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This undated photo provided by the Bernie Sanders campaign in July 2019 shows him as a child, center, with his mother, Dorothy; father, Eli; and brother, Larry. For most of his career, Bernie Sanders has avoided sharing details of his own story, rarely linking policy proposals to his personal experience. But relatives and former classmates who grew up alongside Sanders _ and occasionally now Sanders himself _ say there are clear connections between the candidate’s Brooklyn boyhood and his decades of speeches and legislative proposals aimed at leveling the economic playing field. (Bernie Sanders campaign via AP)

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This undated photo provided by the Bernie Sanders campaign in July 2019 shows him as a child, center, with his mother, Dorothy; father, Eli; and brother, Larry. The future Vermont senator and presidential candidate recalled that his father had come to Brooklyn as an immigrant “without a nickel in his pocket.” Arguments over money in the family’s 3 1/2-room apartment taught Sanders early on what it meant to live “paycheck to paycheck.” (Bernie Sanders campaign via AP)

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This undated photo provided by the Bernie Sanders campaign in July 2019 shows him as a child, center, and his brother, Larry, with their maternal grandmother, Bessy Glassberg, outside 1525 E. 26th St., the building where he grew up, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The future presidential candidate, now 77, was raised in the close-knit Midwood neighborhood in the years just before and after the Korean War. The area still looks much the same as it did then, with mid-rise art deco apartment buildings, including the one Sanders grew up in, edging Kings Highway and the neatly kept houses on side streets. (Bernie Sanders campaign via AP)

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This undated photo provided by the Bernie Sanders campaign in July 2019 shows him, second from left, with his brother, Larry; mother, Dorothy; and father, Eli. A Polish immigrant who came to New York, Eli Sanders became a paint salesman and always had work. But to manage the household on his modest paychecks, Dorothy Sanders, a homemaker raised in the Bronx borough of New York, became an uncompromising scrimper and bargain hunter. The senator, who describes his family as “lower middle class,” has recalled being scolded for bringing home groceries from a nearby store, rather than one farther away with lower prices. (Bernie Sanders campaign via AP)

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This photo provided by Myron Kalin shows an inscription written to him by Bernie Sanders, next to his photo in the 1959 yearbook for James Madison High School in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Sanders wrote that a fundraising effort for a Korean war orphan had been the "most gratifying" thing he had done in high school. Former classmates and relatives who grew up alongside the future senator _ and occasionally now Sanders himself _ say there are clear connections between the presidential candidate’s Brooklyn boyhood and his decades of speeches and legislative proposals aimed at leveling the economic playing field. (Myron Kalin via AP)

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FILE - In this April 12, 1983 file photo, Bernard Sanders, mayor of Burlington, Vt., speaks to students at the University of Connecticut's West Hartford campus that his tenure as a Socialist mayor is evidence people are willing to accept radical change. (AP Photo/Bob Child)

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FILE - This Sept. 11, 1981 file photo shows Burlington, Vt., Mayor Bernie Sanders. Sanders says his family’s experience finding treatment for his mother, whose health worsened when he was in high school, dying when he was in college, helped shape his view that “health care is a human right _ it’s not a privilege _ and that was not the case back then and that certainly is not the case right now.” (AP Photo/Donna Light, File)

Sanders' early life in Brooklyn taught lessons, some tough

By Associated Press New York State

PUBLISHED 8:43 AM ET Jul. 21, 2019

NEW YORK (AP) — As Bernie Sanders campaigns for the White House, he speaks occasionally about his Brooklyn childhood in a family beset by money worries.

But the Vermont senator largely avoids mention of the specific circumstances that framed his decision to leave New York behind.

Recollections of friends and relatives, and an interview with the candidate, point to experiences including his mother's struggle with poor health and the strain on the family when she died during Sanders' freshman year of college.

It's one of the notable parallels between Sanders' early life and his eventual embrace of politics focused on leveling the societal playing field by improving access to health care and equalizing pay.