“I were young once and I wanted things I could not get”—Who said this and when? How was the speaker’s past life?

Ans: In the short story Thank You Ma’am by Langston Hughes, Mrs. Jones said this to the street boy Roger. 

After bringing Roger home, Mrs. Jones sent him to the sink to wash face. Then she asked him few questions about his parentage, reason behind his theft etc. When Roger finished answering, at her own whim, Mrs. Jones began to say the quoted line. 

According to Mrs. Jones, she was once a young girl and like another girls she also had desired to get many things; but she did not get and her desires remained unfulfilled. Even to satisfy her desires, she involved herself in so many criminal activities that now she could not reveal them to anyone even to god as she felt ashamed of herself. So, Mrs. Jones was once in the parallel situation like Roger.