Stuck in the Middle

The Rollercoaster of Status

Trouble at Home

Downwardly Mobile

Be Careful What You Wish For

Charles Stoughton grew up in the tony Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, the third son of a prominent local surgeon. Good-looking, articulate, and educated at private schools, Charles was expected to go to medical school like his two brothers and younger sister and to carry on his father's work. Instead, Charles dropped out of Stanford in his sophomore year, hitchhiked to Louisiana and got work on a shrimp boat. Now forty, he works as a housepainter in a small town on the bayou, where he lives in a double-wide trailer with his wife, a K-Mart cashier, and their three children. He rarely earns more than $25,000 a year, and his parents have never come to visit.