we were probably middle class but my dad was really cheap. Which in retrospect is a good thing because my mom and him have been able to retire and pay off their house without much trouble. They aren’t having to work in their old age.
I came from a techie/gamer family and we had the sega channel. It was out of this world cool for 1995 and in retrospect, completely nailed the future of technology.
Around here only poor teams had these. Otherwise wealthy teams didn’t need $250 jersey sponsorships to help the families cover the cost of competitive sports.
Having a separate dining room that was only used on holidays/when family was over. Some of my friends’ houses had them and I was always super confused as to why you’d have an extra room on the main floor of your house that you barely use. Still confusing as an adult tbh.
Early on when people had the scrollabe guide channel selection instead of just flipping around channels. I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
Going...meant wealthy to me. Other than going to Germany to stay with my uncle and his family on the army base in the summer, I didn't have a real vacation until college (the first time). Closest thing would be an overnight stay at Kings Island.
Sort of related. word got out that one of our neighbors dads had just bought a Ferrari and was coming home from the dealership. every kid in the neighborhood met up at their house to wait for him to show up when he pulled up in a Pontiac Fiero we all walked home with our heads down
Flying for any types of trips vs long drives. "Luxury Cars" used to be exclusive. You had some coin if you had a BMW, Lexus, Benz, etc.
This is a good one, but to make it less Canadiany, if you had your own bat in little league you were rich. And if you had batting gloves? Epitome of wealth in my eyes.
Oh man. My grandma bought my mom and us a Mitsubishi big screen tv like this in the mid-90’s. It was the coolest shit ever. And now I’m sad
Going to college and getting introduced to the world of horse girls/guys was pretty mind blowing to me. That whole group is a full on cult
That’s a great point about when you realize, once you go to school, what real wealth really means. After my freshman year, I took a job as a baseball instructor at a summer camp in the Catskills/PA border area, where everyone was elite wealth from NYC and Philly Jewish families. We couldnt do baseball or soccer events for parents’ day because the camp used our fields so parents could land their helicopters. I’ll add owning a helicopter to the thread list.
this thread informed me that i was incredibly wealthy and also very poor based on some of the examples shown
Same. We got a in-ground pool, central air and a big screen before a lot of people, but I still live in one of the poorest counties in the US. Now people have crazy items to make life easier and more enjoyable but we never caught up.
We had a formal living room, a formal dining room and a half-finished basement. I never had my own bat. I rode the bus to and from school, but I had the original Jordan's in 2 different color combos (they were $55 at the time and I got them for Christmas and a birthday). We probably went from lower middle class to upper middle class between the time I was in kindergarten and graduating from high school.
Having a cell phone before it became something basically everyone owns. Having premium TV channels like HBO. Buying wrestling PPVs
Buying wrestling PPVs is a good one, especially when those parents would also order pizza for the group and not make you pitch in
All my friends growing up that watched wrestling were too poor for PPVs too, so I never even got to see one growing up during the peak of its mainstream popularity.
My dad had a friend that worked for the cable company or something. Hooked us up with free HBO and Showtime. I remember watching the first Austin Powers and the blockbuster hit “double team” starring Jean Claude Van Damme and Dennis Rodman lol and all the Pay Per View wrestling events on Sunday nights.
my mom wouldn’t buy me the $55 Jordan’s but she eventually relented and bought me the $34.99 Hakeem’s from Payless
And too add to this, TiVo. I didn't have access to DVR stuff until sometime in college when the cable company stopped supporting the grandfathered basic cable packages and equipment from the company they bought out. Parents never wanted to change because the new packages and equipment cost more.
Being able to go to something other than fast food more than a couple times a year, and those couple times would end up being something "really fancy" like Shoney's. Chuck-E-Cheese birthday party.
Finished basements. Two of my buddies growing up had finished basements and we all thought it was baller as heck