Much of this content applies to anyone growing up in the 70s as well. I appreciate the nostalgia, but as I age I recognize that none of the outward displays of wealth matter.
My family got Color TV and a dishwasher in 67. Every mom where we lived had a 2nd car, older car, it was necessary to have for kids and school when you lived in the country.
Back when a $ 28,000 home is now 3,000,000 no health care , student debt, and no bonuses or pay raises ..the American dream does not exist ...this is why I'm a fucking communist..😊
@@CliftonBowers I completely agree… that’s why I believe in Socialism… I visited Canada & parts of Scandinavia ( Denmark 🇩🇰 & Sweden 🇸🇪) I love the way the government treats their citizens!! Social democratic society, they have Socialism by tradition and it works Marvelously !!!
We had oscillating fans in most rooms. I still use fans instead of air conditioning the bulk of the time. I hate the closed up feel with the AC on, although if it's really, really, hot and humid at night, I'll run it for sleeping.
@@robertd9850 Yes they were. They were invented in 1887. The demand died down in late 1950's but in the 1970's the demand went back up. I still have one around form 1977 and it still works great.
We were just watching an old instructional video from the 60’s on being a cashier at a grocery store. I was laughing at the prices of can goods when my son pointed out the big pieces of meat they were buying!
@@eupher2 I know ceiling fans have been around since at least the early 1900's since I used to see those old ugly ones in the drugstore when I was a kid but they were not commonplace in the '60's or even the 70's until the energy crisis.
Looking back we were a family of 6. Lived in a house 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. Dad worked very hard. Never missed a day of work. We were lower middle class. Mom was a homemaker. Never appreciated. Sorry mom. Mom and dad did everything for us. Thanks mom and dad.
My eyes tearful unexpectedly reading your comment😊 My parents were just like that; they were still in their twenties, poor and lived in a tiny apartment in suburb Tokyo but they provided everything they could ever afford for us kids. I am in my sixties now and they are gone.
@@wwbuirkletrue but there wasn’t the amt of choices that we have today. Take sneakers for ex. Back in the 60s there were PF flyers, converse, keds or rejects. Today, there are dozens of sneaker brands. Ppl even collect sneakers which was something totally unheard of in the 60s.
@@annaqsmith I have totally lost count at how many perfectly good pairs of shoes (including sneakers) I have found in the trash. Many of them were practically new. I literally have enough shoes to last me the rest of my life. The ones that don't fit me I give to the Goodwill.
I’m 81. My parents bought their first house when I was 11 in 1955. (Yes, I’m older than Disneyland!) The house was 35 miles from downtown LA. It had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and it was almost 1200 ft.². It cost $11,000 and the payments were $99 per month. My Dad was an LAPD detective sergeant, and his salary was $400 per month.
So true! Today's appliances and goods have short life spans and are "intentionally" made to be "disposable" so you can repeat and keep buying another which is a corporate $hareholder tactic.
I was 6 years old in 1966. My family had none of the things in your video, except for an old car. But we were happy. We moved to a different apartment in 1972 and the only thing new we had was a color TV.
@@lawrencequave7361 I lived in a shack next to a swamp. I got a snapping turtle for Christmas. This video brought up some feelings. I went to school after an hour bus ride into this beautiful forest and homes that had rich British kids. Now that I'm retired and rich I'm trying to ......heal the wound and shame. I guess the only thing I didn't like about my youth was that a big meteorite didn't crush me. Poverty is a real bitch and it makes people bitter and mean but those rich kids where the nicest humans I have ever met.
Difference today is everything is on credit. “I want it & I want it now”. Going to a restaurant was rare, had 2 cars, not fancy, 1 tv, home cooked meals, no fancy trips. Today it has to be 2 new SUV’s, multiple TV’s & electronics, latest phone, fancy schools etc etc etc. Everything on credit. We were taught to earn money, save & buy when we had funds. I still live that way at 75. Live well, invested, nice modest car, nice home. Do not live within your means, live below your means! I still pick up pennies.
If you had a color TV that was the pinnacle. There was a guy on my street Mr Heinz. Whenever there was something special on TV, he’d roll out his big color TV on his porch and invited us kids and anyone else to watch. Most in my neighborhood had 16-18” black and white that were on roller carts. And the rabbit ears that never came in right lol. Still great times and memories
I'm in Australia. We didn't get a colour TV until the late 70's, in our house. But that's not the worst part. My father had worked in television since 1956! He climbed the corporate ladder at one of our TV stations and had been producing TV commercials under his own banner for ten years before we got our first colour TV set... the last one on the block.
I never lived in a place that had HVAC or dishwasher till I moved into my 1st apartment (in the mid 1980's) -- one bathroom was the norm (except one place we lived in for 1 year - two story & bath on each floor) I grew up with regular cooking (no microwave till 1980's) and food preservation every year. But we always had a roof over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs & each other. I learned many lessons from my parents scraping by in thin seasons & many of them get my hubby & I by even today!
I came to America from China in 1986, and of course was blown away by American way of life. Prior to that, in late 1970s, while in middle school in China, one of the students in my class brought an American architecture magazine to class, and we were fascinated by everything seen. We were shocked by the advertises, and by the magazine itself.
2:50 We didn't have a dishwasher, but dad said he _ENJOYED_ washing the dishes; found it relaxing, and productive. Plus, as an auto mechanic, kept his hands clean.
I am a retired auto mechanic and I enjoy any type of work. I cannot get people who want their machines to do everything for them. But when I bought a house and it just happened to have a dishwasher, I thought that was pretty cool.
I love these videos. It takes me back so fast and I love it. What happened to us. At one point in time it seemed so simple and then the world fell apart. Perhaps we grew to fast and we forgot where we came from. The old days in my opinion were the best. People had it tuff at times but they were always happy and friendly. We had respect for our neighbors and they had respect for us. Now day's, your lucky if your not robbed when you leave the house. Anyway, thank you so much for making these videos. It's good for us older folks who know how life was so good in many ways back then. Have a great day 😀. Peace 🙏
I had to fly to far off places but that was because I was in the navy and the government paid my flight but most places they flew me I didn’t really want to go. 😮
@glennso47 I thought we maybe had a little money. Dad was a pharmaceutical rep. My parents bought a new home in 1960 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms. 17,000 bucks. We were blessed to be a member of the athlete club. Rode our bikes to swim. Got our second car in 1969. Plymouth Fury 3. The car was like not leaving your house. Had a trunk that was 24.5 cubic I just know I have lifelong friends . I'm so glad my parents moved to that neighborhood that was magical. God bless you all.
Back in the 60s a friend of mine came from a two income family, which was very rare back then. They had an in ground pool and I remember they spent a whopping $10.00 for a Christmas tree one year ( I think the average price was $3.50 )
In 1962, my father got a promotion and we moved to a house in an upper middle class neighborhood. It was a 2 story limestone home on a corner lot with a basement that had knotty pine paneling and a fireplace. There was also a fireplace in the living room, a formal dining room, a sun room and 3 bedrooms. It had a full bath on the 2nd floor and a 1/4 bath off the kitchen. There was no central air but it did have a sprinkling system for the lawn. The 2 car garage was not attached. One special feature I remember was it had a grandfather clock built into a nook in the hallway and the doorbell played the Westminster chimes. As I recall, they paid $36000 for the house. By the way, we were a family with ten kids, so the house seemed small to us at the time.
Thirty six thousand dollars??? Where was your house, Beverly Hills? My parents what a beautiful turn of the century stayed home on a half acre just several miles out of town. It was $14,500. It was more house than we needed, and much more than my parents could afford, and my dad was constantly worried about the bank taking it.
I never considered us "rich," but we were very comfortable. My parents built a three-bedroom house around 1966, which had a dishwasher, central air, two bathrooms, and a full basement; and we had two cars and domestic help. My mother worked and made almost as much as my father did, and I now know that is why we were fortunate enough to enjoy such a comfortable life. To me at the time, the rich people had a pool and expensive cars. Thanks for brining back some memories and reminders of the blessings of the times.
I also never considered our family rich in the 60s but, we had every thing he mentioned in the video except a pool and maid. Both my parents worked and both were in upper management in the companies they worked for. I guess I never looked at possessions and lifestyle as differentiating us from anyone else. I'd go to friends houses who had far fewer things but at the time, I didn't notice anything like that. All I cared about was the comradery of friendship.
I agree! We were not rich. In fact I never knew we really didn't. When I got older. Seeing kids driving very nice cars. My parents bought our first home in 1960. 17,000. It was 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms. We always Had very nice Christmases. I am so thankful dad had the Brownie movie camera. We would say that light was bright. It had a spotlight dad could add. We have them on DVD. We got our second car in 1969. Mom and dad had the first color TV on our street. The neighbors came over for the first Supper Bowl. It had a light, that would come on if the program was in color. We had central air. I never considered us wealthy. Mom and dad instilled work values. My grandparents did the same. My mom grew up on a farm, still in our family. I would stay a month in the summer. We never started a Tractor on Sunday. I know this is long, but we need to try and be more kind to people. Give someone a hello. God bless you all.
@@williamflack5767 I'm 78, 14 in 1960, so a bit older than you! My parents bought me a 8mm camera in 1959, so I was the one who shot the home movies then! Great memories until Mom passed at 44 in 1963, so the later 60's were harder for Dad, raising three kids on his own! We made it through, though! Have good Holidays!
Ah… I grew up in Bothell just outside of Seattle. In the 60s we were the only family with a cement hole in the ground… a non heated pool… we had some very hot summers growing up, so not sure what your experience was…
I grew up in the 50’s and it seemed like we kids could stay outside forever and the heat never phased us. But it seems like you step outside and it’s a furnace out there!
My uncle & aunt got one of those in the 60's and our uncle would entertain us kids by driving around town hitting the button on the remote and see how many other garages he could open up! There were only 16 frequencies available back then, so we did pretty well and kept us laughing our head off in the back seat.
1:40 A lot of homes from the '40s (war homes) had ONE bathroom. Such an improvement over having an outhouse. But yes, in the late '50s two bathrooms _was_ a good thing to have !
@@maxwellspeedwell2585 I lived in a shack next to a swamp. I got a snapping turtle for Christmas. This video brought up some feelings. I went to school after an hour bus ride into this beautiful forest and homes that had rich British kids. Now that I'm retired and rich I'm trying to ......heal the wound and shame. I guess the only thing I didn't like about my youth was that a big meteorite didn't crush me. Poverty is a real bitch and it makes people bitter and mean but those rich kids where the nicest humans I have ever met.
When I was in elementary school, there was a kid who brought a lot of snack bags for lunch. He had bags of potato chips, pretzels, fritos, and cheetos. He had them everyday. We always bummed some of those snacks off of him. His family also had a color TV. Now that was being rich in the 60s!!
My parents scrimped and we lived in a mobile home park, although it was a double wide the size of most then ranch houses the neighborhood I was looked down on. It was funny because I was always at the top of the class in school, but that humble home was filled with books and music. Finally at the age of fifteen we were able to afford a beautiful trilevel, I was in heaven, but even still I could not mix with those who thought so little of me. Probably good in the long run
@carollynt If a kid lives a mile away from a mobile home park, how are they going there to play? They would go to the city park and use the basketball courts and baseball diamond. No one goes to a mobile home park to play.
My mother was a housekeeper during the 60s and 70s. We lived in a co-op with in wall air conditioning and an RCA console tv. We were rich to the rest of my family. Five years before I was born my father’s family lived in railroad flat with just a coal stove. Thankfully my grandmother wasn’t caught up in housing discrimination when she applied. Unfortunately she didn’t live to see a better life.
I went to a friends birthday pool party in 1977. Half of the living room had a glass floor, you could see kids swimming under the glass. Had no clue how wealthy this family was at the time.
That’s some way to live. When my brothers family moved to NJ they were invited to a classmates birthday party in Pre school. It was the keyboardist from BonJovi.
@ yes, looking back I realize how utterly insane that design was and what that family paid to construct that must have been my families annual salary 🤣
I was born in 1952, the pictures shown show life pretty much in the suburbs for the middle middle-class who may or may not have graduated from college but had good jobs. Where I grew up in an urban area, these were definitely not the picture of everyday life, except in a very few neighborhoods. We weren't rich and we knew it, but we were comfortable. In the 2020's, young people don't understand 'comfortable'. They want it all, now! not tomorrow. Good video, sparked a lot of memories.
Yes idk who this person is but it wasn't central air then We still have window air conditioning in our house. And having two floors doesn't mean you are rich. It depends on where you live and the house itself. There are plenty of one story homes that were really nice. Having a credit card didn't mean you were successful either that meant you were either struggling or not smart. Most of our grandparents were smart back then many were not in debt.
Older houses weren't built for central air. It was expensive to duct an old house - that's why window or wall units were used. Most houses built in areas where it got hot had central air starting in the 60s.
We had a small Frigidaire swamp cooler about the size of a microwave. We would lie on the floor inches from the cooler on our blankets trying to stay cool, but it was still too hot to sleep.
We got central air in 1965, it was a huge natural gas unit. We weren’t rich, but it was one luxury mom wanted. We did have a dishwasher, it was mom. 😁 We just had one color TV, bought by grandma for Christmas. Had two cars, only because both mom and dad worked.
@@gustavsorensen9301 Not even close. People are poorer and less happy than any time in recent history, the internet and cellphones has destroyed any semblance of real community, almost nobody is healthy. Every decade since the 1950s has gotten progressively worse.
I knew my family wasn't rich and our lack of ANY of these home features confirmed it. In the 1970's, with three kids in the house, my dad did add a powder room for us. But he also sacrificed about half of my bedroom area to accommodate it! We managed.
I remember reading many decades ago about someone who decided to calculate how much of an income the father, on the TV show Father Knows Best, had to earn in order to afford the house he and his wife and three children occupied. The father, Jim Anderson (Robert Young) was the sole source of income. The calculation was that he earned $40k/year, around 1958-1960. That would be equivalent to about $400k/year today. The family-oriented TV shows back then usually showed the lifestyle of a family living at a higher level than that of most people of the day. In a way, the TV lifestyles were styles to aspire to.
There is a laughable episode of Leave it to Beaver where they decided to move because they wanted more room. Yeah most people back then could not relate to the houses the Andersons, and the Cleavers lived in. I always thought it was odd. What DID Ward Cleaver do for a living, anyway???
And all the moms on those family tv shows wore dresses and 2” high heels and pearls while they did the cooking and cleaning! And Lucy & Ricky had twin beds!
I was born in 1967 and I don't have memories really until 1972. We lived in DC. My mom worked on Capitol Hill and my stepfather was a Lobbyist. We had everything listed but the pool. We belonged to the Mount Vernon Yacht Club..it was a blast
@@lindahollander3588 I lived in a shack next to a swamp. I got a snapping turtle for Christmas. This video brought up some feelings. I went to school after an hour bus ride into this beautiful forest and homes that had rich British kids. Now that I'm retired and rich I'm trying to ......heal the wound and shame. I guess the only thing I didn't like about my youth was that a big meteorite didn't crush me. Poverty is a real bitch and it makes people bitter and mean but those rich kids where the nicest humans I have ever met.
Born 1965- mom raised 5 of us on welfare( dad left). We were so poor. I’m a teacher, I have a special place in my heart for poor kids( hence in teach inner city).
The best memories of growing up in the 60s was all the tv shows that were kid friendly you could look at and parents didn't have to hide from you . Kids weren't exposed to adult things as much back then and could be kids. No internet or video games was a good thing you could use your imagination and play outside even in summer or winter, ride your bike without a helmet, and if you fell and got a scrape you brushed it off and kept playing. There were also no lame participation trophies you either won or lost life went on .
Sadly, one of the biggest reasons many people in the USA don't accumulate wealth today is that they spend every dime on things they don't need - from daily "conveniences" to stuffing their homes with junk to remodeling to keep up with the "latest designs". People didn't do that in the 1960's or 1970's, and as a result they have significant savings accounts, stocks & bonds (or CD's when the interest rates were high), and often paid off their homes early. Spend less than what you earn, and save/invest as much as possible. You can become wealthy or you can keep up with your peers in terms of buying stuff but it's unlikely you will be able to do both.
Yea, most of our parents living in basic boxes and only bought nice houses as they got older. A big difference today however is that most families are dual income and so they spend extra. No one thought about buying $7 dollar coffee.
What a load of crap. People in the US can't afford a house because the average home price is $457,000. College is 30x the cost in the 60s. Corporate greed is rampant after the pandemic. Taxes on property are out of control. But ya.....let's blame the people.
I always used to keep the plastic on the lamp shades! Lol. Which I would no longer do now. But back then I smoked, so it probably wasn't a bad idea! Hahaha!
A good friend worked for RCA as a TV repair man. It was just accepted that your TV would need new tubes once in a while, until the Japanese manufacturers came along.
One summer relatives were visiting for about a week. My dad pulled out all the stops, went to JCPenney‘s, and bought a huge 24 inch color TV! That was about three weeks pay!
Actually, we didn't know the whole house A/C existed. As kids, we enjoyed sleeping outside. In the summer, when it was hot, we'd open all the windows, open the doors, and garage door, turn the lights. It cooled off the house.
@eddenoy321 Right, I lived in Pittsburgh, and our summers got hot. As teenagers, we'd run around the neighborhood and play with the girls on the porches. The girls were aloud off the porch, but the boys were. Boys are hard for the parents to control.
I had to laugh when you talked about how people had to be rich if they had more than one car! 😂 My dad always was buying, selling and trading vehicles. One day when Mom went to the Piggly Wiggly for groceries, she and the young man helping her carry them out to the car stopped when they got outside and the young man asked her which car was hers. She said she started to feel frantic when she couldn't remember which one it was! Dad could never keep a car for long and we were all coached on what to say if strangers came to the door asking about why we had all those cars.
Well, it's been confirmed. We were poor. We didn't have any of these until we siblings were grown, but we had plenty of fun outside using our imagination!😂😊
Our house was a 100+ year old two story farmhouse. It was entirely gutted and my parents renovated it over close to a decade: Dad had to put in plumbing, (baseboard) heat, and electricity. Mom's friends lamented at what Dad put her through, but when we needed to move to follow work, the house sold for a nice profit enabling them to build a new home where we relocated. That old farmhouse is still occupied and it's 150+ years old now (surviving many of the majestic trees that grew around it).
In the 1960's we had a 3 story home in New Hampshire built in the 1850's. It had to be renovated as well. We had no running water, used an outhouse and had a crank phone until around 1964. When I was 10 years old I remember being puzzled when my parents said the bank owned the house. I had no concept of mortgages then. I loved that house and was sad to move in 1968. The home was renovated further in the early 2000's and now is used as housing for local college students.
My great grandfather's house is gone now. My grandparents rented it out after they moved into town as they were getting too old to live so far out in the country. The renters were hoarders and they destroyed the house. Alas.
My parents home was built in 67. I was born in 66 - We definitely had central air conditioning, we had to use sheets to stay warm at night because it was so cool in the house and 90° degrees at night during the summer. Dad wasn't rich, but he worked for the department of labor. Contract compliance paid a great salary in the 60's until he retired in 1989. 😊
And the 70s and 80s! Most states had outlawed the use of them by the late 1960s though. That meant you had to live in a very rural area to keep one still!
It was 1972 when they first put indoor plumbing into my family's farmhouse. My grandparent's generation was the last to actively farm the land. We never lived there, but spent lots of summers in the old place. The outhouse in the summer was quite the experience, especially when the bees were looking for new expansion areas. Even the kitchen sink was a handle pump over a washtub that my great uncle permanently installed in a large cabinet he built. Wood stove that heated the house using open grates to the upstairs bedrooms. Rememberings....
Back in the 60's, we knew an old couple who were still farming into their late 70's, had electricity but still used an outhouse, had only one water faucet and a dirt yard around their house. They'd immigrated from Russia in 1906. When they both passed, they left $1.2 in stocks to their heirs. Apparently, old Mr Meyer had money stuffed in his mattress and bought up as much as he could right after the crash of 1929.
We used an outhouse in the summer back in the 60s. My uncle had a big old farmhouse and no bathroom ,never did have indoor plumbing. We had to pump water at the back porch and warm it on the stove and pour it in a granite tub on the kitchen table to do the dishes
My parents got a color TV after I joined the Air Force, they also got cable. They told me that they could now afford these things, cuase they weren't feeding me! 🤣
I remember there was a ballot initiative in California to insure that TV remained free. Imagine that. They wanted not to have to pay for television. Silly people. Now we pay like 160/mo to watch TV. Maybe they were right to fight cable TV.
I like window air conditioning units. My grandparents had one in the farm house my great grandfather built. I liked the hum of the window unit. It's soothing, and drowns out the noise of crickets in the country (or noisy neighbors, traffic and police sirens in the city). It's nice as white noise for sleeping.
In my small Louisiana town, every household that wasn't actually poor had a maid in the 50s and 60s. My mother started paying into social security for ours the minute it became law and when our former maid became disabled years later, she thought that disability check was manna from heaven. I don't think any of my friends' parents did that for their maids.
And even though we couldn’t afford to take fancy trips by airplane back in the 60’s, at least people dressed decently for airline flights, instead of wearing shorts and flip flops!
Hear, hear! I am very content with my lot in life, although knowing that there is more. That is the greatest blessing that I could hope for. Thirty three years ago, I was on unemployment benefits and struggling to get just one or two days a week's cash work. They were brutally hard times. I hated them, and I felt robbed for many a year. But boy, did they give me an appreciation of the things in life that are truly valuable.
Later 80s and 1990s sitcoms changed what people regarded as the signs of being middle-class. People started building up huge credit card debt to meet the new "requirements." In the 1950s and 1950s it was considered a negative thing to use expensive consumer objects to show how well you were doing - being regular old middle-class was considered all-American. Even many celebrities did photo spreads in Life Magazine (for instance) that were aimed at making them look middle-class. Things have completely changed. US society heavily indebted itself in the name of conspicuous consumption. I remember noticing this as it happened.
One of my classmate's family build a custom home not far away. It was really unique, even ended up in Life magazine. I always thought they were seriously rich and they might have been. Got to tour the house with my class one day.
My great uncle and his brother built our house in 1966. My dad was in management for the DOT for 40 years. We had a 3 bedroom 2 bath house. The second bath was just a toilet/sink. We were in our house three years before we got a color TV. The old one died. We had one car until the mid 70’s when my mom started working. My sisters were 8 & 11 years younger than me. I shared a bedroom with a sister until the youngest was old enough for a bed. I then had my own room and my sisters shared. We had central air which was rare in our neighborhood. My grandfather bought it for our house. We had a TV room where we always gathered. We had a large living room that only got used at Christmas. Even then maybe two days. We had no inground pools in our neighborhood. No one had maids. Most of the moms were stay at home until the mid 70’s. I did all the cleaning, laundry, ironing and babysitting until I moved out and got married. My mom had it easy until I left. Even in high school I had a short schedule the last two years. I went to school, came home and cleaned, then went to my job at McDonald’s.
@ She worked off and on in the 70’s. When I was in high school 72-76 she was PT at night. Then, late 70’s and 80’s she was FT. I moved out and married in 78. This whole time I was doing all the cleaning, laundry, ironing and babysitting. My mom would make plans to go out every weekend with family friends. I had to babysit every weekend and I hated it! If my parents had to pay a sitter my mom wouldn’t be making plans. When I started at McDonald’s and dating my future husband she let up on the babysitting. My parents divorced in 1980. Then, she had to go FT from then on. She got a second car in the mid 70’s which I used when I had to close at McDonald’s and not get home until 11:30 pm on a school night.
My parents bought their 1st new home in 1961. It was a two story home in Santa Clara, CA. It cost them $23,450.00. Last year, it sold for $1,950,000.00 ! It was an "all electric" home. Great memories, but I wouldn't want to live there now. All you see are boats, vans, and SUVs . BACK THEN, what we saw were T-Birds, Bonneville, Corvette, Mercury wagons,Olds, and Cadillac.
My parents bought their 1,000 sf ranch home in San Jose, CA in 1966 and paid 19K. 3bed/2Bath. A small modest home in the best school district. It now sells for 2million. Who would have thought? (They sold it 25 yrs ago)
In 1964 my father built a custom build 3000 sq foot one story house on a large lot in south Florida. It had central ac in every room including the closets and bathrooms with every appliance a modern kitchen could possibly have in 1964. I guess that was considered a rich mans house for 1964, but to me and everyone else in the neighborhood it was considered just normal. I could not imagine living a day in Florida without ac.
My parents' house had 2 bathrooms: one the contractor but in and another one in the basement that Dad built. Dad divided the basement into 2 areas: the laundry and the rec room ( family room today). Dad and Mom both worked on design and bought needed items as they had money. The laundry room had the ringer washer, 2 large rinsing tubs and a large closet Dad built. The bath had plastic panels that you could not see through in front of the toilet and washer. They covered the walls with 1 inch x 1 inch ceramic (?) tiles and 4 x 4 inch tiles on the floor. They saved money by buying open boxes where others had bought only half the box or less. They stayed with shades of tan, ivory, and browns. It looked very professional and was very convenient. As for a dish washer or house keeper, I guess I was the manual version of it!
I grew up in a shack in the bush in the 60s in British Columbia. Walked to school and home through 3 feet of snow in 40 below weather. It was uphill both ways.
Parents had a house built in '65. After years growing up with a huge attic fan and chasing mosquitos on my pink walls at night and suffering from hay fever mom declares one time that we should have had central air put in when building. Gee, thanks mom.
I was a latchkey kid in the sixties because Mom had to work after my POS father left. To me anyone who had a Mom at home when they came home from school was rich.
My mom stayed home but one day, about 1959 she went to work. She did that for about forty years. After work we just wanted her to pay attention to us but she wanted her newspaper and would get mad if we interrupted her and her precious newspaper. When I married, my wife one evening picked-up the paper. I said no way. We would talk and be a family. To this day I still have a deep loathing for newspapers.
No more home baked cookies when I came home from school in 1966. Mom went to work. Had no time to listen to our school day when she came home to cook dinner. Tired & worn. My summers were spent with a list of chores to do each day, handwritten by mom and we were not allowed to leave the house. Long boring summers with fist fights with my brother. I grew to love school months with friends and be sad in the summer of zero fun, no trips. A latch key kid where my grandfather tried to molest me in the 6th grade with no parents home. That was the last I saw of him after telling my parents. My dad said that he would kill him if he ever came to our house again. My dad then called all our relatives to warn them his father was a pedophile and to keep their children away from him. My life ended being able to enjoy my Italian heritage. For my grandfather showed up to every event. If we saw his car, we kept on driving back to home. Everyone in the car would be angry, so I started to blame myself of why did I ever tell. That’s what child victims do, they blame themselves. We had to live in secret for no one could know in the 60’s. Ssshhh…
@ Oh my gosh that is so awful. I’m so sorry you went through that but at least your parents tried to protect you and believed you. We were poor as church mice but we were safe and happy. Years later when I was an adult I found my father’s second family (he was dead) and my half sister told me they suffered through alcoholism and sexual abuse from him. So in a way I was spared not having a father.
My parents received an RCA 'portable' TV set as a wedding present. I remember being the only family on our street with color TV. We had that TV till... 1984, then the only store that sold replacement tubes went out of business and we got our 1st ugly black plastic box TV.
We had many of these things, but we weren't rich. Middle class, I would say. We had a dishwasher, Radar Range, a refrigerator with an ice maker, a pool, 2 bathrooms, our own bedrooms, clothes whenever we needed them, and a Hi Fi system. My dad got a new car every year through his work, so we always had 2 cars. As soon as we kids turned 16 we had our own cars, used of course. My parents went to Vegas a lot, and flew some of the time. But.... I had to go to my grandma's house to watch color TV. I had a very good childhood.
I can’t think of anyone in my family who didn’t have a housekeeper in the 60’s and even in the 70’s. My grandmother would even take her housekeeper with her to events to help her with all sorts of things.
In the 1970s flying was fun! Not crowded at all plenty of empty seats. Dressed up to the nines! It was luxury at its finest. A flight to LAX , then off to Disney! California was beautiful! Flowers and greenery all along the highways. No liter or garbage on the streets. NO HOMELESS EVER! Oh those were the days.
I had most of this in the 70s. 2 floors, own bedroom, my sister had her own as well. We had one and a half bathrooms, dishwasher, and cable tv. My mom was one of the first people on her block to have a colored tv. We were ritch I guess. Damn, I even had my own play room! And we had a washer and dryer! Wow
Sadly, it was those extras that made life exciting to experience, or something to work for in anticipation of acquiring. Now, just being able to afford your rent or buying a first home are all but unaffordable, at best for many. The 1960s exemplified the American dream.
We got a white flocked Christmas tree only one year in the mid 70s and never again afterwards! It was very dry and dusty to take down and the flock that came off of it could really make you cough! It was during the time when wild colors were being used like pink and blue! I saw a spot of yellow flock that got on a branch near the bottom! Haha! We were by no means wealthy, but because of there being six kids the house my parents bought needed to be larger and it had a living and family room - each of those with working fireplaces! We never used the one in the living room and my mom was forever proclaiming she was "going to get a gas log for it" but that never happened! Sadly, when the house was sold in 2022 the nitwits that remodeled the place sealed off the living room one and put a fake one over the family room one! The old brick chimneys are still on the outside!
Our 600 sq foot house was built in 1905 with a barn in the backyard. We got our first TV (b&w) in 1966, I graduated high school the same year. Yep, everyone in this film was rich to us.
I guess my parents were rich…1954 moved into a 2 story home….had a Jaguar XK120…then muscle cars…my dad got his pilots license in 62…bought a plane in 63….68…and 73…they always had hot cars…vacations….I came along in 1961 …mom had a housekeeper too…she didn’t work…had a great childhood…😊.
We didn't have central air conditioning until I was about 12 years old. It was hot sleeping upstairs, but dad put in a big boxed fan that ran on a pully. That thing would hum me to sleep every night.
My parents started early. Mom had me at 20 & by 26 there were 4 more. They bought two brand new homes during their marriage. First was a Levitt Cape Cod. 4 beds & 2 baths. We outgrew that & the school district. Built a 5 bedroom w/3 baths & a den. Full basement & 3 car garage. We moved into the last house in 1970. There were 25 homes on our horseshoe & 2 in a cul de sac. My Pop pop thought it was funny my bros. used that word instead of dead end. Ours was on the biggest piece of property. A wooded lot. Dad was done with mowing lawns. He put a basketball court up in the cul de sac for us. Our house sat on the corner. Tons of kids to play with. On Sundays people would drive by slow down & ask us “How much did your parents pay for those houses?” Are they millionaires? Crazy stuff.
As a kid in the 60s, being the child of an Air Force enlisted man, we lived on base in base housing. We didn't get to live off base until the 70s. And then it was with Dad making arrangements to be a property caretaker in order to afford the rent on the house. That old house became the favorite place our family ever lived in.
Back in the 60s as kids we were rich. Grew up in the country rode our bikes. My pockets were loaded with Dimes, Nickels, and Pennies we went to the general store and loaded up on candy and toys. Those coins went a long ways back then.We had 2 wall air conditioners in our house in the 60s we had central heating in most of the house. Air conditioning was added on in the 70s.
We certainly were rich as kids. Now & later candy in the pocket, and if you cut grandma's grass, you got a whopping $5. Enough to go to McDonald's and get a Big Mac for $1.75. The 70's were the best. ❤
we lived in a one story spanish colonial home, no dishwashers. only one bathroom, one car chevy impala etc. I never felt poor growing up, loving parents nice clean two bedroom home never went hungry' Went to a private school.Everything was good without all the extra gadgets mentioned above.
This video was created in part by the recommendations of viewers. Thank you so much for commenting! Share your own thoughts below.
I love your videos. Could you please make one of these for the 80s? Thank you!👍🙏
Much of this content applies to anyone growing up in the 70s as well. I appreciate the nostalgia, but as I age I recognize that none of the outward displays of wealth matter.
My family got Color TV and a dishwasher in 67. Every mom where we lived had a 2nd car, older car, it was necessary to have for kids and school when you lived in the country.
Back when a $ 28,000 home is now 3,000,000 no health care , student debt, and no bonuses or pay raises ..the American dream does not exist ...this is why I'm a fucking communist..😊
@@CliftonBowers I completely agree… that’s why I believe in Socialism…
I visited Canada & parts of Scandinavia ( Denmark 🇩🇰 & Sweden 🇸🇪) I love the way the government treats their citizens!! Social democratic society, they have Socialism by tradition and it works Marvelously !!!
We didn’t even have ceiling fans in my home in the 60s but we had quality cuts of meat every night - a luxury I cannot afford now
Ceiling fans weren't really a thing in the 60's.
We had oscillating fans in most rooms. I still use fans instead of air conditioning the bulk of the time. I hate the closed up feel with the AC on, although if it's really, really, hot and humid at night, I'll run it for sleeping.
@@robertd9850 Yes they were. They were invented in 1887. The demand died down in late 1950's but in the 1970's the demand went back up. I still have one around form 1977 and it still works great.
We were just watching an old instructional video from the 60’s on being a cashier at a grocery store. I was laughing at the prices of can goods when my son pointed out the big pieces of meat they were buying!
@@eupher2 I know ceiling fans have been around since at least the early 1900's since I used to see those old ugly ones in the drugstore when I was a kid but they were not commonplace in the '60's or even the 70's until the energy crisis.
Looking back we were a family of 6. Lived in a house 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. Dad worked very hard. Never missed a day of work. We were lower middle class. Mom was a homemaker. Never appreciated. Sorry mom. Mom and dad did everything for us. Thanks mom and dad.
My eyes tearful unexpectedly reading your comment😊
My parents were just like that; they were still in their twenties, poor and lived in a tiny apartment in suburb Tokyo but they provided everything they could ever afford for us kids. I am in my sixties now and they are gone.
I live in a 2br/1ba house, and I just can't fathom having five other people in the house with me.
@@shelbynamels973 Neither can I - I’d go crazy.
Six children and a housewife to support...
That guy's dad had to have sex.
🥹that’s so sweet
We weren’t rich, but as kids, we didn’t know it.
And, in fact, in general we had much higher quality of lives.
People were a lot less materialistic back in those days
@@wwbuirkleMost of them, anyway.
@@wwbuirkletrue but there wasn’t the amt of choices that we have today. Take sneakers for ex. Back in the 60s there were PF flyers, converse, keds or rejects. Today, there are dozens of sneaker brands. Ppl even collect sneakers which was something totally unheard of in the 60s.
@@annaqsmith I have totally lost count at how many perfectly good pairs of shoes (including sneakers) I have found in the trash. Many of them were practically new. I literally have enough shoes to last me the rest of my life. The ones that don't fit me I give to the Goodwill.
I’m 81. My parents bought their first house when I was 11 in 1955. (Yes, I’m older than Disneyland!) The house was 35 miles from downtown LA. It had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and it was almost 1200 ft.². It cost $11,000 and the payments were $99 per month. My Dad was an LAPD detective sergeant, and his salary was $400 per month.
Gasoline was 25-cents per gallon when I began driving @ 15-1/2 in 1959. Stayed at that price all the way through very early 1960s.
@@kidavis3386 When I started driving in 1962 sometimes they would have a "gas war" and it would be 19 cents a gallon.
Thank you for sharing your valuable and authentic perspective about life in the US “back in the days..”😊
Officer Gannon? 😁
Life was affordable.
And appliances and most everything, were made so much better back then, too.
I have a toaster that was made in The Bronx. Its fantastic. Modern plastic ones are junk
So true! Today's appliances and goods have short life spans and are "intentionally" made to be "disposable" so you can repeat and keep buying another which is a corporate $hareholder tactic.
That’s a fact!
My sister still has my mother‘s Maytag washer from the 70’s. I had a Kenmore dishwasher that lasted 25 years.
Amen. Appliances are trash these days. Nothing is good quality anymore. I hate having to replace things all the time, it sucks.
I was 6 years old in 1966. My family had none of the things in your video, except for an old car. But we were happy. We moved to a different apartment in 1972 and the only thing new we had was a color TV.
I grew up "rich" like you, but it wasn't money and 'things' that did it. If only the world had that attitude now.
We didn't have color tv till 88 haaa but had other goodies
Only thing we had in this video was my own room-because I was an only child!
@@lawrencequave7361 I lived in a shack next to a swamp. I got a snapping turtle for Christmas. This video brought up some feelings. I went to school after an hour bus ride into this beautiful forest and homes that had rich British kids. Now that I'm retired and rich I'm trying to ......heal the wound and shame. I guess the only thing I didn't like about my youth was that a big meteorite didn't crush me. Poverty is a real bitch and it makes people bitter and mean but those rich kids where the nicest humans I have ever met.
Difference today is everything is on credit. “I want it & I want it now”. Going to a restaurant was rare, had 2 cars, not fancy, 1 tv, home cooked meals, no fancy trips. Today it has to be 2 new SUV’s, multiple TV’s & electronics, latest phone, fancy schools etc etc etc. Everything on credit. We were taught to earn money, save & buy when we had funds. I still live that way at 75. Live well, invested, nice modest car, nice home. Do not live within your means, live below your means! I still pick up pennies.
Credit and great advertising made us all so materialistic.
Remember the Kingston Brothers song, Dollar Down and a Dollar a Week?
@@tomfields3682 I remember the song!
Your generation screwed us now.
Everything was on credit back then so if you wanted, People were smarter than to get credit though for frivolous things
If you had a color TV that was the pinnacle. There was a guy on my street Mr Heinz. Whenever there was something special on TV, he’d roll out his big color TV on his porch and invited us kids and anyone else to watch. Most in my neighborhood had 16-18” black and white that were on roller carts. And the rabbit ears that never came in right lol. Still great times and memories
I'm in Australia. We didn't get a colour TV until the late 70's, in our house. But that's not the worst part. My father had worked in television since 1956! He climbed the corporate ladder at one of our TV stations and had been producing TV commercials under his own banner for ten years before we got our first colour TV set... the last one on the block.
I never lived in a place that had HVAC or dishwasher till I moved into my 1st apartment (in the mid 1980's) -- one bathroom was the norm (except one place we lived in for 1 year - two story & bath on each floor)
I grew up with regular cooking (no microwave till 1980's) and food preservation every year.
But we always had a roof over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs & each other. I learned many lessons from my parents scraping by in thin seasons & many of them get my hubby & I by even today!
Microwaves were out before the 80s but, the basic standard microwave didn’t come out till the 80s! 9:30
Are you my sister??!! (Or brother??!!😂) you just described my childhood and young adulthood, to the T!!!
I came to America from China in 1986, and of course was blown away by American way of life. Prior to that, in late 1970s, while in middle school in China, one of the students in my class brought an American architecture magazine to class, and we were fascinated by everything seen. We were shocked by the advertises, and by the magazine itself.
Color TV reminds me of scene from Back to The Future when Marty says "You know we have two of them" and the kid replies "WOW you must be rich!"
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!!
Happy New Year, Debra Kildau!
Thank and like wise ✌😃
My only comment is thank you. 82 yo here that lived this
2:50 We didn't have a dishwasher, but dad said he _ENJOYED_ washing the dishes; found it relaxing, and productive. Plus, as an auto mechanic, kept his hands clean.
As long as he didn't wash the dishes right after doing an oil change .
We didn't have a dishwasher either. My dad said he and my mom had "three little dishwashers."
I know exactly how he feels. I'm not an auto mechanic but I still don't use the dishwasher to this day. I make sure if you use it just wash it.
My dad did, and said the same thing.
I am a retired auto mechanic and I enjoy any type of work. I cannot get people who want their machines to do everything for them.
But when I bought a house and it just happened to have a dishwasher, I thought that was pretty cool.
I love these videos. It takes me back so fast and I love it. What happened to us. At one point in time it seemed so simple and then the world fell apart.
Perhaps we grew to fast and we forgot where we came from. The old days in my opinion were the best.
People had it tuff at times but they were always happy and friendly. We had respect for our neighbors and they had respect for us. Now day's, your lucky if your not robbed when you leave the house.
Anyway, thank you so much for making these videos. It's good for us older folks who know how life was so good in many ways back then.
Have a great day 😀. Peace 🙏
I think it was when JFK was killed. It seems like that was when the world changed forever. Then came 9/11.
Specially if you had 2 cars. My dad had two cars but both of them were beaters. A 1942 Chevy and a 1953 Chevy.
I had to fly to far off places but that was because I was in the navy and the government paid my flight but most places they flew me I didn’t really want to go. 😮
@glennso47 I thought we maybe had a little money. Dad was a pharmaceutical rep. My parents bought a new home in 1960 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms. 17,000 bucks. We were blessed to be a member of the athlete club. Rode our bikes to swim.
Got our second car in 1969. Plymouth Fury 3. The car was like not leaving your house. Had a trunk that was 24.5 cubic
I just know I have lifelong friends . I'm so glad my parents moved to that neighborhood that was magical.
God bless you all.
Back in the 60s a friend of mine came from a two income family, which was very rare back then. They had an in ground pool and I remember they spent a whopping $10.00 for a Christmas tree one year ( I think the average price was $3.50 )
In 1962, my father got a promotion and we moved to a house in an upper middle class neighborhood. It was a 2 story limestone home on a corner lot with a basement that had knotty pine paneling and a fireplace. There was also a fireplace in the living room, a formal dining room, a sun room and 3 bedrooms. It had a full bath on the 2nd floor and a 1/4 bath off the kitchen. There was no central air but it did have a sprinkling system for the lawn. The 2 car garage was not attached. One special feature I remember was it had a grandfather clock built into a nook in the hallway and the doorbell played the Westminster chimes. As I recall, they paid $36000 for the house. By the way, we were a family with ten kids, so the house seemed small to us at the time.
What is a quarter bath? Just a toilet? (A half bath is a toilet and sink……so?)
Thirty six thousand dollars??? Where was your house, Beverly Hills? My parents what a beautiful turn of the century stayed home on a half acre just several miles out of town. It was $14,500. It was more house than we needed, and much more than my parents could afford, and my dad was constantly worried about the bank taking it.
I never considered us "rich," but we were very comfortable. My parents built a three-bedroom house around 1966, which had a dishwasher, central air, two bathrooms, and a full basement; and we had two cars and domestic help. My mother worked and made almost as much as my father did, and I now know that is why we were fortunate enough to enjoy such a comfortable life. To me at the time, the rich people had a pool and expensive cars. Thanks for brining back some memories and reminders of the blessings of the times.
I also never considered our family rich in the 60s but, we had every thing he mentioned in the video except a pool and maid. Both my parents worked and both were in upper management in the companies they worked for. I guess I never looked at possessions and lifestyle as differentiating us from anyone else. I'd go to friends houses who had far fewer things but at the time, I didn't notice anything like that. All I cared about was the comradery of friendship.
I would have considered you rich. 😊 We were kind of poor.
I agree! We were not rich. In fact I never knew we really didn't. When I got older. Seeing kids driving very nice cars. My parents bought our first home in 1960. 17,000. It was 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms. We always
Had very nice Christmases. I am so thankful dad had the Brownie movie camera. We would say that light was bright. It had a spotlight dad could add. We have them on DVD. We got our second car in 1969. Mom and dad had the first color TV on our street. The neighbors came over for the first Supper Bowl. It had a light, that would come on if the program was in color. We had central air. I never considered us wealthy. Mom and dad instilled work values. My grandparents did the same. My mom grew up on a farm, still in our family. I would stay a month in the summer. We never started a Tractor on Sunday.
I know this is long, but we need to try and be more kind to people. Give someone a hello. God bless you all.
@@williamflack5767 I'm 78, 14 in 1960, so a bit older than you! My parents
bought me a 8mm camera in 1959, so I was the one who shot the home
movies then! Great memories until Mom passed at 44 in 1963, so the later
60's were harder for Dad, raising three kids on his own! We made it through,
though! Have good Holidays!
Dude, you were rich. 😒
When I grew up in Seattle in the 1960's, abnormally warm weather wasn't a thing (like now) so no one needed home A/C. I miss those days so much!
Seattle area got hotter because of the heat sink created by miles of concrete and metal in the name of growth. Trees and grass don't hold heat.
Ah… I grew up in Bothell just outside of Seattle. In the 60s we were the only family with a cement hole in the ground… a non heated pool… we had some very hot summers growing up, so not sure what your experience was…
I grew up in the 50’s and it seemed like we kids could stay outside forever and the heat never phased us. But it seems like you step outside and it’s a furnace out there!
@@flowerdoyle3749and everyones favorite -global warming-
It's no hotter in Washington state now than when I was a kid in the 70s.
Having an electric garage door opener in the ‘60s was fancy!
My uncle & aunt got one of those in the 60's and our uncle would entertain us kids by driving around town hitting the button on the remote and see how many other garages he could open up! There were only 16 frequencies available back then, so we did pretty well and kept us laughing our head off in the back seat.
You had a garage? 😄
@@billolsen4360, that would make a great scene in a TV show or a movie! LOL! 😺!
Having a garage was luxury
We had a carport but not always a car
1:40 A lot of homes from the '40s (war homes) had ONE bathroom. Such an improvement over having an outhouse.
But yes, in the late '50s two bathrooms _was_ a good thing to have !
My wife & I both had an outhouse when we we’re kids. It wasn’t a hardship.
Kids would sometimes knock over an outhouse on Halloween.
@@maxwellspeedwell2585 I lived in a shack next to a swamp. I got a snapping turtle for Christmas. This video brought up some feelings. I went to school after an hour bus ride into this beautiful forest and homes that had rich British kids. Now that I'm retired and rich I'm trying to ......heal the wound and shame. I guess the only thing I didn't like about my youth was that a big meteorite didn't crush me. Poverty is a real bitch and it makes people bitter and mean but those rich kids where the nicest humans I have ever met.
When I was in elementary school, there was a kid who brought a lot of snack bags for lunch. He had bags of potato chips, pretzels, fritos, and cheetos. He had them everyday. We always bummed some of those snacks off of him. His family also had a color TV. Now that was being rich in the 60s!!
My parents scrimped and we lived in a mobile home park, although it was a double wide the size of most then ranch houses the neighborhood I was looked down on. It was funny because I was always at the top of the class in school, but that humble home was filled with books and music. Finally at the age of fifteen we were able to afford a beautiful trilevel, I was in heaven, but even still I could not mix with those who thought so little of me. Probably good in the long run
Kids can be such jerks!!
That was probably just your imagination. I lived in a mobile home, and no one "looked down on" me or anyone else in a mobile home.
@ uh no
It’s not your imagination. Some parents wouldn’t even allow their kids to play in mobile home parks.
@carollynt If a kid lives a mile away from a mobile home park, how are they going there to play?
They would go to the city park and use the basketball courts and baseball diamond. No one goes to a mobile home park to play.
My mother was a housekeeper during the 60s and 70s. We lived in a co-op with in wall air conditioning and an RCA console tv. We were rich to the rest of my family. Five years before I was born my father’s family lived in railroad flat with just a coal stove. Thankfully my grandmother wasn’t caught up in housing discrimination when she applied. Unfortunately she didn’t live to see a better life.
I went to a friends birthday pool party in 1977. Half of the living room had a glass floor, you could see kids swimming under the glass. Had no clue how wealthy this family was at the time.
That’s some way to live. When my brothers family moved to NJ they were invited to a classmates birthday party in Pre school. It was the keyboardist from BonJovi.
So half of the living room had at least part of a swimming pool underneath it?
@ yes, looking back I realize how utterly insane that design was and what that family paid to construct that must have been my families annual salary 🤣
I was born in 1952, the pictures shown show life pretty much in the suburbs for the middle middle-class who may or may not have graduated from college but had good jobs. Where I grew up in an urban area, these were definitely not the picture of everyday life, except in a very few neighborhoods. We weren't rich and we knew it, but we were comfortable. In the 2020's, young people don't understand 'comfortable'. They want it all, now! not tomorrow. Good video, sparked a lot of memories.
People don't understand the concept of "enough".
I was born in 1952..
My political sign is a rising Eisenhower with a revolving Nixon.
In the 60s the only AC we had was a window ac in my parents bedroom. On a really hot day we all ended up there looking at tv.
Same here in late 60s early 70 s air on in parents room only A/C in the house because dad worked 3rd shift.
Yes idk who this person is but it wasn't central air then We still have window air conditioning in our house. And having two floors doesn't mean you are rich. It depends on where you live and the house itself. There are plenty of one story homes that were really nice. Having a credit card didn't mean you were successful either that meant you were either struggling or not smart. Most of our grandparents were smart back then many were not in debt.
@@millennialodyssey5956 Yep 2 story homes don't have anything to do with wealth.
Older houses weren't built for central air. It was expensive to duct an old house - that's why window or wall units were used. Most houses built in areas where it got hot had central air starting in the 60s.
We had a small Frigidaire swamp cooler about the size of a microwave. We would lie on the floor inches from the cooler on our blankets trying to stay cool, but it was still too hot to sleep.
We had 465 air conditioning in our family cars. 4 windows rolled down at 65 MPH! Some even had a AM radio with 5 push button stations "programmed in".
We got central air in 1965, it was a huge natural gas unit. We weren’t rich, but it was one luxury mom wanted.
We did have a dishwasher, it was mom. 😁
We just had one color TV, bought by grandma for Christmas.
Had two cars, only because both mom and dad worked.
Good times still. Family unit. ❤
@@oreally8605 we had three dishwashers - my brother, my sister and me.
Most people will be considered rich in the 2060s if they have a 2-person tent with the way things are going in this world.
Agree 100% The 2020s is the best time to be alive. The Internet has made life so much easier. By 2060, it may be banned
What did Americans use to illuminate their houses before candles?
Electricity.
@@gustavsorensen9301Best time for you, not for everyone.
@@gustavsorensen9301I do believe it's past your bedtime child. If you aren't a child, I pity you.
@@gustavsorensen9301 Not even close. People are poorer and less happy than any time in recent history, the internet and cellphones has destroyed any semblance of real community, almost nobody is healthy. Every decade since the 1950s has gotten progressively worse.
Going to my friends house after school and they had store bought cookies and all the milk we could drink! 🙂
My friend's family always bought name brands groceries. I thought they were rich.
I knew my family wasn't rich and our lack of ANY of these home features confirmed it. In the 1970's, with three kids in the house, my dad did add a powder room for us. But he also sacrificed about half of my bedroom area to accommodate it! We managed.
That's good living. A family rich in love and making due. ❤
I remember reading many decades ago about someone who decided to calculate how much of an income the father, on the TV show Father Knows Best, had to earn in order to afford the house he and his wife and three children occupied. The father, Jim Anderson (Robert Young) was the sole source of income. The calculation was that he earned $40k/year, around 1958-1960. That would be equivalent to about $400k/year today. The family-oriented TV shows back then usually showed the lifestyle of a family living at a higher level than that of most people of the day. In a way, the TV lifestyles were styles to aspire to.
There is a laughable episode of Leave it to Beaver where they decided to move because they wanted more room. Yeah most people back then could not relate to the houses the Andersons, and the Cleavers lived in. I always thought it was odd. What DID Ward Cleaver do for a living, anyway???
@@KarlLaFong-v2q Not sure what Ward did, but he was always dressed nice.
@@KarlLaFong-v2qHe worked with Lumpys dad at the office.
And all the moms on those family tv shows wore dresses and 2” high heels and pearls while they did the cooking and cleaning! And Lucy & Ricky had twin beds!
@@KarlLaFong-v2q I think he sold insurance.
I was born in 1967 and I don't have memories really until 1972. We lived in DC. My mom worked on Capitol Hill and my stepfather was a Lobbyist. We had everything listed but the pool. We belonged to the Mount Vernon Yacht Club..it was a blast
Our air conditioning was a block of ice in front of a box fan.
still don't like air con. my children don't understand that............
You are funny
@@lindahollander3588 I lived in a shack next to a swamp. I got a snapping turtle for Christmas. This video brought up some feelings. I went to school after an hour bus ride into this beautiful forest and homes that had rich British kids. Now that I'm retired and rich I'm trying to ......heal the wound and shame. I guess the only thing I didn't like about my youth was that a big meteorite didn't crush me. Poverty is a real bitch and it makes people bitter and mean but those rich kids where the nicest humans I have ever met.
Born 1965- mom raised 5 of us on welfare( dad left). We were so poor. I’m a teacher, I have a special place in my heart for poor kids( hence in teach inner city).
I hope it's making difference 🙏
That was us.
I’m sorry the taxpayers were forced to support your family and their own too.
@@daisydukes8252
Your shorts strangling you?
Shut up!
The best memories of growing up in the 60s was all the tv shows that were kid friendly you could look at and parents didn't have to hide from you . Kids weren't exposed to adult things as much back then and could be kids. No internet or video games was a good thing you could use your imagination and play outside even in summer or winter, ride your bike without a helmet, and if you fell and got a scrape you brushed it off and kept playing. There were also no lame participation trophies you either won or lost life went on .
Sadly, one of the biggest reasons many people in the USA don't accumulate wealth today is that they spend every dime on things they don't need - from daily "conveniences" to stuffing their homes with junk to remodeling to keep up with the "latest designs". People didn't do that in the 1960's or 1970's, and as a result they have significant savings accounts, stocks & bonds (or CD's when the interest rates were high), and often paid off their homes early.
Spend less than what you earn, and save/invest as much as possible. You can become wealthy or you can keep up with your peers in terms of buying stuff but it's unlikely you will be able to do both.
Yea, most of our parents living in basic boxes and only bought nice houses as they got older. A big difference today however is that most families are dual income and so they spend extra. No one thought about buying $7 dollar coffee.
What a load of crap. People in the US can't afford a house because the average home price is $457,000. College is 30x the cost in the 60s. Corporate greed is rampant after the pandemic. Taxes on property are out of control. But ya.....let's blame the people.
@1TechCritic420 both things are true.
We bought $7 coffee in the early sixties. Four jumbo cans of Folgers that lasted two years!
My dad worked alot to make sure we had food on the table and clean clothes for school. I'm so grateful for my dad that's no longer with us.
i recall people having plastic on furniture back in the day ---but never did Ithink it made the room "feel more special".
Extremely tacky and tasteless. Unusable
I always used to keep the plastic on the lamp shades! Lol. Which I would no longer do now. But back then I smoked, so it probably wasn't a bad idea! Hahaha!
My mother
My dad worked for Admiral in the 60s so we had all the appliances.
A good friend worked for RCA as a TV repair man. It was just accepted that your TV would need new tubes once in a while, until the Japanese manufacturers came along.
One summer relatives were visiting for about a week. My dad pulled out all the stops, went to JCPenney‘s, and bought a huge 24 inch color TV! That was about three weeks pay!
I,was born in 1957,and I grew up in the 1960's and I remember the 1960's very well. 1:04
I was born nearly the same time and today I still think that era was a great time to be a kid or a teen.
Actually, we didn't know the whole house A/C existed. As kids, we enjoyed sleeping outside.
In the summer, when it was hot, we'd open all the windows, open the doors, and garage door, turn the lights. It cooled off the house.
@@jamesmooney8933 Depends. The hot , humid gulf coast was pretty tough without a/c, but if you never had it before, you didn't miss it.
@eddenoy321 Right, I lived in Pittsburgh, and our summers got hot.
As teenagers, we'd run around the neighborhood and play with the girls on the porches. The girls were aloud off the porch, but the boys were. Boys are hard for the parents to control.
@@jamesmooney8933 Well I hope you got to finger 1 or 2 of the girls, mate.
Love the bathroom @1:30. Cool!
We had one full bath on the top floor and just a toilet in the basement laundry room next to the wash tub sink.
I had to laugh when you talked about how people had to be rich if they had more than one car! 😂 My dad always was buying, selling and trading vehicles. One day when Mom went to the Piggly Wiggly for groceries, she and the young man helping her carry them out to the car stopped when they got outside and the young man asked her which car was hers. She said she started to feel frantic when she couldn't remember which one it was! Dad could never keep a car for long and we were all coached on what to say if strangers came to the door asking about why we had all those cars.
I would have loved that as a kid.
Well, it's been confirmed. We were poor. We didn't have any of these until we siblings were grown, but we had plenty of fun outside using our imagination!😂😊
The best of times!
I never knew my family was poor until somebody told me!
So all your friends were poor as well? The whole neighborhood? How could you be so in the dark?
@@carollynt That's a JOKE, Booby! Ever heard a joke before???
Our house was a 100+ year old two story farmhouse. It was entirely gutted and my parents renovated it over close to a decade: Dad had to put in plumbing, (baseboard) heat, and electricity. Mom's friends lamented at what Dad put her through, but when we needed to move to follow work, the house sold for a nice profit enabling them to build a new home where we relocated. That old farmhouse is still occupied and it's 150+ years old now (surviving many of the majestic trees that grew around it).
In the 1960's we had a 3 story home in New Hampshire built in the 1850's. It had to be renovated as well. We had no running water, used an outhouse and had a crank phone until around 1964. When I was 10 years old I remember being puzzled when my parents said the bank owned the house. I had no concept of mortgages then. I loved that house and was sad to move in 1968. The home was renovated further in the early 2000's and now is used as housing for local college students.
My great grandfather's house is gone now. My grandparents rented it out after they moved into town as they were getting too old to live so far out in the country. The renters were hoarders and they destroyed the house. Alas.
My maternal grandparents would go down to Florida every winter and come back with slides for us to see. We lived in Minnesota.
What the heck, you mean, I was actually poor all along? 😂 May have been "poor," but I am rich in memories ❤
My parents home was built in 67. I was born in 66 - We definitely had central air conditioning, we had to use sheets to stay warm at night because it was so cool in the house and 90° degrees at night during the summer. Dad wasn't rich, but he worked for the department of labor. Contract compliance paid a great salary in the 60's until he retired in 1989. 😊
Thank You !!!
Some people were still using the outhouse in the 1960s.
And the 70s and 80s! Most states had outlawed the use of them by the late 1960s though. That meant you had to live in a very rural area to keep one still!
It was 1972 when they first put indoor plumbing into my family's farmhouse.
My grandparent's generation was the last to actively farm the land. We never lived there, but spent lots of summers in the old place.
The outhouse in the summer was quite the experience, especially when the bees were looking for new expansion areas.
Even the kitchen sink was a handle pump over a washtub that my great uncle permanently installed in a large cabinet he built.
Wood stove that heated the house using open grates to the upstairs bedrooms.
Rememberings....
Back in the 60's, we knew an old couple who were still farming into their late 70's, had electricity but still used an outhouse, had only one water faucet and a dirt yard around their house. They'd immigrated from Russia in 1906. When they both passed, they left $1.2 in stocks to their heirs. Apparently, old Mr Meyer had money stuffed in his mattress and bought up as much as he could right after the crash of 1929.
“… people were still using the outhouse in the 1960s.”
We did. My wife’s family also.
We used an outhouse in the summer back in the 60s. My uncle had a big old farmhouse and no bathroom ,never did have indoor plumbing. We had to pump water at the back porch and warm it on the stove and pour it in a granite tub on the kitchen table to do the dishes
The more stuff we added to our standard living, the more we had to work to pay all the bills to maintain it.
My parents got a color TV after I joined the Air Force, they also got cable. They told me that they could now afford these things, cuase they weren't feeding me! 🤣
I remember there was a ballot initiative in California to insure that TV remained free. Imagine that. They wanted not to have to pay for television. Silly people. Now we pay like 160/mo to watch TV. Maybe they were right to fight cable TV.
@@incog99skd11 You can still get over-th-air televsion for free in most places. Even HD quality
We had a color television during the 1960s, it had black, white, and grey. 😅
As the decade progressed,we remodeled our house and got an extra bathroom, bedroom and living room. Woohoo. And eventually a color tv.
You were rich if your parents was able to pay your college tuition. Another sign of being rich, was to avoid being drafted and being sent to Vietnam.
“… Another sign of being rich, was to avoid being drafted and being sent to Vietnam.”
I wasn’t that rich!”😩
My total college tuition in the 1980s was $15k ($41k in today's money.) And that was to a private college which is $50k a year today.
I like window air conditioning units. My grandparents had one in the farm house my great grandfather built. I liked the hum of the window unit. It's soothing, and drowns out the noise of crickets in the country (or noisy neighbors, traffic and police sirens in the city). It's nice as white noise for sleeping.
I liked them too. Born in 67. We had two of them and they cooled our whole house. We got central in the 70’s.
Me too, plus you don't have to cool the whole house when you're only using a small part of it.
The 50s and 60s were the best decades of all time. The 50s more. I know, I was there.
I think of the show Mad Men watching this video. I ❤ these vintage pics.
In my small Louisiana town, every household that wasn't actually poor had a maid in the 50s and 60s. My mother started paying into social security for ours the minute it became law and when our former maid became disabled years later, she thought that disability check was manna from heaven. I don't think any of my friends' parents did that for their maids.
It's classy to be generous.
When you have enough, you're rich. The middle class was fulfilled, happy and had a little left over to give.
And even though we couldn’t afford to take fancy trips by airplane back in the 60’s, at least people dressed decently for airline flights, instead of wearing shorts and flip flops!
Hear, hear! I am very content with my lot in life, although knowing that there is more. That is the greatest blessing that I could hope for. Thirty three years ago, I was on unemployment benefits and struggling to get just one or two days a week's cash work. They were brutally hard times. I hated them, and I felt robbed for many a year. But boy, did they give me an appreciation of the things in life that are truly valuable.
Later 80s and 1990s sitcoms changed what people regarded as the signs of being middle-class. People started building up huge credit card debt to meet the new "requirements." In the 1950s and 1950s it was considered a negative thing to use expensive consumer objects to show how well you were doing - being regular old middle-class was considered all-American. Even many celebrities did photo spreads in Life Magazine (for instance) that were aimed at making them look middle-class. Things have completely changed. US society heavily indebted itself in the name of conspicuous consumption. I remember noticing this as it happened.
One of my classmate's family build a custom home not far away. It was really unique, even ended up in Life magazine. I always thought they were seriously rich and they might have been. Got to tour the house with my class one day.
As a kid, I used to get 2 hamburgers, french fries and a coke in the late 60s for about .80 cents. Today the same meal is about 10 bucks.
My great uncle and his brother built our house in 1966. My dad was in management for the DOT for 40 years. We had a 3 bedroom 2 bath house. The second bath was just a toilet/sink. We were in our house three years before we got a color TV. The old one died. We had one car until the mid 70’s when my mom started working. My sisters were 8 & 11 years younger than me. I shared a bedroom with a sister until the youngest was old enough for a bed. I then had my own room and my sisters shared. We had central air which was rare in our neighborhood. My grandfather bought it for our house. We had a TV room where we always gathered. We had a large living room that only got used at Christmas. Even then maybe two days. We had no inground pools in our neighborhood. No one had maids. Most of the moms were stay at home until the mid 70’s. I did all the cleaning, laundry, ironing and babysitting until I moved out and got married. My mom had it easy until I left. Even in high school I had a short schedule the last two years. I went to school, came home and cleaned, then went to my job at McDonald’s.
Your mom “had it easy” and she worked so they got another car. Which was it?😖
@ She worked off and on in the 70’s. When I was in high school 72-76 she was PT at night. Then, late 70’s and 80’s she was FT. I moved out and married in 78. This whole time I was doing all the cleaning, laundry, ironing and babysitting. My mom would make plans to go out every weekend with family friends. I had to babysit every weekend and I hated it! If my parents had to pay a sitter my mom wouldn’t be making plans. When I started at McDonald’s and dating my future husband she let up on the babysitting. My parents divorced in 1980. Then, she had to go FT from then on. She got a second car in the mid 70’s which I used when I had to close at McDonald’s and not get home until 11:30 pm on a school night.
@@footballlvnlady 👍 (I also graduated in 1976 and married in 1977,going on 47 years)🤭
My parents bought their 1st new home in 1961. It was a two story home in Santa Clara, CA. It cost them $23,450.00. Last year, it sold for $1,950,000.00 ! It was an "all electric" home. Great memories, but I wouldn't want to live there now. All you see are boats, vans, and SUVs . BACK THEN, what we saw were T-Birds, Bonneville, Corvette, Mercury wagons,Olds, and Cadillac.
I miss those days. 😢
Did you build extra wealth or have to spend off the family sale proceeds?
My parents bought their 1,000 sf ranch home in San Jose, CA in 1966 and paid 19K. 3bed/2Bath. A small modest home in the best school district. It now sells for 2million. Who would have thought? (They sold it 25 yrs ago)
In 1964 my father built a custom build 3000 sq foot one story house on a large lot in south Florida. It had central ac in every room including the closets and bathrooms with every appliance a modern kitchen could possibly have in 1964. I guess that was considered a rich mans house for 1964, but to me and everyone else in the neighborhood it was considered just normal. I could not imagine living a day in Florida without ac.
My parents' house had 2 bathrooms: one the contractor but in and another one in the basement that Dad built. Dad divided the basement into 2 areas: the laundry and the rec room ( family room today). Dad and Mom both worked on design and bought needed items as they had money. The laundry room had the ringer washer, 2 large rinsing tubs and a large closet Dad built. The bath had plastic panels that you could not see through in front of the toilet and washer. They covered the walls with 1 inch x 1 inch ceramic (?) tiles and 4 x 4 inch tiles on the floor. They saved money by buying open boxes where others had bought only half the box or less. They stayed with shades of tan, ivory, and browns. It looked very professional and was very convenient. As for a dish washer or house keeper, I guess I was the manual version of it!
I grew up in a shack in the bush in the 60s in British Columbia. Walked to school and home through 3 feet of snow in 40 below weather. It was uphill both ways.
Thank for another year filled with wonderful videos and memories! I hope you 2025 will be filled with joy & happiness!
Parents had a house built in '65. After years growing up with a huge attic fan and chasing mosquitos on my pink walls at night and suffering from hay fever mom declares one time that we should have had central air put in when building. Gee, thanks mom.
This was also a time when wages kept pace with inflation and cost of living. That hasn’t happened in this country since the 70’s.
I was a latchkey kid in the sixties because Mom had to work after my POS father left. To me anyone who had a Mom at home when they came home from school was rich.
My mom stayed home but one day, about 1959 she went to work. She did that for about forty years. After work we just wanted her to pay attention to us but she wanted her newspaper and would get mad if we interrupted her and her precious newspaper. When I married, my wife one evening picked-up the paper. I said no way. We would talk and be a family. To this day I still have a deep loathing for newspapers.
No more home baked cookies when I came home from school in 1966. Mom went to work. Had no time to listen to our school day when she came home to cook dinner. Tired & worn. My summers were spent with a list of chores to do each day, handwritten by mom and we were not allowed to leave the house. Long boring summers with fist fights with my brother. I grew to love school months with friends and be sad in the summer of zero fun, no trips. A latch key kid where my grandfather tried to molest me in the 6th grade with no parents home. That was the last I saw of him after telling my parents. My dad said that he would kill him if he ever came to our house again. My dad then called all our relatives to warn them his father was a pedophile and to keep their children away from him. My life ended being able to enjoy my Italian heritage. For my grandfather showed up to every event. If we saw his car, we kept on driving back to home. Everyone in the car would be angry, so I started to blame myself of why did I ever tell. That’s what child victims do, they blame themselves. We had to live in secret for no one could know in the 60’s. Ssshhh…
@ Oh my gosh that is so awful. I’m so sorry you went through that but at least your parents tried to protect you and believed you. We were poor as church mice but we were safe and happy. Years later when I was an adult I found my father’s second family (he was dead) and my half sister told me they suffered through alcoholism and sexual abuse from him. So in a way I was spared not having a father.
Gosh we had most of these things and I don't think we were rich.
When I go down to Mexico with my church to help build orphanages there, I realize how rich we really are.
You were just surrounded by neighbors who were equally rich I'd say. Everything is relative.
my mom always said,we may live in a shack,but its a CLEAN shack.
two story house in no way showed you where rich, most old homes where two story
I think he meant newer homes.
I grew up in central California in the 60s ( back when Calle was actually affordable) We didn't need no A/C, thank goodness.
This is so true. Well from working class in Jamaica we did not have washing machine until 1998.
My parents received an RCA 'portable' TV set as a wedding present. I remember being the only family on our street with color TV. We had that TV till... 1984, then the only store that sold replacement tubes went out of business and we got our 1st ugly black plastic box TV.
We had many of these things, but we weren't rich. Middle class, I would say. We had a dishwasher, Radar Range, a refrigerator with an ice maker, a pool, 2 bathrooms, our own bedrooms, clothes whenever we needed them, and a Hi Fi system. My dad got a new car every year through his work, so we always had 2 cars. As soon as we kids turned 16 we had our own cars, used of course. My parents went to Vegas a lot, and flew some of the time. But.... I had to go to my grandma's house to watch color TV. I had a very good childhood.
I would say you were fortunate to have that good of a childhood.you were blessed
I can’t think of anyone in my family who didn’t have a housekeeper in the 60’s and even in the 70’s. My grandmother would even take her housekeeper with her to events to help her with all sorts of things.
In the 1970s flying was fun! Not crowded at all plenty of empty seats. Dressed up to the nines! It was luxury at its finest. A flight to LAX , then off to Disney! California was beautiful! Flowers and greenery all along the highways. No liter or garbage on the streets. NO HOMELESS EVER! Oh those were the days.
I want that 1959 Impala now!
I had one in 1964. My folks gave it to me for my 17th birthday.
@sherrellbennett1333 Got my license in ours, had it from '68 to '73.
Rich is memories of a loving family. I feel for any child growing up in a home like that
I had most of this in the 70s. 2 floors, own bedroom, my sister had her own as well. We had one and a half bathrooms, dishwasher, and cable tv. My mom was one of the first people on her block to have a colored tv. We were ritch I guess. Damn, I even had my own play room! And we had a washer and dryer! Wow
I remember that expression, "Colored TV." We all used it in the 60's!
Sadly, it was those extras that made life exciting to experience, or something to work for in anticipation of acquiring. Now, just being able to afford your rent or buying a first home are all but unaffordable, at best for many. The 1960s exemplified the American dream.
6:51 In ground pools are still a bit of a status symbol.
Our Christmas tree looked like shredded pink aluminum foil!
We got a white flocked Christmas tree only one year in the mid 70s and never again afterwards! It was very dry and dusty to take down and the flock that came off of it could really make you cough! It was during the time when wild colors were being used like pink and blue! I saw a spot of yellow flock that got on a branch near the bottom! Haha! We were by no means wealthy, but because of there being six kids the house my parents bought needed to be larger and it had a living and family room - each of those with working fireplaces! We never used the one in the living room and my mom was forever proclaiming she was "going to get a gas log for it" but that never happened! Sadly, when the house was sold in 2022 the nitwits that remodeled the place sealed off the living room one and put a fake one over the family room one! The old brick chimneys are still on the outside!
Our 600 sq foot house was built in 1905 with a barn in the backyard. We got our first TV (b&w) in 1966, I graduated high school the same year. Yep, everyone in this film was rich to us.
I guess my parents were rich…1954 moved into a 2 story home….had a Jaguar XK120…then muscle cars…my dad got his pilots license in 62…bought a plane in 63….68…and 73…they always had hot cars…vacations….I came along in 1961 …mom had a housekeeper too…she didn’t work…had a great childhood…😊.
We didn't have central air conditioning until I was about 12 years old. It was hot sleeping upstairs, but dad put in a big boxed fan that ran on a pully. That thing would hum me to sleep every night.
My parents started early. Mom had me at 20 & by 26 there were 4 more. They bought two brand new homes during their marriage. First was a Levitt Cape Cod. 4 beds & 2 baths. We outgrew that & the school district. Built a 5 bedroom w/3 baths & a den. Full basement & 3 car garage. We moved into the last house in 1970. There were 25 homes on our horseshoe & 2 in a cul de sac. My Pop pop thought it was funny my bros. used that word instead of dead end. Ours was on the biggest piece of property. A wooded lot. Dad was done with mowing lawns. He put a basketball court up in the cul de sac for us. Our house sat on the corner. Tons of kids to play with. On Sundays people would drive by slow down & ask us “How much did your parents pay for those houses?” Are they millionaires? Crazy stuff.
As a kid in the 60s, being the child of an Air Force enlisted man, we lived on base in base housing. We didn't get to live off base until the 70s. And then it was with Dad making arrangements to be a property caretaker in order to afford the rent on the house. That old house became the favorite place our family ever lived in.
Back in the 60s as kids we were rich. Grew up in the country rode our bikes. My pockets were loaded with Dimes, Nickels, and Pennies we went to the general store and loaded up on candy and toys. Those coins went a long ways back then.We had 2 wall air conditioners in our house in the 60s we had central heating in most of the house. Air conditioning was added on in the 70s.
Remember a dime was 1/10th of an ounce of real silver. Now the money is worth nothing.
We certainly were rich as kids. Now & later candy in the pocket, and if you cut grandma's grass, you got a whopping $5. Enough to go to McDonald's and get a Big Mac for $1.75. The 70's were the best. ❤
@@oreally8605 Big Macs were $0.65 in 1970. We got regular hamburgers at the Red Barn and Dairy Belle ten for a dollar certain sale days. Fremont CA.
Thank you for the memories.
we lived in a one story spanish colonial home, no dishwashers. only one bathroom, one car chevy impala etc. I never felt poor growing up, loving parents nice clean two bedroom home never went hungry' Went to a private school.Everything was good without all the extra gadgets mentioned above.
Having an in-ground pool and a housekeeper is STILL a sign of wealth, if you ask me!