William

Being poor is like a real cold bath - nobody wants it, but in some ways it's good for you. It brings all of your senses together.

I grew up sharing a bathroom with three other families. If that doesn't teach you respect for other people's personal space, then nothing will. To this day I can never feel that I wouldn't say thanks if someone opens the door for me. If I'm in a hotel in LA and someone just walks through a door someone else has held open for them without saying anything, I'll be like 'What the fuck, dude?'

Imagine if you've got to do a shit and lots of people can hear you just walking down the stairs to the communal toilet. You can't stay in there too long, because you don't want your nextdoor neighbour knocking on the door asking 'Are you finished?' What do you do? Especially if you had a nasty situation going on digestively, which was quite likely, because our diet wasn't great - we were eating just what my ma and da ate, which was meat and potatoes, chips almost every night, then in the summer chips with some cold ham and some lettuce and tomato. That was the summers in Scotland. This might be why in later life I've been drawn to live in the wide open spaces of Arizona - because in all the American films I watched in my teens, I never saw anybody sharing a toilet.

— Never Understood by William Reid, Jim Reid (Page 3)