People Share Things They Thought Were Indicators Of Wealth When They Were Kids (30 Tweets)
I bet every one of you have had experiences when you wanted something, but you couldn’t get it because your family didn’t have the money for it or perhaps you only used to get a certain thing once in a very rare while.
This ultimately led you to believe that certain things are only reserved for rich people and if you were to eventually get it, you would feel high class for having it.
Maybe it never was posh in the first place. Regardless, people spent their childhood thinking that. One day, author and teacher Eve Dunbar posted a tweet asking people what were some things that they thought was the height of class when they were children. And people responded with these very memories.
Bored Panda invites you to take a look at what things the people of Twitter grew up believing was high class. Vote on the ones you’ve enjoyed the most or the ones that struck a nostalgic chord with you. And hey, while you’re at it, why not leave a comment in the comments section below?
More info: twitter.com
This post may include affiliate links.
100% the same. Started earning money at 12 to get my first set of keys to a rusty jalopy, and I will never let go of the meaning of 'VALUE,' which a brand new car does not have. When something is worth 25% less almost immediately, it's clear that a lot of the price is just in being 'brand new'. Meanwhile, a standard car model will undergo 'major' changes only about every ~15 years. Waste of resources...I'll never be rich enough to justify throwing money out like that.
Oh boy, the difference between lower and upper middle class is HUGE. No one acknowledges that the lower middle class is actually poor.
I love these! My Mom used to put a pack of them in my stocking at Christmas every year when I was a kid.
READ THIS REALLY IMPORTANT! Benetton are an Italian Family, they do cool ads BUT in fact, in Italy they own concession for like 80% of the highway, they earn A LOT of money from them but they spend very little for maitenance, for this a bridge in Genova have collapsed and more than 40pll died.... they are the emblem of hypocrisy.. be carefull whit people like this, they told you "hey we are all brother we care about people and world" and meanwhile they make profit on people shoulders. Most of Italian people hate this family (except for the ones who believe that they believe in that ads" sorry for my english! not my language :/
You mean a sewing kit? 😂😂 (Where I'm from that specific biscuit tin is used to store sewing stuff)
I could not agree more!! I still think, at 47, that I can count the number of vacations I've had on my fingers.
I *was* the dishwasher, LOL... In seriousness, yeah. A working dishwasher. Besides me.
Growing up, I had a wonderfully crafted hand-made dollhouse. It was made by a good friend of my mom's, originally used by her daughter (who had by that point grown out of it and was our family's babysitter). It was really special. All the better - we were able to return the favour and pass it back to the daughter some years later when she had a child of her own. :D
I have one and a half in my current apartment that I share with my boyfriend, still feels like a luxury
Note: this post originally had 119 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Though I didn't realize it at the time, we grew up poor..at least in terms of buying stuff. My idea of rich was if you, the kid, had a TV in your room. I grew up on a small farm. And between being able to go outside whenever you liked, having friends that didn't make a deal out of what they had and folks who were creative In repurposing things for Xmas and birthdays, I can honestly say I never felt like we didn't have money. So maybe the correct way to see this is I didn't grow up poor. Though we didn't have a lot of money, I never felt it's absence.
Awesome! I knew we were poor, bu tmostly b/c other people said so. Where we were, we were "the norm". Make do, do without, or do over. That was just how it was.
"The one who wants least is richest"
My idea was the opposite! I actually thought of rich as in being able to grow up on a farm and being able to take care of so many plants and animals. The more the merrier! I've grown up in a suburban area and my dad always said no pets. Most I could convince him was a couple beetles
Reading those made me totally reconsiderate my definition of richness. It made me realise that I've had access to most of those thing as a kid, although me and my family never thought of ourselves as a rich family. I wonder how, where, and when those people grew up.
I was born in the 80s and grew up in Southern California my whole life, I could relate to a good 90% of these. The problem with wealth is those that have it feel they don't because they compare themselves to those that have more than they do and not those they have more than.
JoLynn: as a SoCal native myself, it was our regional Cold War economy. The region was always one paycheck from starvation, but the media showed us something else, and we often believed it. My IE town grew grapes, and our dirt-road villages no longer exist. In your time, you saw the decline of the economy. After the 1988-1994 economic shift, SoCal saw what other regions always had. Immigrants to our region would comment on our group wealth, and we would respond with pointing out our poverty, which speaks of relative wealth vs actual wealth. -Dr M retired historian
You took for granted things taht other kids only saw on TV. You were rich. And we people grew up EVERYWHERE.
You were rich.
Some of these really are things associated with wealth like having a pool, others, like the after dinner mints, are things most middle class people can afford but that just seem kind of fancy.
What did "rich" people have/do? - A Nintendo Entertainment System and a PC. (We had an Atari 2600) - Rich families had an upstairs. (We could only afford one-story rentals.) - They shopped for clothes at the mall. (We shopped at K-Mart.) - They had a new car. (Our cars were always clunkers that my Dad fixed up quite nicely.) - They ate at non-fast food restaurants. (Our best was Burger King.) - Their Mom stayed home. (Our Mom worked as much as our Dad.) - New swingsets. (Our Dad refurbished ours from parts. It was safe, though!) - Fake Halloween costumes. (Our Mom made ours. Oddly, they turned out far better than the other kids'...) - Rich kids got to buy burgers, hot dogs, and pizza for lunch. (We ate 'tray food'.) - They flew to their vacation spots. (We drove or took the bus.) - They had new TVs. (Ours were older and used.) - They had a new couch and beds. (Ours were second-hand.) - They bought new pants when they wore holes in them. (Mom patched ours.) We eventually got out of poverty, but only after our parents divorced and took separate paths in life. Secondary education and pure luck helped. ...a LOT.
NOTE: Our Mom and Dad always loved us, provided as best they could, and sheltered us from truly knowing our poverty until we were teenagers, when we figured it out ourselves. Then we looked back, and were shocked at how poor we were. -- They only divorced when we were teens, and he still gladly lets her have part of his monthly retirement pay. She doesn't ask for a penny more, and both are gainfully employed. Neither take their income for granted, and none of us "kids" do either. -- We're still all 'savers', and sometimes laugh at how frugal we are, even though we could all live 'the easy life'. But we all give to charity, cause we will always know what poverty was like. -- You remember it in your bones, and never forget.
* military retirement. He's a manager now.
Your folks sound like really good parents who did their best in their limited circumstances and, most importantly, put family first. Anone who can fix up broken items, make their own clothes, refubish unwanted goods and give their children a solid grounding is great parent.
Though I didn't realize it at the time, we grew up poor..at least in terms of buying stuff. My idea of rich was if you, the kid, had a TV in your room. I grew up on a small farm. And between being able to go outside whenever you liked, having friends that didn't make a deal out of what they had and folks who were creative In repurposing things for Xmas and birthdays, I can honestly say I never felt like we didn't have money. So maybe the correct way to see this is I didn't grow up poor. Though we didn't have a lot of money, I never felt it's absence.
Awesome! I knew we were poor, bu tmostly b/c other people said so. Where we were, we were "the norm". Make do, do without, or do over. That was just how it was.
"The one who wants least is richest"
My idea was the opposite! I actually thought of rich as in being able to grow up on a farm and being able to take care of so many plants and animals. The more the merrier! I've grown up in a suburban area and my dad always said no pets. Most I could convince him was a couple beetles
Reading those made me totally reconsiderate my definition of richness. It made me realise that I've had access to most of those thing as a kid, although me and my family never thought of ourselves as a rich family. I wonder how, where, and when those people grew up.
I was born in the 80s and grew up in Southern California my whole life, I could relate to a good 90% of these. The problem with wealth is those that have it feel they don't because they compare themselves to those that have more than they do and not those they have more than.
JoLynn: as a SoCal native myself, it was our regional Cold War economy. The region was always one paycheck from starvation, but the media showed us something else, and we often believed it. My IE town grew grapes, and our dirt-road villages no longer exist. In your time, you saw the decline of the economy. After the 1988-1994 economic shift, SoCal saw what other regions always had. Immigrants to our region would comment on our group wealth, and we would respond with pointing out our poverty, which speaks of relative wealth vs actual wealth. -Dr M retired historian
You took for granted things taht other kids only saw on TV. You were rich. And we people grew up EVERYWHERE.
You were rich.
Some of these really are things associated with wealth like having a pool, others, like the after dinner mints, are things most middle class people can afford but that just seem kind of fancy.
What did "rich" people have/do? - A Nintendo Entertainment System and a PC. (We had an Atari 2600) - Rich families had an upstairs. (We could only afford one-story rentals.) - They shopped for clothes at the mall. (We shopped at K-Mart.) - They had a new car. (Our cars were always clunkers that my Dad fixed up quite nicely.) - They ate at non-fast food restaurants. (Our best was Burger King.) - Their Mom stayed home. (Our Mom worked as much as our Dad.) - New swingsets. (Our Dad refurbished ours from parts. It was safe, though!) - Fake Halloween costumes. (Our Mom made ours. Oddly, they turned out far better than the other kids'...) - Rich kids got to buy burgers, hot dogs, and pizza for lunch. (We ate 'tray food'.) - They flew to their vacation spots. (We drove or took the bus.) - They had new TVs. (Ours were older and used.) - They had a new couch and beds. (Ours were second-hand.) - They bought new pants when they wore holes in them. (Mom patched ours.) We eventually got out of poverty, but only after our parents divorced and took separate paths in life. Secondary education and pure luck helped. ...a LOT.
NOTE: Our Mom and Dad always loved us, provided as best they could, and sheltered us from truly knowing our poverty until we were teenagers, when we figured it out ourselves. Then we looked back, and were shocked at how poor we were. -- They only divorced when we were teens, and he still gladly lets her have part of his monthly retirement pay. She doesn't ask for a penny more, and both are gainfully employed. Neither take their income for granted, and none of us "kids" do either. -- We're still all 'savers', and sometimes laugh at how frugal we are, even though we could all live 'the easy life'. But we all give to charity, cause we will always know what poverty was like. -- You remember it in your bones, and never forget.
* military retirement. He's a manager now.
Your folks sound like really good parents who did their best in their limited circumstances and, most importantly, put family first. Anone who can fix up broken items, make their own clothes, refubish unwanted goods and give their children a solid grounding is great parent.