes of a third party puts into perspective my blessings and social class.  I live comfortably without excess, and my family provides me all the things I need.  I am in good health, I have a good education, and I have plenty of outside activities to keep me busy.  To me these things are concrete, and I have them because of the sweat from my father=s brow.  He owns four restaurants in Memphis, and when I ask him if we would be considered rich he tells me that we are upper middle class. 
I have many fond memories from my childhood of vacationing in different climates and landscapes.  Every year during the spring we went skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and enjoyed playing in the snow.  We went to Sandestin, Florida, for a week during the summer and played in the sun.  When the weather was right we would also go camping in the Smokey Mountains.  I have fond memories of going to the haunted house in Gatlinburg, and having its goofy inhabitants scaring me. I=m lucky enough to have parents who can take time off to spend with their family.  People just getting by would need every hour of work they can get and could not afford a vacation if they want to feed their family.
 If my parents are upper middle class, then my grandparents are super rich.  My grandfather started in the restaurant business and made his fortunate as the CEO of the Shoney=s South franchise.  He turned his already sizable fortune into an even larger one when he founded River Oaks Investment Corporation.  He worked as the chairman of the Memphis Zoo and donated a whopping $5 million to help build a new exhibit called the Northwest Passage.  They set up a college fund for each of their 11 grandchildren, and I owe them the greatest of debts.  Here is where my class is most apparent.  I have the luck of being born the grandson of a rich man. 
Class is most apparent when the wealthy runs into the poor.  In Memphis, the worst part of town sits between the suburbs and downtown.  The highway that runs through the city has cement walls that black out the sound of traffic.  These walls start downtown and end a couple of miles away.  If you look behind them as you drive past you can see tucked away projects and poverty.  When I see a child walking on the sidewalk next to one of these projects, I understand something very important.   I arrived in this world ahead of most and I didn=t do a thing to deserve it.  There is no answer as to why I have the opportunities I have, but it would be a crime to not do some good with them.