Pappy

They bought a 1,200-1,400 sf house with 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, 1 car detached garage & maybe a half-finished basement. They had no a/c, 1 landline, 1 tv w/3 or 4 channels. Their car had drum brakes, leaf springs, bias-ply tires, an AM radio and maybe power steering. They went out to eat maybe once a month, and that was getting Micky D’s to go and sitting at the picnic table outside. Going to the movies was a special treat. Vacations usually involved tents or pop-top campers at campgrounds near regional amusement parks. Flying all over? Are you kidding? That was for the Jet Set, not the middle class. Kids 3 & 4 wore clothes that 1 & 2 outgrew. Their big presents were maybe a baseball mitt or a bike every 4 or so years. Ordering stuff from Amazon or E-Bay? Let me introduce you to the Christmas Catalogue and Lay-A-Way. They didn’t have broadband, cable, WiFi, laptops & tablets & smartphones for each member of the family. They didn’t spend money on Netflix, Spotify, Disney+, Prime, Steam or any of the other 57 streaming services you and I spend money on. They brown-bagged lunch every day, not ordering Uber-Eats, & they took a thermos of coffee with them instead of dropping $10-15 a day at Starbucks on the way in to work. That’s how they could afford the stuff you can’t.