“if a minor were to say, apply for Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the minor would need a social security number for that purpose.”
Only problem is that Barry since age 10 had been living with grandparents, who were not exactly paupers. By age 15, he was attending a tony prep school in Hawaii: hard to see how he qualifies for AFDC under those circumstances.
“probably also needed to apply for a passport”
Sure, but if that were the motivating reason for making an application, he could hardly afford to wait around until age 27 to make use of such a card.
“I wonder where Zero’s momma was when he was 15? anywhere near the state in question?”
In 1977, Ann Dunham Soetoro was in Indonesia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Dunham), about as far from CT as one could imagine. She didn’t become a program officer for Ford Foundation—which in theory could have occasioned intermittent trips to Foundation headquarters in NYC—until the early 1980’s. The question of how a kid living in HI managed to apply in CT for a SSN remains a deep mystery.
Think for a minute: if a kid wanting a job at Baskin Robbins had no SS# because he was still listed as an Indonesian citizen, how would BR list that employee in the paymaster files? ... ANd if the same family who put the boy up for the job suddenly or gradually realized the boy needed an American SS#, what woul dbe the natural way to create/fabricate a SS# and card for said teen? ... Got bank records for any old geezers at the end of their life and living in HI?