I have some old family photos of grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, that look JUST like that.
I have an old pic of my father at about 12. He was almost in rags... instead of a belt, he had a rope around his waist.
All those kids in that family grew up in the Depression and left school to work because their father had died so young. My grandmother had 5 of them to care for. I cry when I look at those pictures.
I sure wish someone had told her about her white privilege.
Regarding you father as a kid having a piece of rope or twine as a belt; he’s in good company. It is told that Professor Albert Einstein used a piece of twine for a belt at one point in his career at Princeton.