The absolute peak of luxury as a child

dobielvr said:
Having a phone in my bedroom. Shared the bedroom and a pink princess phone w/my sister.
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WoW that would have been unthinkable in my house.. in fact in everybody's house that I knew who had phones.. even the richer ones....

Phones when I was growing up, were very much a family object placed in the hallway... or the foyer... and kids were strictly monitored using them

I remember after I got married, and the first time I was able to have a phone not only in the livingroom instead of the hallway but in the bedroom as well.. I thought I'd finally come of age...

I've had a fascination with phones ever since.. and have a substantal Vintage collection
:D
 

911 said:
I really didn’t pay attention to what my friends had or didn’t have. My parents were good providers for me and my sister. Our home was nicely furnished and I had a clock radio in my bedroom, which I thought was a big deal back then.
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that's why you didn't pay attention.. because you had all the comforts you needed..you were the kid everyone else who didn't have those things we envious of... you were very lucky,.(y)
 

jujube said:
Two bathrooms! What a dream that would have been in a house of seven women.

And a color TV! I didn't get one until I was in my 30s and then it was an old huuuge hotel one that I got for $20.
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Same... 7 people in the house...... One bathroom..tiny bathroom as well. just enough space for a bath and toilet...

..and like you, I was married and well into my 20's before I got a colour TV..

When we'd got married .. as youngsters, we had the baby. so everything we had was spent on her ,,,,,. he was on a very low Naval ratings pay... father in law gave us his old Black and white TV which only had once channel that worked...so we just used that because we couldn't even afford to rent a colour tv...
It was about another 5 years before we could finally get colour and I remember it distinctly it was like the cinema had opened up in the livingroom, everything was in glorious technicolour.. :love:
 
hollydolly said:
WoW that would have been unthinkable in my house.. in fact in everybody's house that I knew who had phones.. even the richer ones....

Phones when I was growing up, were very much a family object placed in the hallway... or the foyer... and kids were strictly monitored using them

I remember after I got married, and the first time I was able to have a phone not only in the livingroom instead of the hallway but in the bedroom as well.. I thought I'd finally come of age...

I've had a fascination with phones ever since.. and have a substantal Vintage collection
:D
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Dare I say ...my brother had his own phone too. We also had our own separate phone #s.
But, listen we weren't rich. Honest! Both of my parents worked and so did my brother and sister.

**I'm glad you're feeling better 🙂
 
dobielvr said:
Dare I say ...my brother had his own phone too. We also had our own separate phone #s.
But, listen we weren't rich. Honest! Both of my parents worked and so did my brother and sister.
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Where you allowed to call long distance? I was never allowed to call long distance until later part of highschool, and then my mom would scrutinize the phone bill and I had to pay for any calls I made.
 
Although I didn’t have everything all my friends had, I did have what I needed like my bike, my dog, what I thought were nice clothes and later after I got my driver’s license, my grandparents allowed me to buy my first car with my own money. I played a few sports, so it made everyone’s life easier if I could drive myself to school and home after practice. Of course, a few of my friends also needed a ride.
 
C50 said:
Where you allowed to call long distance? I was never allowed to call long distance until later part of highschool, and then my mom would scrutinize the phone bill and I had to pay for any calls I made.
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I don't remember....I really don't think we had long distance friends to call.
We had a party line on the main phone...'member those. lol

These were inexpensive luxuries compared to others that were rec'ving new cars for graduation and had swimming pools in their backyards.
 
10 speed bicycle and friends my age. 4 of us would ride for hours. Mom didn't worry, four people with bicycle cable locks (swung with force, they're lethal) not a group to mess with.
 
A friend lived in a split level house with a living room and a rec room. It was done in beautiful imitation wood with so much lovely green and yellow furniture. They were one of the first to get a colour tv.
 
dobielvr said:
I don't remember....I really don't think we had long distance friends to call.
We had a party line on the main phone...'member those. lol

These were inexpensive luxuries compared to others that were rec'ving new cars for graduation and had swimming pools in their backyards.
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yes we had a party line when I was a kid as well...we kids used to listen into next doors' conversations...lol
 
Jazzy1 said:
What did you consider the absolute peak of luxury as a child?
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To me luxury was other kids that had ice cream in their freezers all the time. In my family we only got ice cream when one of us had a birthday, and it would all be consumed that same day (my dad would cut a half gallon in 5 equal slices and we each got one).

In elementary school I only knew one girl who had ice cream all the time at home (it was fun to visit her!). Some years later my best friend's family got a freezer in their garage and a ice cream shake/malt machine and had ice cream in their freezer all the time. Those were the days!
 
HoneyNut said:
To me luxury was other kids that had ice cream in their freezers all the time. In my family we only got ice cream when one of us had a birthday, and it would all be consumed that same day (my dad would cut a half gallon in 5 equal slices and we each got one).

In elementary school I only knew one girl who had ice cream all the time at home (it was fun to visit her!). Some years later my best friend's family got a freezer in their garage and a ice cream shake/malt machine and had ice cream in their freezer all the time. Those were the days!
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when I was a kid I never knew a single person with a freezer....so no-one bught ice cream at the supermarket unless they were going to eat it that day.... the first freezer I ever had was in our second year of our marriage, i our second naval married quarter.

The qarters were fully furnished with utility furniture, from beds, to teaspoons, but we had to buy our own white goods, washing machine ,freezer etc.. so I got a half size which was the normal size back in the mid 70's here.. with drawers... the irony was I didn't have any money to buy food to freeze...:D
 
Warrigal said:
Looking back, I guess luxury for me as a child would have been indoor plumbing instead of an outhouse halfway down the backyard. And real toilet paper instead of cut up sheets of newspaper.
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that was one of the few things we did have ..was an indoor bathroom..in all of our houses... but there was family members who lived in slum tenement buidlings who shared one toilet on a landing between 4 flats / apartments on each landing... most of these flats had at least 6 people living in thm as well..

My granny used to use Izal toilet paper which was hard and slippy... my grandad who was one of the very few who lived in a tenement with an indoor toilet had newspaper squares hanging on a piece of string..
 
hollydolly said:
that's why you didn't pay attention.. because you had all the comforts you needed..you were the kid everyone else who didn't have those things we envious of... you were very lucky,.(y)
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Maybe you’re right. As I remember it, I seldom wanted or needed anything, but it was the 60’s and I was a kid. Back then, not many, if any kids in my area were materialistic or in need of much. I do remember 1 kid in our group that his family didn’t celebrate Christmas. We didn’t make fun or tease him, but probably felt somewhat sorry for him because he didn’t get presents like the rest of us. We would avoid talking about the things we got when he was around.

I did keep asking my parents for a Schwinn bicycle, instead of my Murray, but I never got one. I wanted a bike with handbrakes on it.
 
Been There said:
Although I didn’t have everything all my friends had, I did have what I needed like my bike, my dog, what I thought were nice clothes and later after I got my driver’s license, my grandparents allowed me to buy my first car with my own money. I played a few sports, so it made everyone’s life easier if I could drive myself to school and home after practice. Of course, a few of my friends also needed a ride.
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I don’t know what it is about having a bike back in the day, but to a boy, having a bike was everything.
 
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