Social Mobility
Curtis J. Goode
Professor Suzanne Weber
Intro to Sociology
August 7, 2011

Intergenerational social mobility means a change in social standing between generations. As I was growing up, I lived in a very low income neighborhood. The area in which I lived in was very dangerous at times, especially at night. We could not afford an alarm system because my father was the only one who was working at that time. However, we did have steel bars on our windows and doors to try and keep the burglars out. My father also would also keep a licensed gun in his nightstand by the bed. My mother would get my sister and I up so that we could get ready for school. She would make sure that we had a good breakfast and have our clothes out so we would have something clean to wear. She would then walk us school so that we would not be scared or harassed. After school was over my mother would be outside waiting on my sister and I so that she could walk us back home. Once we were home we really could not go outside to play because there were people outside selling and buying drugs right down the street. Our parents did not want us to see or possibly have a chance for the drug dealers to get a hold of us and try to give us drugs. If we did go outside to play, one or both of our parents would have to be outside with us. When my sister and I became older my mother started working to help my father with the bills and to have some more money coming in so that we could try and get out of the area that we lived in. When I started high school we were able to move into a neighborhood that had a very low crime rate. We didn’t have to have bars on our windows and doors, and my father didn’t have to keep his gun next to him every night. My parents were very comfortable where we had moved to because they did not have to worry so much about my sister and I whenever we would go