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Life was much simpler before the digital boom. Kids found immense joy in playing outside instead of being fixated on gadgets, while adults enjoyed more basic pleasures, as seen in today's list.
We're exploring a question on the AskOldPeople subreddit: "What was a sign of being well-off in your neighborhood or community in the 50s, 60s, or 70s?" For younger individuals, this gives a peek at how people defined luxuries back in the day.
And if you've lived through these decades, this one's for you.
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#1
In my neighborhood - two bathrooms. Pretty uncommon.
anastasiano70: My grandparents, born in 1912, were the first of their MANY siblings to have a bathroom INSIDE their house. Their siblings and spouses and nieces and nephews all came to admire and use it.
That cracks me up. They were considered the RICH ones
David 6 months ago
My stepdad's family homesteaded our family farm. Outhouse beside the house, weekly bath in a galvanized tub in the kitchen next to the wood stove. By the time I was there in the early 70s they long since had a 'modern' bathroom inside with toilet/tub but the outhouse was still there when I sold the farm about 2010. When I was a farm boy sometimes it was handy to use the outhouse if your boots were muddy or whatever.
RELATED:
#3
Air conditioning.
rikitikilizi: My friends with air conditioners always only had one window unit, usually in the parents' bedroom, and that room always had the shade drawn and the door closed. We always felt so scandalous opening that door to duck into the room to cool off for a few minutes in the dark.
Jiji Kaiji 6 months ago
well, there was a whoopin' 104F last night in my flat. i was soakin' wet in the morning. sleepin' in your own sweat is the worst torture you can imagine.
Let’s begin this trip down memory lane in 1950s America. World War II had just ended, which ushered in the baby boom era. According to History, the U.S. gross national product grew from $200 billion to $500 billion to kick off “the Golden Age of American Capitalism.”
During this time, the government increased spending on the construction of interstate highways and schools. Inflation and unemployment rates were at an all-time low, giving middle-class people more financial leeway.
#4
Having extracurriculars, like ballet lessons. Most of us just had to hang out not at home.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 6 months ago
I wanted to be a ballet dancer for awhile. Mom put me in a 6 week class at the Y. At the end of the class, I didn't understand why I wasn't a ballet dancer. It never occurred to me that there were more advanced classes than an intro to.
#5
Two cars in the driveway.
ujmrider1961: Born in 1961, lived in a suburban neighborhood in the Denver area all through the '70s.
When I was growing up, most families only had one car. Even though my mom worked when I was a kid and in school, we never had more than one car, and that was true of most of our neighbors as well.
We were solid middle class. Dad was a Federal government employee, Mom and Dad both had college degrees, and most of our neighbors were professional/white-collar families with both parents at home.
Two cars in the driveway were just starting to become more common by the mid-1970s, although even then, we never had two cars
Shaunn Munn 6 months ago
I never realized what a convenience it was for Dad to have a company truck. He was a paving foreman. That gave Mom the luxury of a car all day. She used to take us out of Cheyenne on any dirt road, trusting that she could get us home, searching for historical stuff. We met herds of cows and mustangs, who thought we were bringing food. They never saw any other type of vehicle. Good memories. 1960s.
#6
I remember when my neighbors got MTV. I went over there and watched it for hours. We never had any sort of cable anything.
ॐBoyGanesh 6 months ago
We got cable TV when it became available in our city in early 1980. Prior to that we had two small dinner plate sized dishes on our roof. One was for “The Home Box Office” and the other “Movietime.” BOTH showed soft-core adult content after hours. I was able to completely confirm my assumed (self; everyone else) gayness by 10 years old thanks to Lady Chatterly’s super sexy lovers, et al.
Alongside the baby boom of the ’50s came the suburban boom. Real estate developers like William Levitt bought land in the city outskirts and built cheap tract houses.
At the same time, the G.I. Bill helped veterans through subsidized housing, helping them purchase homes at a much lower price. At the time, houses were much more affordable than apartments.
#7
The poor folk all had unpaved, straight, short driveways. The rich folk had circular driveways. I'm sure this wasn't the majority of them but to this day when I see a circular driveway, I think wow those guys must be well off.
Yes I know this makes no sense, but funny how first impressions on a young person can last a lifetime like this.
IRL, having a TV was a sign someone was well off back in my day. Only one person in the whole neighbourhood had a COLOR TV, a very well off doctor. And if the mom and the dad each had their own cars, then wow they must have won the lottery.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 6 months ago
Grandma promised my mom and her siblings that she'd buy a TV when they came out in color, thinking they never would. To her credit, she kept the promise.
#8
In my neighborhood, it was having a father that didn't have to wear a shirt with his name on the front. Or having a father that worked in an office.
An above ground swimming pool in the backyard was very rich too!
Going out to eat for anything other than pizza was a huge deal too.
Having a set of encyclopedias.
#9
Having your own phone line. We had a party line, where four families were on one phone line. You just picked up the phone and if someone was talking, you hung it up and waited your turn!
tater72: I, too, had a party line (six houses). Boy, there were no secrets there.
Finally, that rich family paid for the phone company to run them their own, and everyone else got one too. I was a teenager
We’re jumping forward to the 1960s in the U.K. The Guardian writer Patrick Collinson shared his father’s experience earning an annual salary of £1,357 as an accounts clerk from 1963 to 1964.
According to him, his father was able to purchase a brand-new three-bedroom home for a family of five. They also owned a Ford Popular and a Phillips TV. His father had no outstanding loans.
#10
I was told only about three years ago by a friend that they thought my family must be rich because we built a brick house in the early 1960s. All the other houses around us were made of timber.
#11
An entertainment console: a big horizontal cabinet that held a radio, tv and a hi fi record player or, if you had really made it, stereo!
Julia Mckinney 6 months ago
We had a record player and an old stand-up reel-to-reel tape player, but dad also played around with ham radio a bit. We were NOT allowed to touch that equipment (but the home built antenna on an iron/steel frame attached to the side of the house made it easy to climb out of the house (not that we ever really snuck out that often)).
#12
Our rich neighbors had their basement finished in 1970s glory. Shag carpet, 8-track player, strobe light, extra bedroom for the maid, water bed, air hockey game, and pinball machines. And one of the very first VCRs (cost around $2K).
Also, an in-ground pool, and one of the earliest video game systems, where the graphics consisted of a cellophane overlay that you'd put on the front of the TV!
I don't remember what cars they had, but they were probably fancy.
Other people who lived in the ’60s revealed what it was like to experience some form of wealth. Pavillion Agency Vice President Seth Norman Greenberg shared some insights with Business Insider. Greenberg’s uncle founded the agency in 1962.
“Leading up to the 60s, maybe even the 70s, most wealthy families had a primary property. They possibly had a second home.”
#13
Going on vacation to somewhere other than visiting relatives; traveling by airplane; buying a new car instead of used; cable TV; air conditioning; kids having their own phone line; eating out at restaurants; buying clothing at mall stores instead of Caldor [local discount chain]; getting your hair cut at a salon instead of mom doing it at home; wasting food (i.e., not eating leftovers); having an expensive hobby like golf, sailing or skiing; buying new furniture vs. finding things at thrift stores...
My family was comfortably middle-class, but because my parents had both grown up extremely poor during the Depression they were very frugal and we did none of these things, with the exception of "buying a new car instead of used" because my dad drove a lot for work and couldn't risk having his car break down.
It was so ingrained in me that I still pretty much do all this except I do like to go on vacations (although we generally camp); and I am into mountain biking which is an expensive hobby. But most of our furniture came from Craigslist or the swap shop, and I cut my own hair, hate wasting food, and buy my clothes at the thrift store or on Poshmark.
Julia Mckinney 6 months ago
Our vacations were either visiting relatives in California (both sides of the family lived there) or dad taking us to a medical convention and playing around in the hotel with mom watching us (I had my 8th birthday in a not-quite-built yet resort in some small town called Big Sky Montana. Lots of construction stuff around and my mom, trying to make us all little ladies and having to deal with us girls and MUD!!)
#14
Outdoor grilling became a postwar thing to show off people could afford lots of meat.
Bill Swallow 6 months ago
President Dwight Eisenhower and Premiere Nikita Khrushchev, if I'm not mistaken.
#15
In the 50s it would have been a window air conditioner. In the 70s it was whole house air conditioning.
The 1970s were difficult because of what was described as “The Great Inflation.” According to Investopedia, rates rose as high as 14%, and people felt it in their bank accounts.
Many found it difficult to budget their weekly expenses, which led to many items being beyond their means. Meat and gas prices, for one, were at an all-time high.
#16
The ground pool and an intercom system in your house. My current 1995 build house has the original intercom system and I just cannon bring myself to tear it out.
#17
My grandparents always said that having an American Express card was a sign that you had "made it" back in the day.
David 6 months ago
Credit cards were different back then. I remember honestly being appalled the first time I saw fast food place (Burger King I think but maybe McDonalds) that accepted credit cards. Credit cards were for big purchases you couldn't afford in the moment. Not for a hamburger. These days I put almost everything on my card but the mentality was different back then. As for AmEx - their slogan used to be "no preset spending limit". So yeah, it was mainly for better off people. By the time I had an AmEx there was a preset limit - just like with most cards.
#18
Well, according to my preteen sister, it was the fact that you had a TV guide, instead of the pull out from the Sunday newspaper, and, apparently, could afford paper towels.
She went to someone's house who had those things and came back in wide-eyed astonishment at the wealth of this particular family. 🤣
In her defense paper towels were not yet a thing most people used cloth kitchen or some people call him tea towels. But we had a good laugh at that.
Jon Stafford 6 months ago
Were paper towels once absurdly expensive? Because my mother used to act like they were spun from gold fiber and starlight. She could hear one tearing off the roll from anywhere in the house.
The U.S. economy bounced back in the 1980s. Inflation rates reportedly dropped to 3.5 percent during the decade's latter half. It was also a time when the rich got richer.
In a 1991 report by the Chicago Tribune, the number of millionaires in Illinois soared by 4,000, from 157 in 1977 to 6,240 in 1988. The top 16 wealthiest individuals earned an annual income of over $50,000 (around $133,000 in 2024).
#19
I was in high school in the 70's. One of our classmates got her own "princess line" phone in her bedroom.
#20
Massachusetts coastal town: Yacht Club parking sticker, country club parking sticker, and a private beach sticker. An awful lot of very affluent people drove fairly nondescript cars, particularly old money. Anyone with all three stickers for sure was upper middle class.
#21
The rich family on our block of middle class families would give out full size candy bars at Halloween.
lovessj: There was a house on my block when I was a child in the ’70s that gave out 50-cent pieces. That was five candy bars
laylay_thegrail: The one on my block had a Mercedes and gave out full-size boxes of Cracker Jack at Halloween
Julia Mckinney 6 months ago
My mom, the school nurse, and my dad the doctor, gave out sugarless gum. Oh well.
But while the people at the top only grew their net worth, those at the lower end of the totem pole struggled more.
“Highly skilled people of all ages are seeing real wages rise while lower-skilled people of all ages are seeing real wages fall,” said Rebecca Blank, former senior staff economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
Looking at these posts, you can see how starkly different people viewed luxuries decades ago. And whether or not you’re a fan of today’s technology, it’s probably safe to say that we’re living in interesting times.
#26
A dishwasher. A swim club membership. Central A/C.
#27
In the 50’s it was having a television. In the 60’s, a color television. In the 70’s, a color tv with a remote and in the late 70’s it was having cable with MTV.
#28
During the 70s: In-ground pool. Cable TV. 3 cars, with the third one being some kind of little foreign sports car. A boat. An additional home somewhere or a cabin on some land. Vacations that required flying.
#29
Wall to wall carpeting. A heat source that wasn't a wood stove.
Geoffrey Scott 6 months ago
And now, in Michigan it has come full circle with the outdoor boilers.
#30
Anything newly trendy. That was for “the Joneses” and we weren’t supposed to keep up with them.
#31
In the early to mid 70’s, a VCR at home. imagine your mind being blown as a fifth grader, when another kid says they’re gonna go home and watch the Three Stooges after school. But the Three Stooges are on in the morning! The Rich kid said, yeah, we record it so I can watch it after school. I thought he was a liar, that was impossible!
#33
A yearly trip to WDW.
Going to “the Cape” for a week during the summer.
Playing town league sports(soccer, softball, baseball)
Having a “job” at the local Catholic Church and school.
#34
I grew up in a working-class neighborhood. Went to a classmate’s house after school one day (1970) and what a revelation. A housekeeper greeted us at the door with “Hi Miss Amy, who’s your friend? Will she stay for dinner?” and took my friend’s coat. The entry room was an atrium with light streaming in from above, lots of huge plants, and a big working circular fountain in the center. Her house was huge (they had 10 children, both parents were professionals). Her yard was vastly deep. But I was most impressed with the 5-gallon jug of milk in their enormous refrigerator with its own spigot. Amazing experience!
#35
Buying a microwave oven as soon as they were available for sale circa 1978-1981.
Central air conditioning. Getting cable TV circa 1981. Owning a summer cottage/boat.
Country club and/or golf club membership.
ThisIsMyDisplayName 6 months ago
Owning a second home and/or a boat and/or belonging to a country club are still signs of wealth here
#36
AC, kids went to sleep away camp in the summer vs day camp, two vacations a year with one to Florida, high end stereo equipment, color tv, country club membership, Caddy that was traded in every 3 years, ivy league pennants decorating kids bedrooms, ate dinner in the dining room.
Julia Mckinney 6 months ago
Naw, we had a breakfast nook with a wrap-around bench with a VERY active jade plant and an equally active spider plant. Mom liked it because she could keep track of us doing homework while she was cooking.
#37
Ooooh yeah … a color TV. A twenty seven inch color TV. I remember seeing my first 30” … then a 36” … believe me - childhood me would think people of the future must live in movie theaters if they own and watch movies on an 85” television. Which is larger than the pull-down-screen the grade school movies of my youth were projected on. The magic of the Jetsons came to life - siiiiigh.
mosselyn: My family bought our first color TV to watch the 1972 Olympics. It had a whopping 9" screen, and we piled on my parents' bed to watch it
#38
Children with braces to straighten their teeth.
Having a boat on a trailer in the driveway. .
ॐBoyGanesh 6 months ago (edited)
Why would a boat be kept in a driveway? We’ve always kept ours moored/docked. Do they tow their boats to the sea when they want to go sailing/yachting? Seems tedious & time consuming. /s
#39
The richest kid I knew had a whole house vacuum cleaner system. That seemed a lot cooler than an intercom system.
#40
A new house. And bonus points if it had columns or a double front door.
Julia Mckinney 6 months ago
That was one of our neighbors! They had either 6 or 7 kids and were Mormon. The house looked like Tara but set in the Pacific Northwest.
#41
Color TV. Central heat n air. Two cars, garage. Maybe a pool. Fenced yard. Well-kept lawn. Well-dressed.
Could afford USA vacation.
David 6 months ago
OP non American? We could "afford" a USA vacation because we were poor Americans. It was usually something like short camping trips. I did get to go to Disneyland once in the 60s. Probably seemed expensive then but even accounting for inflation, was not as ridiculous as today. No disneyland hotels, just there for a day. The rides still used tickets from the ticket book you bought when you entered.
#42
Air conditioning. Grew up in Southern Minnesota in the 50s & 60s - it got hot in the summer, but unless you were rich you didn't have AC.
#43
Not being on welfare asks food stamps. We were. Almost all my friends were.
And no roaches. I didn’t know it was possible to not have them as a kid.
#44
At Christmas time the rich people would have huge trees with the white flocking stuff setting in the living room window. They always had their curtains open so everyone could see right in their house.
#45
In ground pool, canopy bed and HBO.
Richard Graham 6 months ago
In the 1970s when cable was new I rigged an HBO de-scrambler. Saved myself $10 a month. (Don't tell the police)
#46
Families that took vacations out of state or went to Disneyland.
#47
An extra living room for guests.
#48
Having a perfect lawn and a lawn service to mow for you. Lawn services were not nearly as common as they are today.
#49
Mink coat, station wagon, pool, and of course a large, well appointed home. Memberships at the country club and Junior League. Sending the kids to Europe before Ivy League college.
#50
Owning a second home, and taking elaborate vacations on top of that. Think beach house plus 3 weeks in Switzerland. Kids would go to sleep away camp for the whole summer.
What do you think ?
Amy S 6 months ago
TIL that some people think an in ground pool, personal tennis court, three cars, a maid plus a spare bedroom for the maid are basic.
ॐBoyGanesh 6 months ago
I think no matter the economic situation you come from, you’re acutely aware that others have more. Even growing up absolutely wealthy, you see those higher up on the economic ladder as “the rich” & may have trouble recognizing yourself as being considered the same by others. I didn’t think I grew up wealthy, I didn’t have private flights to private villas with “staff.” I grew up with a single mom in a 100yo house. In college we all were getting the same education, living in crappy college housing & working crappy part time jobs. It never occurred to me that so many of my friends were struggling & came from families that also were. I recognized our privilege; the access we had to an education. It wasn’t until I asked a friend to go to Catalina for the weekend that I realized *just how* privileged I was. And it brought on overwhelming shame. I was acutely aware of class divides. I just didn’t realize how far up that ladder I came from. Which was no where near the upper rungs.
Load More Replies...
Bill Swallow 6 months ago (edited)
Perspective is a funny thing. I grew up on the family dairy farm in SW Pennsylvania back in the '60s, and I always thought of us as 'Poor'. We didn't have a lot of cash, we didn't constantly buy new clothes or new cars, and our farm equipment was decades old and a lot of it was clapped out. It wasn't until college, when I had some friends down for a weekend, that I realized that we owned 1.20 square MILES of property, with grass, trees for lumber and fruit, 22 head of dairy cattle and young cattle for beef, 200 chickens, *BIG* barn and a lot of outbuildings, grew vegetables in a half-acre garden, apple, pear, and chestnut trees, grew our own corn, potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, currants, had our own water source, and so much more. "My GOD," I thought as the realization hit, "We're RICH!" I wanted to weep for my younger cluelessness.
Bill Swallow 6 months ago
Here's our place in its later years, as seen from the highway - Home-66941...e01ffd.jpg 
Will Cable 6 months ago
These days being able to afford groceries, having a roof over your head or taking time off because you are ill seems like luxuries for the rich only.
Amy S 6 months ago
TIL that some people think an in ground pool, personal tennis court, three cars, a maid plus a spare bedroom for the maid are basic.
ॐBoyGanesh 6 months ago
I think no matter the economic situation you come from, you’re acutely aware that others have more. Even growing up absolutely wealthy, you see those higher up on the economic ladder as “the rich” & may have trouble recognizing yourself as being considered the same by others. I didn’t think I grew up wealthy, I didn’t have private flights to private villas with “staff.” I grew up with a single mom in a 100yo house. In college we all were getting the same education, living in crappy college housing & working crappy part time jobs. It never occurred to me that so many of my friends were struggling & came from families that also were. I recognized our privilege; the access we had to an education. It wasn’t until I asked a friend to go to Catalina for the weekend that I realized *just how* privileged I was. And it brought on overwhelming shame. I was acutely aware of class divides. I just didn’t realize how far up that ladder I came from. Which was no where near the upper rungs.
Load More Replies... Bill Swallow 6 months ago (edited)
Perspective is a funny thing. I grew up on the family dairy farm in SW Pennsylvania back in the '60s, and I always thought of us as 'Poor'. We didn't have a lot of cash, we didn't constantly buy new clothes or new cars, and our farm equipment was decades old and a lot of it was clapped out. It wasn't until college, when I had some friends down for a weekend, that I realized that we owned 1.20 square MILES of property, with grass, trees for lumber and fruit, 22 head of dairy cattle and young cattle for beef, 200 chickens, *BIG* barn and a lot of outbuildings, grew vegetables in a half-acre garden, apple, pear, and chestnut trees, grew our own corn, potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, currants, had our own water source, and so much more. "My GOD," I thought as the realization hit, "We're RICH!" I wanted to weep for my younger cluelessness.
Bill Swallow 6 months ago
Here's our place in its later years, as seen from the highway - Home-66941...e01ffd.jpg
Will Cable 6 months ago
These days being able to afford groceries, having a roof over your head or taking time off because you are ill seems like luxuries for the rich only.
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