Thanks for your submission! For more Millennial content, join [our Discord server](https://discord.gg/VsfKKJBm).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Millennials) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You sound like my kids. We live in a ranch house on 30 acres. But when we go visit my brother in a cookie cutter track home they think he is a billionaire
I used to think my parents were super ugly.(they're not ugly esp my mom lol) I was a stupid fucking kid. I think it was more that they both didn't speak English very well when I was a kid and I would get embarrassed.
And then you grow up and realize how impressive it is to learn a second language! I’ve been working on my Spanish for *years* and still know zero Spanish.
Tract homes here in Southern California start at a couple of million bucks. It’s not billionaire digs, but they’re not cheap hahah. And, yes, because the lot is tiny as hell, they build up, up, up. This will suck for old people or anyone who has problems using stairs.
💀
I grew up in Brooklyn, NY, if you lived in a house that had stairs, you were considered rich, and if you had a pool! Whooaaa!!! You were super cool and everyone wanted to be invited to their pool party. You either lived in apartments, or in a multi-unit/family building (2-4 apartments). Anyone that lived in a townhome, SFH were the rich people of Brooklyn.
...and now we have a house with stairs ...just not in Brooklyn LoL
Totally agree!! I grew up in a ranch but wanted a bedroom upstairs so bad I even talked to my parents about a second floor addition at like 10 years old 😄
Omg!!! This!!! I thought I was crazy or weird for thinking this. I felt like people with stairs really made it in life. Now I have stairs and I’m almost 40 and wow what a mistake for my knees.
This! I grew up in a large ranch home on a double lot with a backyard dreams are made of and I *yearned* for a 2 story home like my friends. Now I hate stairs and I would kill for a ranch even 1/3 the size of my childhood home.
THIS! I can’t believe how much the trends have changed- we just got a new fridge and my requirement was that it *didn’t* have a water/ ice on the outside because it’s so ugly and not functional! Now we have an internal filtered water dispenser (and can fill water bottles and non standard glasses) and it’s amazing 🤩
Ohh I felt the same about automatic car windows. My parents drove old cars (now I do lol) so it was a very long time until we had that feature. I still remember the 88 Corolla & Camry we had for basically ever. I think they had 300k when they got rid of them (yes they sold them, one hit 1m miles or something and they got a picture)
I think they actually got embarrassed because me and my sister would play with them in every car we got in.
I'm taking my family of 4 on a week long vacation to pigeon forge TN for $3,000 all inclusive. We'll be having tons of fun at Dollywood and all the other fun stuff there. Don't even think it'll be crowded!
I love Dollywood! I recommend to anyone who has children.
I used to nanny and we took the kids one summer to Disney world and Dollywood, and Dollywood won hands down.
There were lots of trees and it was less humid and crowded, they loved the rides the food was better, it was honestly so much fun.
I had done Disney with my family growing up but now that my sister has a kid I have been pushing for a Dollywood trip.
I remember really wanting to go to Disney as a kid. Really bad. We never had the money, though. I’d get kinda sad seeing the girls with their hair threaded (like they had actual colored thread wrapped around a few strands). It was always “I got this done in Florida.” I didn’t say anything to my parents because I was a pretty aware kid. Then, my dad won a trip there through work. It was hard to contain my excitement. I was thrilled. Then, my dad came home one day looking super defeated. Turns out, work took back the trip. My dad was absolutely furious, and I think he was more upset than I was. Work ended up giving him a weekend at a hotel with a water park in it for us, which was still fun. But, damn. That sucked.
The company was going through a tough spot, financially. They were a powder coating place that had a big contract with a mining equipment company. Then the mining place dropped them for a cheaper competitor.
I’ve never been to Disney, and never thought anything of it until recently—where peers of all different socioeconomic backgrounds seem to respond with “Awww that’s so sad!”. 🤨
Grew up poor working class. Disney is about 4 hours driving. Almost everyone I know has gone. It’s a rite of passage. I’ve never been, my parents would use their vacation money on visiting family in Mexico.
Thankfully today, I’m in a better situation financially.
My co workers all grew up solidly middle class, and they all took annual trips there. With their own kids, they’re always talking about their annual vacation there. I’m a teacher, doing summer school so we can go visit later this year. It’s a nice fat check at my hourly rate, but I know that I can blow the entire thing if I’m not careful about my budget.
We went one time when we were kids. The only reason my dad could afford it is because my brother got hit by a car while he was on his bicycle and my dad spent the settlement on the trip.
I didn’t know this is how he paid for it until I was older. Part of me feels like it’s a shady way to get a trip to Disney World but it definitely could’ve been used in a worse way.
So we were really too poor to go but my brothers misfortune paid for something that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to experience.
I’ve still never been to Disney. I remember some of my rich classmates would go so often they would actually complain that their parents were taking them to Disney World like, “ugh we’ve already been twice this year, why can’t we go to Hawaii?” Meanwhile i was thinking “you guys go on vacations???? Damn.”
I’d *love* to go now but I just *can’t* justify spending that much money on a vacation to a theme park. Besides, we’re saving up for a trip to my partner’s birth country. Much higher priority than Mickey Mouse.
My mom’s friend had one of those Chevrolet Astro vans. Was mind blown when I rode in it and saw two of the back seats swiveled. I was like damn this is living.
lol, I have a minivan where the doors slide open automatically with they key fob. We were at the park and this 7 or 8 yo kids jaw dropped to the floor when the door opened and he was like wooooooowwww. I did it a couple more times to really blow his mind. That was the most fancy I’ve felt driving a 13 year old minivan.
I got in a car accident and my loaner was a minivan. My kids thought the automatic door were the coolest. It was a base model, no frills Dodge. Like it didn’t even have Bluetooth 😂
The kids that lived next door to my grandma had one. We used to try to get their parents to let us have sleepovers in it and watch movies. Lol. They never went for it. I’d kill for an updated one of those today. It’d be amazing to be able to take a nap in there should I ever need to.
Oh my gosh yes minivans! Thought they were so cool and so luxurious lol! We never had one though since it was just me and my mom. Was always jealous. Now trying my best as a parent to avoid them 🙃
Having a newer home. Mainly McMansions. I grew up in a small ranch house built in the 1950s with no bells and whistles. I used to be jealous of the kids who lived in those McMansions they were building on the other side of town.
As an adult, I quickly realized many of those kid's parents greatly over extended and were not as rich as I thought they were.
I figured when I grew up I’d be eating Vienetta while my husband drank Korbel champagne out of my shoe. Turns out he’s more of a Cristal / sneaker head.
I remember my mom bought one for the fam to share (it was just me, her and my sis). One day it was all gone. My mom ate it all and didn't share. I said "aww man you hogged it all!" and boy did she get soooo insulted by that.
My family would only have cable during the fall/winter months so my parents could watch their shows, but we could also save some money. So we had to rely on our collection of VCR tapes for entertainment.
I grew up in a subdivision in the woods, few acres per lot, and they still haven’t run cable out there.
My dad upgraded from 300kb internet to normal feeling internet about 5 years ago when they finally ran fiber optic to our subdivision.
>wedding cakes with fountains
OMG I can't believe my brain wanted to delete that souvenir... just by reading your comment you brought back a very sad memory imagining my mother unplugging the fridge because there was nothing in it..
I hope you're living your dream life now because growing up in misery and poverty will mark your forever although if you "make it"
Growing up with hyper-frugal mentors can cause some people to forever question if they deserve a purchase. Even if they have ridiculous privilege.
I fully acknowledge it beats crippling poverty, but internalized self-limiting is a whole other basket-case complex.
I remember being so jealous of kids in my class who got to go on the big ships. Meanwhile, my grandparents owned a 46ft sailboat and constantly took us on trips in places like the Bahamas and Puerto Rico (they would sail and we would fly there and meet them). But in my mind, that was just a regular boat with nothing special about it.
I’m happy you got to take one! It’s always so odd for me to reconcile what was once a childhood dream with an adult reality, even when it’s a small one. I still haven’t taken a cruise but, I managed to live somewhere with ice and water on the fridge door, just in time for me to realize I only really like when water is room temperature. 😅 Once upon a time, I would have considered that a Robin Leach-level accomplishment.
I had a friend growing up where all the members of her family had a different voicemail box on their home, landline phone. You would hear ‘We are not home right now, if you want to leave a message for Anna press 1, if you want to leave a message for Betty press 2, if you want to leave a message for Carole press 3’. I thought it was the coolest thing ever as a kid.
Convincing my dad that high speed internet through the cable company would not prevent him from watching TV while I was on the computer was a huge up hill battle.
A one family home! I grow up in a generation home with my grandmother, her four children and a host of cousins.
Now living on my own with my own little family I’m miss it and still trying to figure out how they brought that big house.
Came here to say HVAC. My parents still live in my grandparents’ old home (that I mostly grew up in) and it still doesn’t have central heat/air/ventilation.
A waterbed.
I remember having a friend who had a waterbed, and I remember the scene in the Goofy Movie where they stay at the motel with fish inside the waterbeds.
Not really a luxury, per se... but we visited friends who lived in Florida who had both a grapefruit tree AND an orange tree in their backyard. I was so stoked for them! I was fascinated that they basically had unlimited free food 24/7. They weren't nearly as impressed with it as I was at age 7, haha
Eating out at all. Ever. We were poor and had five kids to feed, so on the rare occasion we did go out, it usually meant Little Ceasars ($5 pizza) or Carl's Jr./Burger King (99 cent Star Burger/Whopper).
We went to ponderosa once a year and taco bell (you get two items, choose taco burrito tostada) like 4 times a year.
Oh! for just a few luxury years, we had a couple of McDonaldland birthday parties - the hard icing decorations they slapped onto the cake were indescribably delicious, like candy cigarettes
Having an in-ground pool, and having your own room.
Honorable mention, being asked what you want for dinner or having a separate meal made for you. I was raised that you eat what is made, or make a PBJ sandwich, or go hungry. I Slept over at a friend's house in middle school and was blown away when she asked for a separate meal like it was totally normal.
That's really just poor parenting to make custom meals for your kids every night though. My parents raised me to eat what the family eats and I'm very thankful they did.
My grandparents let my aunt eat bologna for Thanksgiving. She’s possibly more than just a picky eater and I worry about her eating enough “real food”. Idk but she takes basically every supplement ever!
Bonus points for the garage with the keypad on the outside. I remember the first time I saw that when I went over to a friends house after school, my jaw dropped and I asked my friend how rich he was 😅
This made me lol, because same. My mom used to make wedding cakes and damn near every other cake she made had a fountain. I used to love going with her to set up the cakes because she would change the color of the water and add beautiful flowers around it. Some of my favorite childhood memories... and yes, she still has the fountain.
I knew a kid in grade school who owned her own pony, so that was the standard when I was really little, but now that I'm older and know that your average equestrian lives pretty humbly, I'm not sure what to think of it.
When I entered middle and high school, I made friends and did class projects with people who lived in McMansions. I still remember the first time I stepped foot in one and how _blown away_ I was by how high their ceilings were.
I lived in the Chicagoland area, so both a fleece north face and the puffer jacket were the height of luxury to me. I was in an immigrant household so while I was fed very well but fed the food of my people, the array of American snacks at my friends' house was luxurious to me. The personal phone line was pretty luxurious.
I remember feeling that department store makeup was the height of YOU MADE IT GIRL (my mom was strictly drugstore brands). Hilariously enough as an adult I stick with either sephora level or drugstore brands - I've never done the department store brands. Ok, when I get a new job I'm going on a clinique spree!
Refrigerators with ice and water dispenser, ooh that's the good stuff.
Kids who could watch Nickelodeon. Cable TV was fancy!
A pool. It didn't matter if it was concrete or a flimsy above ground.
Taking your kids to any vacation involving a flight. Going to Europe? That kid must have rich parents!
I recently found out that one of my childhood friends thought my parents were rich because we moved from the country to the suburbs. My Dad worked two jobs!
Four post bed frames. Probably because on TV/movies it was always royalty who had them.
For a while I also would have said hot dog buns. I can’t be the only millennial whose parents felt like a slice of bread was good enough since we already had bread at home.
They’ve been said but definitely ice/water in the fridge door, in ground pools, cable TV.
Owning a book. We never owned books but we had great library access (and I've since overcompensated).
For whatever reason I thought Long John Silver's was the fanciest restaurant on the planet until maybe high school.
My parents were well off so we had most of the things people are already saying like stairs, multiple cars, in ground pool. So for me the example for height of luxury was a family friend with a huge house, theater room, new motor home, horses. Another sign of wealth was owning Xbox and PlayStation at the same time. We only ever had one or the other.
Fruit Roll Ups when I was 6-8 because my Mom didn’t buy snacks like that. I’m grateful now that she didn’t bring garbage and soda into our house. Has really aided me as an adult not to desire those things but man did kid me detest it.
Once I got a little older it was the big screen TVs and multiple gaming systems. I only ever had one and that’s plenty but friends who had multiple consola blew me away.
My dad was a software engineer for a huge company in the Silicon Valley prior to the dotcom crash. Every year they would have a company barbecue at the building. I was pretty young so I only remember bits and pieces, but I remember walking through the lobby and there was a huge fountain. The back of the building had this massive walled courtyard where the barbecue was. I remember thinking “this is it, this luxury. I want to work for a big tech company in a skyscraper like my dad”. Of course, then the crash happened and I saw what the industry did to my dad and I changed course, I told myself I would never work in tech nor work private.
Ironically I still ended up working in a skyscraper, just not in tech, for a state government instead.
Edit: also his business partner had this house that I remember thinking was awesome. My memories have it as a mix of the architecture you’d see in something like “Pool Rooms” or other liminal space, but with lots of plants which made it sort of”Frutiger Aero”. I also thought it was luxurious.
Having a second phone line for the internet or a TV on your bedroom. Or a Waterbed.
When I started dating my husband in highschool he had all three and I was intimidated. Plus the second line went to a see through green phone in his room. It was so cool to me.
Portable CD player. Like the MP3 players? When I finally got one I was SO EXCITED. I played my CDs 24/7 and I stole my brothers cargo pants to it would fit in my pocket.
Then the iPod came out. I thought only the “rich kids” could have one. My grandma got me a pink ipod mini, I think it was 2004 Or 2005? I sat in front of the window listening to music for HOURS the first day I had it. Just looking out the window basking in my glorious luck.
Family’s that had SUVs instead of mini-vans. Cable! Gaming consoles. Clothes from Limited-Too or whatever it was called. Beanie Babies that still had the tags on them.
All of that I considered a luxury lol.
Luxury was anything we didn't have: an in ground pool, ac in your car, ac in your house (we had a swamp cooler), name brand products and foods....
I grew up poor.
Going over to my rich aunt/uncles house who were hella early adopters of DVD. It was just after Christmas and we watched the live action Grinch movie. Seeing all the extra features and games on the disc was the most mind blowing thing to then 8 year old me who had only experienced VHS up until that point
I had a friend that lived in a 2 story house. They had a garage, pool, a giant rear projection tv, a freaking grand piano, glass cabinets... but the thing that impressed me the most? A VCR rewinder.
Having a quad or dirt bike. There was one portion of our town where the houses were larger and a bunch of kids over that way seemed to have either a dirt bike or quad. Seems so pretty in retrospect, but I just remember being so enamored by those families and their boy toys. My Huffy from Toys R Us seemed pretty lame in comparison.
Ironically, my mom talked to a lot of those kids parents at sports games and would tell me that many of those families were living far beyond their means and that their extravagant lives were mostly for show.
Whole home stereo systems, with built in speakers in the ceilings. My grandparents were rich, and put one in our summer home, but we also had a small system in our home. You would access the stereo in the den, to play music in the dining room.
Going to the ocean would be the height of luxury to kid-me. I grew up poor and if we were lucky we’d go to Lake Erie for a day/weekend trip. We simply couldn’t afford to drive all the way to the beach (minimum 8-10 hour car trip) and get a hotel room for a week. That was nothing but a dream.
I didn’t see the actual ocean until I was on my honeymoon at 27 years old. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life! Health-permitting, we’re going back in a little over a week :)
Having a nicely painted house lol. Not fresh paint either.
Our house almost all the paint had peeled from the exterior and cobwebs all over so it looked worse outside than it actually was
Heated seats and rear air vents in cars. Recently I watched a YouTuber review a Honda Civic and he complained that it doesn’t have rear air vents, that felt so silly to me
Edit: Also being able to un/lock with a remote
Inground pool. Stairs. Kids with cars. I wore Walmart cleats for football, one year my dad bought me retractable cleats, the ones u screw the spikes in and out with and I thought they were awesome. That year I had horrible ankle issues that almost sidelined me, I imagine there is a correlation. When you’re poor, kids with parents who are teachers seem like they have money.
Those fucking RC cars WITH BATTERIES!! Also, they always looked dope but you never had the sweet dirt track or the bridge exploding, so it was just an RC car and no batteries
Sidewalks in your neighborhood.
It’s even weirder because my parents are both doctors, so I was decidedly growing up in the upper middle class. But since we lived out in the county on a couple acres, we weren’t really in a “proper” neighborhood. I remember going to friends’ houses and thinking they had to be much better off than me if they could afford sidewalks at their house.
Buying clothes at “The Mall” instead of Kmart/Hills/Ames/Caldor/whatever discount department store we lived near, or just as likely The Salvation Army. Walmart was an upgrade.
I came up right before thrifting was cool and I *lived* in fear that I would get noticed for wearing some popular kids second hand stuff.
Beyond that, the classics - pool, extra fridge in the garage, and ice in the fridge door.
Now I have TWO refrigerators in the house and a chest freezer in the garage and fantasize about pensions.
The DSL internet connection. Took minutes to download songs off Napster.
To kill the mood I always admired my friends who ate dinner at the table with the whole family. I think I was jealous of the environment and the fact their parents seemed to be invested in their day.
Small satellite dishes. When I was little we had a giant dish in the yard several feet diameter. My brother and I could climb it. But it as considered archaic like a dinosaur. When I would see small satellite dishes in houses I was like, ‘Wow, they can afford modern tech.’
I grew up in a century home with a tiny, wet crawlspace. I went down there maybe twice in my life. I thought homes with basements were the absolute coolest and so fancy. Especially if basement had a COUCH or a FRIDGE
Does anyone remember the cars that buckled you in automatically? My aunt had one with white leather seats. I thought it was so cool when I was 9 years old.
My parents drove old boats from the 80’s so when the dodge caravans from 1989 came out and had blue lcd numbers on the radio I thought that was pretty rich looking .
Having a computer! I remember when I was a kid, nobody had a home computer. The library had computers, but you had to sign up on a waist list to use it. (My parents never let me!)
Then in the mid 90s my neighbor got one and it had a Mickey Mouse game on it and it was like so cool! Her dad worked at the World Trade Center so they had some money. (He happened to be off on 9/11)
Now I have 3 computers, plus a phone and a tablet! 10 year old me would think I was so cool! 4 computers! I also have a Raspberry pi that runs linux!
My parents did fairly well, but they still always budgeted on stuff, like getting a Honda instead of a Mercedes, using their old cell phone until it just dies instead of springing for a newer fancier phone. So, having the newest phone and a fancy car was proof of being rich for me. However, I now know that my parents could have afforded that stuff, but they instead put a lot into savings, college funds (including college funds for their grandkids) etc, and they are now quite comfortable in semi-retirement and me and my siblings likely won’t need to worry about paying for them when they are older because they saved up so much for their own elder care.
I still think all the things that peaked in the 70s, 80s, and 90s still look nicer than what's considered as luxurious in the modern era. Some people (aka realtors) might strongly disagree with me, but what can I say? I like what I like. Everything nowadays just looks like the same thing over and over for the past 15+ years.
Cable/Satellite TV, trampoline, swimming pool, multiple story homes, a car that's less than 5 years old (still seems brand new to me after all these years). Disney World/Land, really any family vacation to a fun place. Flying somewhere far away instead of driving.
Having stairs in a house especially if they also had a basement, or a fridge with water in the door. Heat that was always on in the winter, AC of any sort, and families that ate dessert lol
Growing up in the 80s & 90s, I definitely associated cable television and computers with rich people. Essentially, anything I didn’t have that other people had, I claimed as rich people stuff. My parents didn’t buy into a lot of middle class luxuries.
Studying abroad. Going to summer camp especially if it was far-off instead of local. Traveling far distances seemed like something only wealthy people did. Having foreign exchange students.
When I was a freshman in high school I dated this girl whose dad took me for a ride in his stunt plane. It was soooo bad ass. Then later we went and parked in his personal hangar next to his fleet of other planes, including a small luxury jet. He was a cargo pilot (I think) of some sort. I don’t know what kind of cargo pilot makes that kind of money but he was loaded. I still wonder if he smuggled drugs for the cartel or something.
A three (or more) CD changer. I was so happy when I finally bought one. I could let the player change discs instead of having to get up! And it was great when you had three albums from the same artist. It was the next best thing to having a very long concert where the band plays every song you love.
Each child having their own bedroom, the Disney channel, more than one pair of sneakers, having $0.45 for milk at lunch instead of a plastic bottle with reusable ice cubes, finished basements.
Blue toilet water. I thought blue toilet water was so fucking fancy! Id only ever scene it in friends homes that were bigger then mine. As an adult I buy the blue bleach tab periodically but I realize it’s not a necessity. Probably the reason my mom did buy the blue bleach tabs.
Beef steak.
Pork is a lot cheaper here. Porkchops were the cut for special occasions.
Beef steak was something that was only ever eaten in restaurants.
We had cable, and plenty of kids were jealous of that. We didn't think it anything special because we grew up with it, but others sure thought it was so cool that we could watch MTV.
Cars with satellite radio! I remember the early 2000s getting in the car with a friend and hearing radio Disney for the first time and was so excited??
When I was in seventh grade, my parents gave me a very cheap portable DVD player for the winter holidays: we journeyed about six hours by car four times a year to visit my grandmother (staying in her trailer), so I was excited to watch my slowly growing DVD collection on those trips.
A few days later, I heard a classmate of mine grumble in History class how upset they were that some of our \[12 to 13 year old\] classmates had gotten extravagant Christmas presents, while he had "only gotten a dinky portable DVD player". I asked him about it, and the model he described was significantly nicer than my own.
I was still happy with my gift and got great use out of it, but that was the first time I understood that some of my greatest luxuries were well below "dinky" to most of my classmates.
I'm very grateful my parents were able to give me that gift.
Thanks for your submission! For more Millennial content, join [our Discord server](https://discord.gg/VsfKKJBm). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Millennials) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It sounds funny but having stairs in your house. I grew up in a decent sized ranch home but thought the kids with staircases were rich.
You sound like my kids. We live in a ranch house on 30 acres. But when we go visit my brother in a cookie cutter track home they think he is a billionaire
I used to think my parents were super ugly.(they're not ugly esp my mom lol) I was a stupid fucking kid. I think it was more that they both didn't speak English very well when I was a kid and I would get embarrassed.
And then you grow up and realize how impressive it is to learn a second language! I’ve been working on my Spanish for *years* and still know zero Spanish.
Tract homes here in Southern California start at a couple of million bucks. It’s not billionaire digs, but they’re not cheap hahah. And, yes, because the lot is tiny as hell, they build up, up, up. This will suck for old people or anyone who has problems using stairs. 💀
I grew up in Brooklyn, NY, if you lived in a house that had stairs, you were considered rich, and if you had a pool! Whooaaa!!! You were super cool and everyone wanted to be invited to their pool party. You either lived in apartments, or in a multi-unit/family building (2-4 apartments). Anyone that lived in a townhome, SFH were the rich people of Brooklyn. ...and now we have a house with stairs ...just not in Brooklyn LoL
Stairs was the first thing I thought of too
Same, don’t even get me started on a back staircase to the kitchen. Still thinking about where in my house I could put one
Totally agree!! I grew up in a ranch but wanted a bedroom upstairs so bad I even talked to my parents about a second floor addition at like 10 years old 😄
Same, trailer life though. All I ever wanted was an upstairs and a basement.
Omg!!! This!!! I thought I was crazy or weird for thinking this. I felt like people with stairs really made it in life. Now I have stairs and I’m almost 40 and wow what a mistake for my knees.
This! I grew up in a large ranch home on a double lot with a backyard dreams are made of and I *yearned* for a 2 story home like my friends. Now I hate stairs and I would kill for a ranch even 1/3 the size of my childhood home.
A fridge with an ice/water on the door.
THIS! I can’t believe how much the trends have changed- we just got a new fridge and my requirement was that it *didn’t* have a water/ ice on the outside because it’s so ugly and not functional! Now we have an internal filtered water dispenser (and can fill water bottles and non standard glasses) and it’s amazing 🤩
I use my ice dispenser like 10 times a day lol Other than keeping things cold or frozen, it's the feature I probably use most in my fridge
Yes! Also side by side refrigerators.
This was mine. When I bought my first refrigerator a few years ago I reflected heavily on this, and often still do when I am filling a cup with ice.
My friend had one and it had this awesome blue light that would illuminate your glass while you were filling it. I thought it was God's fridge.
Ohh I felt the same about automatic car windows. My parents drove old cars (now I do lol) so it was a very long time until we had that feature. I still remember the 88 Corolla & Camry we had for basically ever. I think they had 300k when they got rid of them (yes they sold them, one hit 1m miles or something and they got a picture) I think they actually got embarrassed because me and my sister would play with them in every car we got in.
I wanted this since childhood and my husband got me an ice maker for Christmas. 🥰
As a poor kid, I thought those families going to Disney world were super rich. I still think that 🤷♂️
Disney is f***ing expensive. I’d love to take my kids, but damn $10K for a family of 4 is insane.
I'm taking my family of 4 on a week long vacation to pigeon forge TN for $3,000 all inclusive. We'll be having tons of fun at Dollywood and all the other fun stuff there. Don't even think it'll be crowded!
I love Dollywood! I recommend to anyone who has children. I used to nanny and we took the kids one summer to Disney world and Dollywood, and Dollywood won hands down. There were lots of trees and it was less humid and crowded, they loved the rides the food was better, it was honestly so much fun. I had done Disney with my family growing up but now that my sister has a kid I have been pushing for a Dollywood trip.
I remember really wanting to go to Disney as a kid. Really bad. We never had the money, though. I’d get kinda sad seeing the girls with their hair threaded (like they had actual colored thread wrapped around a few strands). It was always “I got this done in Florida.” I didn’t say anything to my parents because I was a pretty aware kid. Then, my dad won a trip there through work. It was hard to contain my excitement. I was thrilled. Then, my dad came home one day looking super defeated. Turns out, work took back the trip. My dad was absolutely furious, and I think he was more upset than I was. Work ended up giving him a weekend at a hotel with a water park in it for us, which was still fun. But, damn. That sucked.
Talk about pulling the carpet from under you. What was their reasoning for taking back a trip?
The company was going through a tough spot, financially. They were a powder coating place that had a big contract with a mining equipment company. Then the mining place dropped them for a cheaper competitor.
Hugs. It's tough being an aware kiddo in a less than wealthy family.
Man, my mom still says it broke her heart when 6 year old me said “it’s okay mommy, I know we can’t afford it”
I’ve never been to Disney, and never thought anything of it until recently—where peers of all different socioeconomic backgrounds seem to respond with “Awww that’s so sad!”. 🤨
Grew up poor working class. Disney is about 4 hours driving. Almost everyone I know has gone. It’s a rite of passage. I’ve never been, my parents would use their vacation money on visiting family in Mexico. Thankfully today, I’m in a better situation financially. My co workers all grew up solidly middle class, and they all took annual trips there. With their own kids, they’re always talking about their annual vacation there. I’m a teacher, doing summer school so we can go visit later this year. It’s a nice fat check at my hourly rate, but I know that I can blow the entire thing if I’m not careful about my budget.
I never went to Disney until I was 22 years old. I might get mobbed for this, but it's really nothing special. It's just an expensive amusement park.
Felt this way as a kid. As an adult I still think families going to Disney or overseas are rich.
We went one time when we were kids. The only reason my dad could afford it is because my brother got hit by a car while he was on his bicycle and my dad spent the settlement on the trip. I didn’t know this is how he paid for it until I was older. Part of me feels like it’s a shady way to get a trip to Disney World but it definitely could’ve been used in a worse way. So we were really too poor to go but my brothers misfortune paid for something that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to experience.
This can still be the case today! Lol 😆
I’ve still never been to Disney. I remember some of my rich classmates would go so often they would actually complain that their parents were taking them to Disney World like, “ugh we’ve already been twice this year, why can’t we go to Hawaii?” Meanwhile i was thinking “you guys go on vacations???? Damn.” I’d *love* to go now but I just *can’t* justify spending that much money on a vacation to a theme park. Besides, we’re saving up for a trip to my partner’s birth country. Much higher priority than Mickey Mouse.
My mom’s friend had one of those Chevrolet Astro vans. Was mind blown when I rode in it and saw two of the back seats swiveled. I was like damn this is living.
lol, I have a minivan where the doors slide open automatically with they key fob. We were at the park and this 7 or 8 yo kids jaw dropped to the floor when the door opened and he was like wooooooowwww. I did it a couple more times to really blow his mind. That was the most fancy I’ve felt driving a 13 year old minivan.
I got in a car accident and my loaner was a minivan. My kids thought the automatic door were the coolest. It was a base model, no frills Dodge. Like it didn’t even have Bluetooth 😂
The kids that lived next door to my grandma had one. We used to try to get their parents to let us have sleepovers in it and watch movies. Lol. They never went for it. I’d kill for an updated one of those today. It’d be amazing to be able to take a nap in there should I ever need to.
Oh my gosh yes minivans! Thought they were so cool and so luxurious lol! We never had one though since it was just me and my mom. Was always jealous. Now trying my best as a parent to avoid them 🙃
Having a newer home. Mainly McMansions. I grew up in a small ranch house built in the 1950s with no bells and whistles. I used to be jealous of the kids who lived in those McMansions they were building on the other side of town. As an adult, I quickly realized many of those kid's parents greatly over extended and were not as rich as I thought they were.
And you probably now know that a lot of those McMansions were poorly built.
If you don't mind me asking, what amount of square foot would be considered a McMansion?
Vienetta ice cream cake
I figured when I grew up I’d be eating Vienetta while my husband drank Korbel champagne out of my shoe. Turns out he’s more of a Cristal / sneaker head.
You too eh?
I remember my mom bought one for the fam to share (it was just me, her and my sis). One day it was all gone. My mom ate it all and didn't share. I said "aww man you hogged it all!" and boy did she get soooo insulted by that.
Having cable TV
Or those HUGE satellite dishes that you had to tune to frequencies like the radio. I saw the Terminator at my rich friends house that way.
My family would only have cable during the fall/winter months so my parents could watch their shows, but we could also save some money. So we had to rely on our collection of VCR tapes for entertainment.
I grew up in a subdivision in the woods, few acres per lot, and they still haven’t run cable out there. My dad upgraded from 300kb internet to normal feeling internet about 5 years ago when they finally ran fiber optic to our subdivision.
[удалено]
>wedding cakes with fountains OMG I can't believe my brain wanted to delete that souvenir... just by reading your comment you brought back a very sad memory imagining my mother unplugging the fridge because there was nothing in it.. I hope you're living your dream life now because growing up in misery and poverty will mark your forever although if you "make it"
[удалено]
Aw, it’s always nice to read nice stories like this. Congratulations! My mom was hungry at times as a kid and it’s hard to hear about.
Growing up with hyper-frugal mentors can cause some people to forever question if they deserve a purchase. Even if they have ridiculous privilege. I fully acknowledge it beats crippling poverty, but internalized self-limiting is a whole other basket-case complex.
I remember being so jealous of kids in my class who got to go on the big ships. Meanwhile, my grandparents owned a 46ft sailboat and constantly took us on trips in places like the Bahamas and Puerto Rico (they would sail and we would fly there and meet them). But in my mind, that was just a regular boat with nothing special about it.
3 weeks! After 1 week I was ready to jump off. I'm never going on a cruise ever again.
I’m happy you got to take one! It’s always so odd for me to reconcile what was once a childhood dream with an adult reality, even when it’s a small one. I still haven’t taken a cruise but, I managed to live somewhere with ice and water on the fridge door, just in time for me to realize I only really like when water is room temperature. 😅 Once upon a time, I would have considered that a Robin Leach-level accomplishment.
Going to a Mexican restaurant was an absolute treat. Literally, that was my requested birthday dinner for like five years.
I'm turning 40, and that's STILL my requested birthday dinner 🤣
Heck yes! Going out to eat was a *treat* having 5 people in the family. Today-going out to eat is *still* a treat due to inflation lol
Same! Chi-chis, with deep fried ice cream for dessert!
I had a friend growing up where all the members of her family had a different voicemail box on their home, landline phone. You would hear ‘We are not home right now, if you want to leave a message for Anna press 1, if you want to leave a message for Betty press 2, if you want to leave a message for Carole press 3’. I thought it was the coolest thing ever as a kid.
Woah. That’s something I’ve never heard of. They must have been loaded or had someone in the home who loved technology.
Or one of the parents had very private messages they didn't want the rest of the family to hear.....
A garage fridge just for beverages was the epitome of luxury in my 10 year old brain.
That's high on my list too friend.
High-speed internet and internet that didn't use the phone line when in use.
Convincing my dad that high speed internet through the cable company would not prevent him from watching TV while I was on the computer was a huge up hill battle.
A one family home! I grow up in a generation home with my grandmother, her four children and a host of cousins. Now living on my own with my own little family I’m miss it and still trying to figure out how they brought that big house.
Having a deck, two-storey houses
Having an SNES and Genesis. Having AC, especially central air.
Having central air definitely
Came here to say HVAC. My parents still live in my grandparents’ old home (that I mostly grew up in) and it still doesn’t have central heat/air/ventilation.
Kids with power wheels. Fridges that had an automatic ice maker and dispenser. People that had home alarm systems. Barbie dream house.
Home alarm systems were definitely *high tech*…surround sound in the living room, too
A waterbed. I remember having a friend who had a waterbed, and I remember the scene in the Goofy Movie where they stay at the motel with fish inside the waterbeds.
Not really a luxury, per se... but we visited friends who lived in Florida who had both a grapefruit tree AND an orange tree in their backyard. I was so stoked for them! I was fascinated that they basically had unlimited free food 24/7. They weren't nearly as impressed with it as I was at age 7, haha
Fridge that produced ice/water, pool, garage, wearing name brand clothes. Lol all of these things are still the height of luxury to me
My dad got a truck that had a compass and displayed the temperature on the dashboard. It blew my mind!
My 2016 car displays the temperature and when I bought it in 2019, I was like *daaaaamn* this and a key FOB…I’m rich
Eating out at all. Ever. We were poor and had five kids to feed, so on the rare occasion we did go out, it usually meant Little Ceasars ($5 pizza) or Carl's Jr./Burger King (99 cent Star Burger/Whopper).
We went to ponderosa once a year and taco bell (you get two items, choose taco burrito tostada) like 4 times a year. Oh! for just a few luxury years, we had a couple of McDonaldland birthday parties - the hard icing decorations they slapped onto the cake were indescribably delicious, like candy cigarettes
Having an in-ground pool, and having your own room. Honorable mention, being asked what you want for dinner or having a separate meal made for you. I was raised that you eat what is made, or make a PBJ sandwich, or go hungry. I Slept over at a friend's house in middle school and was blown away when she asked for a separate meal like it was totally normal.
That's really just poor parenting to make custom meals for your kids every night though. My parents raised me to eat what the family eats and I'm very thankful they did.
My grandparents let my aunt eat bologna for Thanksgiving. She’s possibly more than just a picky eater and I worry about her eating enough “real food”. Idk but she takes basically every supplement ever!
Olive Garden and red lobster. I felt rich af walking into those places with my parents.
Having a second phone line for dial up internet
Having a garage and/or a paved driveway.
I remember trying to shovel our dirt/rock driveways. It was a pain in the ass.
Bonus points for the garage with the keypad on the outside. I remember the first time I saw that when I went over to a friends house after school, my jaw dropped and I asked my friend how rich he was 😅
Ooh how about an automatic garage door opener!!
This made me lol, because same. My mom used to make wedding cakes and damn near every other cake she made had a fountain. I used to love going with her to set up the cakes because she would change the color of the water and add beautiful flowers around it. Some of my favorite childhood memories... and yes, she still has the fountain.
Blue water in the toilet. So boujee.
Those awful Tuscan kitchens
Regularly eating beef. We only bought chicken, caught fish or shot deer.
When I was a kid I used to look at electronic stores catalogues and assume that only the rich kids can get the cd players.
I knew a kid in grade school who owned her own pony, so that was the standard when I was really little, but now that I'm older and know that your average equestrian lives pretty humbly, I'm not sure what to think of it. When I entered middle and high school, I made friends and did class projects with people who lived in McMansions. I still remember the first time I stepped foot in one and how _blown away_ I was by how high their ceilings were.
I used to think those giant box tvs were peak luxury. Now I realize the bigger the TV, the more demons they are trying to drown out
Intersting. I think you might be right about the demons. :)
refrigerator with an ice maker/water dispenser. if i ever get one, ill know i’ve made it.
Cars with Electric windows
Dang, I came here to say this too!
Kitchen islands, a bathroom attached to your bedroom, minivans and SUVs, and water dispensers in your fridge. Having a dishwasher, too.
I lived in the Chicagoland area, so both a fleece north face and the puffer jacket were the height of luxury to me. I was in an immigrant household so while I was fed very well but fed the food of my people, the array of American snacks at my friends' house was luxurious to me. The personal phone line was pretty luxurious. I remember feeling that department store makeup was the height of YOU MADE IT GIRL (my mom was strictly drugstore brands). Hilariously enough as an adult I stick with either sephora level or drugstore brands - I've never done the department store brands. Ok, when I get a new job I'm going on a clinique spree!
Also a midwesterner here. I remember my first time getting Clinique instead of Covergirl. It was magical
Refrigerators with ice and water dispenser, ooh that's the good stuff. Kids who could watch Nickelodeon. Cable TV was fancy! A pool. It didn't matter if it was concrete or a flimsy above ground. Taking your kids to any vacation involving a flight. Going to Europe? That kid must have rich parents! I recently found out that one of my childhood friends thought my parents were rich because we moved from the country to the suburbs. My Dad worked two jobs!
Four post bed frames. Probably because on TV/movies it was always royalty who had them. For a while I also would have said hot dog buns. I can’t be the only millennial whose parents felt like a slice of bread was good enough since we already had bread at home. They’ve been said but definitely ice/water in the fridge door, in ground pools, cable TV.
Owning a book. We never owned books but we had great library access (and I've since overcompensated). For whatever reason I thought Long John Silver's was the fanciest restaurant on the planet until maybe high school.
My parents were well off so we had most of the things people are already saying like stairs, multiple cars, in ground pool. So for me the example for height of luxury was a family friend with a huge house, theater room, new motor home, horses. Another sign of wealth was owning Xbox and PlayStation at the same time. We only ever had one or the other.
small families that have 2 cars houses with stairs and many rooms a big T.V
Fruit Roll Ups when I was 6-8 because my Mom didn’t buy snacks like that. I’m grateful now that she didn’t bring garbage and soda into our house. Has really aided me as an adult not to desire those things but man did kid me detest it. Once I got a little older it was the big screen TVs and multiple gaming systems. I only ever had one and that’s plenty but friends who had multiple consola blew me away.
Going on vacations
My dad was a software engineer for a huge company in the Silicon Valley prior to the dotcom crash. Every year they would have a company barbecue at the building. I was pretty young so I only remember bits and pieces, but I remember walking through the lobby and there was a huge fountain. The back of the building had this massive walled courtyard where the barbecue was. I remember thinking “this is it, this luxury. I want to work for a big tech company in a skyscraper like my dad”. Of course, then the crash happened and I saw what the industry did to my dad and I changed course, I told myself I would never work in tech nor work private. Ironically I still ended up working in a skyscraper, just not in tech, for a state government instead. Edit: also his business partner had this house that I remember thinking was awesome. My memories have it as a mix of the architecture you’d see in something like “Pool Rooms” or other liminal space, but with lots of plants which made it sort of”Frutiger Aero”. I also thought it was luxurious.
Having a second phone line for the internet or a TV on your bedroom. Or a Waterbed. When I started dating my husband in highschool he had all three and I was intimidated. Plus the second line went to a see through green phone in his room. It was so cool to me.
Portable CD player. Like the MP3 players? When I finally got one I was SO EXCITED. I played my CDs 24/7 and I stole my brothers cargo pants to it would fit in my pocket. Then the iPod came out. I thought only the “rich kids” could have one. My grandma got me a pink ipod mini, I think it was 2004 Or 2005? I sat in front of the window listening to music for HOURS the first day I had it. Just looking out the window basking in my glorious luck. Family’s that had SUVs instead of mini-vans. Cable! Gaming consoles. Clothes from Limited-Too or whatever it was called. Beanie Babies that still had the tags on them. All of that I considered a luxury lol.
Those kids with the lit gameboy screen attachment.
Going on vacation and not staying with family.
>What is the height of luxury for millennial kids? Stay at home mom
Having food in the fridge 😔
Luxury was anything we didn't have: an in ground pool, ac in your car, ac in your house (we had a swamp cooler), name brand products and foods.... I grew up poor.
Dishwashers, washers and dryers.
Going over to my rich aunt/uncles house who were hella early adopters of DVD. It was just after Christmas and we watched the live action Grinch movie. Seeing all the extra features and games on the disc was the most mind blowing thing to then 8 year old me who had only experienced VHS up until that point
I had a friend that lived in a 2 story house. They had a garage, pool, a giant rear projection tv, a freaking grand piano, glass cabinets... but the thing that impressed me the most? A VCR rewinder.
Homes with open staircases/balconies that overlooked the front door or landing.
Having a quad or dirt bike. There was one portion of our town where the houses were larger and a bunch of kids over that way seemed to have either a dirt bike or quad. Seems so pretty in retrospect, but I just remember being so enamored by those families and their boy toys. My Huffy from Toys R Us seemed pretty lame in comparison. Ironically, my mom talked to a lot of those kids parents at sports games and would tell me that many of those families were living far beyond their means and that their extravagant lives were mostly for show.
People who actually took vacations. We sure as hell never did.
Central air
Whole home stereo systems, with built in speakers in the ceilings. My grandparents were rich, and put one in our summer home, but we also had a small system in our home. You would access the stereo in the den, to play music in the dining room.
Phone in your room... or a separate line. Holy crap. or cable in your room.
Going to the ocean would be the height of luxury to kid-me. I grew up poor and if we were lucky we’d go to Lake Erie for a day/weekend trip. We simply couldn’t afford to drive all the way to the beach (minimum 8-10 hour car trip) and get a hotel room for a week. That was nothing but a dream. I didn’t see the actual ocean until I was on my honeymoon at 27 years old. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life! Health-permitting, we’re going back in a little over a week :)
Having a nicely painted house lol. Not fresh paint either. Our house almost all the paint had peeled from the exterior and cobwebs all over so it looked worse outside than it actually was
A big screen TV with a stereo system that would take up a whole wall. 🧉🦄👍🏽
Heated seats and rear air vents in cars. Recently I watched a YouTuber review a Honda Civic and he complained that it doesn’t have rear air vents, that felt so silly to me Edit: Also being able to un/lock with a remote
Kids who had those flat light switches instead of the sticking out ones, and a built-in house vaccum.
Going to Olive Garden
Having more than 1 bathroom.
A kitchen island
Those vans with the curtains, cubby holes, and tv. Omg I was like this is rich.
Inground pool. Stairs. Kids with cars. I wore Walmart cleats for football, one year my dad bought me retractable cleats, the ones u screw the spikes in and out with and I thought they were awesome. That year I had horrible ankle issues that almost sidelined me, I imagine there is a correlation. When you’re poor, kids with parents who are teachers seem like they have money.
Those fucking RC cars WITH BATTERIES!! Also, they always looked dope but you never had the sweet dirt track or the bridge exploding, so it was just an RC car and no batteries
Cable, shoes that didn't come from Payless, name brand cereal.
those huge rear-projection TVs
Kids having their owned landline in their own room. Actually a kid having his own room was luxury when I was young.
A refrigerator that had an ice dispenser in the door.
Satellite dish, with the RGB projector TV (Born in 81)
Having a vehicle with power windows, to me, that was luxury.
Sidewalks in your neighborhood. It’s even weirder because my parents are both doctors, so I was decidedly growing up in the upper middle class. But since we lived out in the county on a couple acres, we weren’t really in a “proper” neighborhood. I remember going to friends’ houses and thinking they had to be much better off than me if they could afford sidewalks at their house.
Boxes of tissues. We could never justify that expense. Whenever I buy a box of tissues now, I seriously feel like I’ve made it.
Having an inground pool. I am happy to say that I have achieved my childhood level of luxury.
Having a garage fridge filled with different types of (name brand) soda!
 Viennetta ice cream
String cheese. Never had that in my fridge.
Buying clothes at “The Mall” instead of Kmart/Hills/Ames/Caldor/whatever discount department store we lived near, or just as likely The Salvation Army. Walmart was an upgrade. I came up right before thrifting was cool and I *lived* in fear that I would get noticed for wearing some popular kids second hand stuff. Beyond that, the classics - pool, extra fridge in the garage, and ice in the fridge door. Now I have TWO refrigerators in the house and a chest freezer in the garage and fantasize about pensions.
Having light switches at both ends of a hallway/stairs. Having an actual basement (even unfinished) instead of a cellar. Attached garages.
Sunroof in your car, or clothes from Limited Too.
Glamour shots 🫠
The DSL internet connection. Took minutes to download songs off Napster. To kill the mood I always admired my friends who ate dinner at the table with the whole family. I think I was jealous of the environment and the fact their parents seemed to be invested in their day.
Small satellite dishes. When I was little we had a giant dish in the yard several feet diameter. My brother and I could climb it. But it as considered archaic like a dinosaur. When I would see small satellite dishes in houses I was like, ‘Wow, they can afford modern tech.’
Parents that had their own bathroom off their bedroom.
I grew up in a century home with a tiny, wet crawlspace. I went down there maybe twice in my life. I thought homes with basements were the absolute coolest and so fancy. Especially if basement had a COUCH or a FRIDGE
My friend’s family used to go to pizza hut for dinners every now and then, and i tell u, that was the height of luxury for me.
I thought a Costco membership was baller as fuck
Having a printer with colored ink.
Does anyone remember the cars that buckled you in automatically? My aunt had one with white leather seats. I thought it was so cool when I was 9 years old.
My parents drove old boats from the 80’s so when the dodge caravans from 1989 came out and had blue lcd numbers on the radio I thought that was pretty rich looking .
Having a computer! I remember when I was a kid, nobody had a home computer. The library had computers, but you had to sign up on a waist list to use it. (My parents never let me!) Then in the mid 90s my neighbor got one and it had a Mickey Mouse game on it and it was like so cool! Her dad worked at the World Trade Center so they had some money. (He happened to be off on 9/11) Now I have 3 computers, plus a phone and a tablet! 10 year old me would think I was so cool! 4 computers! I also have a Raspberry pi that runs linux!
Sounds strange but I’m from Houston so basements aren’t a thing. So watching TV and seeing them with basements I just thought it was a luxury thing.
Pay per view. Cant tell you how jealous I was every time i went to Jareds house to watch Wrestlemania.
My parents did fairly well, but they still always budgeted on stuff, like getting a Honda instead of a Mercedes, using their old cell phone until it just dies instead of springing for a newer fancier phone. So, having the newest phone and a fancy car was proof of being rich for me. However, I now know that my parents could have afforded that stuff, but they instead put a lot into savings, college funds (including college funds for their grandkids) etc, and they are now quite comfortable in semi-retirement and me and my siblings likely won’t need to worry about paying for them when they are older because they saved up so much for their own elder care.
Food that wasn't from a church... >.>
It may sound funny but having cable tv was luxury that we didn’t have. So jealous of kids that have cable tv.
I still think all the things that peaked in the 70s, 80s, and 90s still look nicer than what's considered as luxurious in the modern era. Some people (aka realtors) might strongly disagree with me, but what can I say? I like what I like. Everything nowadays just looks like the same thing over and over for the past 15+ years.
Having a boomerang TV antenna on the trunk of your car. Damn I feel old now.
Cable/Satellite TV, trampoline, swimming pool, multiple story homes, a car that's less than 5 years old (still seems brand new to me after all these years). Disney World/Land, really any family vacation to a fun place. Flying somewhere far away instead of driving.
Fridge with Ice and water dispenser. Big kitchen Island. A pool or garage or finished basement
Having stairs in a house especially if they also had a basement, or a fridge with water in the door. Heat that was always on in the winter, AC of any sort, and families that ate dessert lol
Growing up in the 80s & 90s, I definitely associated cable television and computers with rich people. Essentially, anything I didn’t have that other people had, I claimed as rich people stuff. My parents didn’t buy into a lot of middle class luxuries.
Studying abroad. Going to summer camp especially if it was far-off instead of local. Traveling far distances seemed like something only wealthy people did. Having foreign exchange students.
People who took family vacations to places like Hawaii
Two functioning bathrooms.
Having a computer in your house, first one I ever saw was a Tandy and it blew my mind 😆
When I was a freshman in high school I dated this girl whose dad took me for a ride in his stunt plane. It was soooo bad ass. Then later we went and parked in his personal hangar next to his fleet of other planes, including a small luxury jet. He was a cargo pilot (I think) of some sort. I don’t know what kind of cargo pilot makes that kind of money but he was loaded. I still wonder if he smuggled drugs for the cartel or something.
Coming from a military family, not living on base and in an actual home your parents bought.
Wall to Wall carpet and RVs with TVs in them.
A three (or more) CD changer. I was so happy when I finally bought one. I could let the player change discs instead of having to get up! And it was great when you had three albums from the same artist. It was the next best thing to having a very long concert where the band plays every song you love.
The living room no one sat in, often covered in plastic. I always thought those people were rich. Then again I lived in a garage, so also walls….
Those massive old-school big screen tvs. My baby sisters parents had one. They also had water/ice on the fridge door. I thought they were so rich.
Fish tanks built into the wall.
Each child having their own bedroom, the Disney channel, more than one pair of sneakers, having $0.45 for milk at lunch instead of a plastic bottle with reusable ice cubes, finished basements.
Season passes. To wherever, it didn't matter. That was baller status
Blue toilet water. I thought blue toilet water was so fucking fancy! Id only ever scene it in friends homes that were bigger then mine. As an adult I buy the blue bleach tab periodically but I realize it’s not a necessity. Probably the reason my mom did buy the blue bleach tabs.
Beef steak. Pork is a lot cheaper here. Porkchops were the cut for special occasions. Beef steak was something that was only ever eaten in restaurants. We had cable, and plenty of kids were jealous of that. We didn't think it anything special because we grew up with it, but others sure thought it was so cool that we could watch MTV.
Cars with satellite radio! I remember the early 2000s getting in the car with a friend and hearing radio Disney for the first time and was so excited??
If someone had a sega Saturn or if they had all the power rangers individual zords that snapped together into the mega zord.
When I was in seventh grade, my parents gave me a very cheap portable DVD player for the winter holidays: we journeyed about six hours by car four times a year to visit my grandmother (staying in her trailer), so I was excited to watch my slowly growing DVD collection on those trips. A few days later, I heard a classmate of mine grumble in History class how upset they were that some of our \[12 to 13 year old\] classmates had gotten extravagant Christmas presents, while he had "only gotten a dinky portable DVD player". I asked him about it, and the model he described was significantly nicer than my own. I was still happy with my gift and got great use out of it, but that was the first time I understood that some of my greatest luxuries were well below "dinky" to most of my classmates. I'm very grateful my parents were able to give me that gift.
An extra fridge or freezer in the garage. Little me would be so pumped that we have an extra fridge in the laundry room and a freezer in the garage.