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When you’re growing up, even if you’re not the one making the money decisions, you absorb what it means to have wealth and status. Now, having a holographic Power Rangers lunchbox and living in a house with an elevator are two very different things, but to a kid, status is status, LOL.
Recently, Reddit user vieniaida asked, “What was a status symbol when you were a child?” Reading through these responses was a trip. Some of them really show how advanced things have gotten in such a short time; others made me feel old, and yet I couldn’t help but chuckle at a few, too. Here’s what people had to share:
1.”Air travel was a clear sign of status back in the day. It still seems wild to me how often people take flights, even with little kids. The first time I was in an airplane, I was in college, and I remember it being a bit exciting at first (and then very, very boring).”
—u/FurryYokel
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2.”Central air was a clear indicator. I was born in ’65, and my parents didn’t get ANY kind of air conditioning until all of us kids left for college. To this day, my sisters and I are AC freaks. I think we’re scarred from childhood. 😂”
—u/cg325is
“When my dad had that unit put in, I thought we were RICH.”
3.”You could always tell people had money if you were at a friend’s house, and they were just allowed to get whatever they wanted out of the kitchen whenever they wanted.”
—u/Neptune0690
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4.”One clear sign was having more than one bathroom in your house. In 1976, my boss invited the staff to his house for a Christmas party, and we were amazed that he had more than one bathroom! They also had an in-ground pool, but we poor folks were more impressed with the bathrooms.”
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5.”When microwaves first came out, it was only the rich people who had one. I remember buying my mom her first one from points I earned working at the grocery store.”
6.”More than one phone in the house. If the phone in the kid’s room was a whole different line, not just an extension, that was a big deal. I knew one girl who had her own phone line. She even had a pink princess phone, and we were all consumed with envy.”
—u/FlickasMom
7.”I thought my best friend in primary school was rich. Her family’s basement was decked out with a sunken TV area with a big L-shaped sofa where we could dance along to Grease, which we watched on LaserDisc. She also had an Easy Bake Oven and a Garfield phone.”
8.”A dishwasher. I’m from rural Alberta, and growing up in the ’80s/’90s, I always wished we had one, like my cousins did. Mom would just say she gave birth to two dishwashers.”
—u/CttCJim
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9.”When I was a teen, a clear sign you were rich was if your parents bought you a nice car. I grew up in a school district where a third of students were upper middle class (children of doctors, lawyers, CEOs, upper management) and lower middle class (children of manual laborers and working class). One group turned 16, and their parents bought them a new car or a used luxury car. The other group drove around in 20-year-old, rusted-out 1960s vehicles that they bought with their own money from a part-time job.”
—u/FAx32
10.”If you had truly big bucks, you had an indoor pool. An in-ground outdoor pool in the Northeast and Midwest was big bucks. Building a house that had an indoor pool was baller bucks.”
—u/Lozerien
11.”Wall-to-wall carpet. My parents saved for it so my mom could stop polishing the hardwood floors and get busy sewing and hanging her own full-length curtains.”
—u/honeycooks
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12.”My dad (76 years old) was recently telling me about when he got his first job and how the first big thing he bought was a color TV for his mom! It was such a status symbol back then.”
—u/bad185
“When I saw my first remote-controlled TV, I almost lost my miiiindddd.”
13.”Car phones! The doctor next door had one of those big AM 150 MHz jobs slung under the dash of his big Chrysler in ’66 or so.”
14.”I daydreamed about being able to afford pastel colored Izod shirts, white leather Tretorns, and Jordache jeans.”
15.”House intercoms. Several of my friends had these, and it seemed so luxurious.”
—u/Pistalrose
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16.”Actual hot dog buns. Most of us had Wonder Bread dogs.”
—u/Tee1upToday
“Man, I forgot all about bread buns. At that moment, all you wanted was a real hot dog bun.”
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17.”I was born in the mid-’80s. When I was growing up in the ’90s, to me, being really rich meant having panels that made your refrigerator match your custom kitchen cabinets.”
18.”The big box of crayons.”
“Name brand at that. Crayola meant money!”
19.”In the late ’70s/early ’80s, having cable TV and/or a VCR meant you were rich, and having more than one TV did too.”
—u/FAx32
Henri Leduc / Getty Images
20.”I often catch myself thinking, ‘Someday I’ll be successful and organized enough to have a Palm Pilot,’ forgetting that every phone I have owned for the last decade has been 100 times more advanced than a Palm Pilot.”
21.”During Christmas of 1984, the ultimate status symbol was a Cabbage Patch Kid.”
22.Three things: Having a water bed. Having a water dispenser on your fridge door. Having a hot tub.”
23.”Having a Cadillac. This was the big one for my dad, and he was so proud when he finally got one in the late 1990s. He kept that thing spotless.”
—u/zegna1965
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24.”I remember the rich kids had cartoon characters on their sandwich bags. My jealousy of those bags was palpable.”
25.”To me, being rich meant having a circular driveway and columns by the front door.”
—u/johnmflores
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26.”Growing up in the 1980s, owning any gaming devices meant you were rich.”
27.”Having a second fridge in your garage.
photovideostock / Getty Images
28.”A garage door opener with a clicker meant you made it.”
—u/seriouslyjan
29.”A complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica. Now that was class.”
30.”To me, shoes that lit up when you walked were the peak of luxury.”
—u/MrNimbus33
Rosley Majid / Getty Images
31.”Name-brand anything. My parents were all about the knockoffs.”
—u/RedditSkippy
32.And finally, “Blue toilet water.”
—u/jumboweiners