Curly sat on his porch in his underwear and one sock. His other sock came off and got tangled in the blankets and Curly didn’t feel like looking for it. He drained his beer and went inside to get another. He opened the icebox and pulled out a fresh one. The icebox sat next to the refrigerator-freezer. It looked brand new. It looked like it had never been used. It hadn’t. The TV hadn’t ever been on. The stereo hadn’t been on.

A few years earlier Curly was part of a study by a university group. They were doing a government sponsored study of the effects of poverty. That’s what they told Curly and his wife, Molly Sue.

“Why, I can tell you that. The effect is to make you poor, that’s what”, she told them.

The group sadly shook their heads. These illiterate people are too ignorant to even know what has happened to them because of poverty. The group’s plan was to take them out of poverty and see the effect that had on them and then compare the difference. The difference in what it cost and the grant would be pure profit.

Curly and Molly Sue watched bug-eyed as a new doublewide was setup next to the shack. It made that old shack look crummy they thought. They were invited to go in to their new home. One of the group, Ted Neely, was left there to see the change in them and report the results.

“You now have a refrigerator to store and preserve your food. That should make you healthier”.

Neither Curly or Molly Sue had been sick a day in their lives if you don’t count the time Curly got shot while stealing chickens from Homer Brown.

“You now have a TV to watch. You can get the news and entertainment”.

Molly Sue got the news from the church ladies. None of them ever said anything about being on TV so she had some doubts . Curly got the news at the bar and he knew none of those guys was on TV. He had his own doubts.

“You just turn this switch and you can make the lights brighter or dimmer”.

Curly thought this guy’s lights were a bit dim now. Why would he even want to do that? Molly Sue thought it was a cute idea even if it didn’t make sense.

Neely turned the dimmer switch to show them the effect. Nothing happened. He thought there must be a blown breaker. He checked the box and everything looked fine. He wondered if the setup crew forgot to hook the electric up. He went outside and followed the line. Sure enough, it was laying there on the ground.

“Where’s your main line. I need to hook this line up to that one and then you’ll have electric”.

“Main what?”, Curly asked.

“Main line. The place where your electric comes in.”

“What electric? We’ve never had no electric up here. The nearest place that do is two-three miles down the mountain”.

“What! How do you turn your lights on?”, Neely asked.

“Why, I light a match, naturally”, Molly Sue told him.

The doublewide was sure a lot more comfortable than the old shack. Looked prettier too. Curly and Molly Sue often wondered what effect this had on poverty. They were still poor.