Ladies and Gentlemen, 

May I Present,

The Nouveau Poor . . . .

 Jenna and Michael Newcastle were typical newlyweds, paying back their graduate school loans, planning for children and working hard to pay off the more than $45,000 they charged on their credit cards to finance their Hawaiian wedding.

Then the financial crises finally hit home.  Michael lost his job at Oleo House, a small poetry publishing house where he had been interning for the past four years and now they both depended on Jenna’s salary as a part-time sign-language translator at the Dodgingtown Animal Shelter.

“It’s hard making ends meet,” says Jenna, 28. “The shelter only pays $233 a month, and if it wasn’t for the winter greens I put in last fall, the frozen yard-long beans from the summer, government assistance, and my parent’s help, I don’t know what we’d do. We even had to cash in some of our KIVA money.”

            Jenna’s parents pay the couple’s  $2450 a month mortgage on their converted fire station near Danbury, Connecticut, as well as chipping in for loan payments, groceries, utilities, clothes and car payments.

"We don't mind at all, helping them out, " says Robert D'Petrie, Jenna's father. "I just wish at least one of them would come work with me at my firm in New Haven.

Robert shakes his head. "Apparently, they don't believe in  'Advertising.'"

            “It’s really hard on my self-esteem,” says Michael, 34. “I had finally gotten hired on full-time at Oleo House, and that $600 combined with the interest from my inheritance  meant that I could finally prove to Jenna that I was able to support us on my salary alone. I want her to be able to quit her job and work on the organic  garden full time.

"This old fire station is the first place Jenna and I ever had of our own,” Michael says.  The couple gutted and renovated the old place last year, using some of the principal from Michael’s inheritance. "We got rid of everything but the pole,” he says. “It cost a fortune to put in the solar panels, the wind turbine and get it LEED certified, but it was worth it.

"I was hoping to save up enough money to pay my parents back for the down payment next year, and then maybe we could start a family.” Michael looks at his feet. “Instead, I feel like the child.”

Jenna tucks a lock of Michael’s overgrown hair behind his ear. “I think we’re going to have to go to Supercuts, sweetie,”  she says. “My parents will pay.”

“I wish that old geezer who was keeping Oleo House alive hadn’t kicked off!” Michael says, punching his fist into his hand.  “Why’d I ever get that MA in Japanese Literature, anyway!”  He walks away to tend  the organic kale.

Jenna looks worried. “I guess I could go ahead and practice law if things get really bad,” she says. Jenna has a law degree from Yale, and Michael doesn’t know it, but she passed the Connecticut Bar Exam three years ago.  “I have been quietly using my pin money to take CLE classes to keep my bar membership active. I didn’t want to tell Michael, because he’s so sensitive about these things.” 

So far, the couple is still in their house, and thanks to help from friends and family, they may be able to keep struggling until the economy improves. But experts say the market for over-priced, boutique, literary magazines may never come back – or if it does, they’ll be produced in China for a third of the cost.

“God,” says Michael. “ I hope the Chinese don’t take over the poetry market, too. They have such poor air quality.”