For those who didn't grow up privileged, name something you thought was a luxury when you were a kid.

[godofwine]

For those who didn't grow up privileged, name something you thought was a luxury when you were a kid.

Having a car. Living in Cleveland, I caught the bus everywhere I went and didn't think anything of it. Living a big city, the bus can take you almost anywhere. You dealt with the cold, bundled up and kept it pushing.

I remember occasionally asking folks for rides thinking, "It's just 20 minutes." Now that I'm driving, I want to say, "I'm sorry to everyone I ever asked for a ride." When you want to go home, you want to go HOME. You don't want to pass go or collect $200.

You just want to get home.

 

[Coldchi]

Central air and heating.

the hood i grew up in.............everybody had these hangin out the damn window.

 

[jerrynuevo]

Fast food of any kind.

 

[Bury1]

A double cheeseburger. Seems trivial today with all the plus size meals that exist now but when I was a kid we may have ate out at someplace like McDonalds once a year and it was a 45 cent hamburger. We ate all our meals at home. Sheit, I may have been damn near a teenager before I ever had steak and I shared it with my siblings. My pops just didn't roll like that. So yeah, a simple extra beef patty was some luxury shit for real. Oh yeah we took the T everywhere including to get to school, sports we played, parties, everything, or we walked. Good thing Boston was an easy city to navigate with a bus pass. I was like 18 before I bought my first whip and had zero help with it from my folks. Not even my first gallon of gas. Real talk..

 

[Coldchi]

A double cheeseburger. Seems trivial today with all the plus size meals that exist now but when I was a kid we may have ate out at someplace like McDonalds once a year and it was a 45 cent hamburger. We ate all our meals at home. Sheit, I may have been damn near a teenager before I ever had steak and I shared it with my siblings. My pops just didn't roll like that. So yeah, a simple extra beef patty was some luxury shit for real. Oh yeah we took the T everywhere including to get to school, sports we played, parties, everything, or we walked. Good thing Boston was an easy city to navigate with a bus pass. I was like 18 before I bought my first whip and had zero help with it from my folks. Not even my first gallon of gas. Real talk..

yeah i can count on both hands how many times i went to McDonalds as a kid.
that shit was looked at as a once in a blue moon treat. a nigga had to get all A's on his report card to get some McDonalds....lol

 

[Lurk Diggler]

My mom could sow. in the summer she’d make me and babe bro short sets we thought we had fly exclusive shit lol the material was paper thin from a dept store called Hills and would only last the summer but it didn’t matter we’d grow every year anyway

 

[nativeneworleanian06]

Converse Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers. I grew up with Bobo's from the grocery stores. Eventually saved up enough money to afford the Sears Winners sneakers.

Those were the days!

 

[keith6]

Players magazines!

 

[Lurk Diggler]

yeah i can count on both hands how many times i went to McDonalds as a kid.
that shit was looked at as a once in a blue moon treat. a nigga had to get all A's on his report card to get some McDonalds....lol

We thought we was ballin when we would get those 5 dollar McDs gift card books they looked like food stamps

 

[cocobeauty]

I realized we did have a lot, but I will say vacations. For us, we went to grandparents house in MO every summer, but that was it.

Everything else was in LA from North, South and East and again that was to see family.

 

[doe moe]

A house with more than one bathroom. I thought that was amazing!

I grew up in a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom row home in north Philly. (There were 5 of us - Dad, Mom and us children)

Now I live alone in a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath single family home and one of the bathrooms I don't even use.

 

[Lurk Diggler]

I realized we did have a lot, but I will say vacations. For us, we went to grandparents house in MO every summer, but that was it.

Everything else was in LA from North, South and East and again that was to see family.

Yeah my folk didn’t vacays (day trips at best) my folks from KY and we as a family never went past Indianapolis and I thought that was the shit at 8/9 yrs old lol. didn’t have a real vacation until 1st marriage

 

[cocobeauty]

Yeah my folk didn’t vacays (day trips at best) my folks from KY and we as a family never went past Indianapolis and I thought that was the shit at 8/9 yrs old lol. didn’t have a real vacation until 1st marriage

Same and my daddy is not too keen on doing too much traveling now and I can't sit still and he's always telling me you need to settle down. I say traveling is my settling lol

 

[Bury1]

yeah i can count on both hands how many times i went to McDonalds as a kid.
that shit was looked at as a once in a blue moon treat. a nigga had to get all A's on his report card to get some McDonalds....lol

I been to banquets at the end of football or track season to get my letter or jacket and didn't eat because "we" didn't win the championship that year. My pops was like that meal was for the winners. SO I watched everyone else eat then ate when I got back to the crib. Growing up in a house with James Evans or Fred G Sanford depending on the day and mood is just how it was.

 

[yureeka9]

Any high school kid driving a new car was absolutely luxurious to me. Everyone I knew had hand me down beaters.

 

[havelcok]

home computer

 

[darth frosty]

More than 2 boxes of cereal at a time. Either fruit loops or frosted flakes

 

[HisFlyness]

I've often thanked my parents for the life they provided for us growing up, and after reading this I think I might just call em and say it again. i'm glad to say that even as a jit I was able to recognized that they worked their asses off for us, and never took anything for granted.

 

[cocobeauty]

More than 2 boxes of cereal at a time. Either fruit loops or frosted flakes

Or damn Corn Flakes....why were we eating that to begin with as children?? LOL

 

[jack walsh13]

Central air and heating.

the hood i grew up in.............everybody had these hangin out the damn window.

Great answer

 

[jack walsh13]

Nike sneakers. Had to roxk those 4 stripe Adidas. Probably the reason why I never rocked a pair of Adidas as an adult.

 

[Coldchi]

Or damn Corn Flakes....why were we eating that to begin with as children?? LOL

Don't forget that back in the day the cereal used to have a prize in the box.
Be damn near going to war with your siblings over who gonna get the prize....lol

 

[blackbull1970]

I’m a child of the 70s.

A color TV was still a luxury item in the 1970s.

We had a 19” Black/White TV in our apartment, we didn’t get our first color TV until the early 80s.

I remember the first time I saw the Wizard of Oz on our B/W TV in the mid-70s. My parents never told me that the film switched to color.

I was shocked when I first saw that film when we got our first color TV.

 

[Madrox]

A microwave

 

[Duece]

 

[bigdog_bx]

A printer that had paper and ink! lol To this day I got neighbors and anyone my wife talks to coming to my house to "print something..." Passport shit, copies of birth certificates. I should start charging sheeeeeeeeet...I do have the Shaq printer that lasts forever, though, which helps.

 

[tallblacknyc]

I've often thanked my parents for the life they provided for us growing up, and after reading this I think I might just call em and say it again. i'm glad to say that even as a jit I was able to recognized that they worked their asses off for us, and never took anything for granted.

I sometime have to tell my older bro he don't know how good we really had it with some of the stories I hear from people... I be like you don't understand how great our moms was when it came to giving us freedom, buying us certain shit, choosing the location we had to live in, and her teachings and lessons, etc

 

[tallblacknyc]

More than 2 boxes of cereal at a time. Either fruit loops or frosted flakes

I actually got a joke about more than 2 cereals at a time.. My mom worked for the city and my pops owned his own bizz, yet we still only had 1 cereal at a time.. Now I had a few PR friends growing up and they were the only motherfuckers that use to seem to have multiple cereals at a time.. All my black friends 1 box all the damn PR multiple boxes.. I use to be like hold on I know for a fact my parents generating more money and also all my black friends parents yet the PR always got a shit load of cereal.. That's when and how I found out about bjs wholesale store. All the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans use to run to bjs in the bx to get their multiple cereal boxes.. I actually for decades use to call bjs the Puerto Rican or Spanish supermarket cause it seem like every Spanish motherfucker I knew went there to get food.. It was like every Hispanic got the memo at a secret meeting this is where you motherfuckers need to shop

 

[tallblacknyc]

home computer

I use to have a bunch of smartphone users mad when during the late 2000s early 2010s phone worshippers brag or get hyped over their smart phones is cause most of them nigs didnt have home computers or laptops.. I tell everyone putting the internet on the phone was a game changer cause mad people lack the internet prior to that..lot of motherfuckers started acting brand new once they finally had internet access on their phones.. Nigs didn't have no email addresses early 2000s late 90s now they trying to act like they been down with this . com life

 

[darth frosty]

I’m a child of the 70s.

A color TV was still a luxury item in the 1970s.

We had a 19” Black/White TV in our apartment, we didn’t get our first color TV until the early 80s.

I remember the first time I saw the Wizard of Oz on our B/W TV in the mid-70s. My parents never told me that the film switched to color.

I was shocked when I first saw that film when we got our first color TV.

My sister used to tell me they would ask mama if they could watch the original star trek on the color TV and mama would say I ain't wasting my color on that foolishness.

 

[keith6]

Seeing wrestling matches in person !

 

[Database Error]

Getting the piano tuned more than once a month. Having more than 2 jets. Having more than 3 bathrooms on our yacht. Hard times.

 

[bxclark]

Might sound silly.. but deli ham. My mom would buy that shit in the pack with water. When I went to friends houses and they had that boars head from the deli... as a kid, I thought that was some next level shit..lol

 

[dbluesun]

Converse Chuck Taylor All Star sneakers. I grew up with Bobo's from the grocery stores. Eventually saved up enough money to afford the Sears Winners sneakers.

Those were the days!

Same here
Except they were buddies from Kroger's
Or Payless shoes

 

[godofwine]

Steak - REAL steak. I was almost 40 before I truly found out.

When I was a kid, we got cubed steak, bullshit steak, and 'I can't believe this shit is actually meat' steak, So as an adult, I ain't know no better.

In 2016, I had a roommate and Acme Supermarket had a steak sale, so I went up there with like $150 and bought a bunch of steak, what I thought was good steak.

One day in the spring, We're sitting around watching The NBA playoffs and I throw a steak on the grill and asked him if he wanted one, he said yes so I threw two on. I seasoned it and cooked it, gave him one and I ate one.

He took one bite, set his on the counter and said, I'll be back

He came back with what I now know is filet mignon. That shit was butterflied and he seasoned it and threw it on the grill. Flipped it over, threw a pat of butter on the back side, threw it on a plate and gave it to me.

I cut into that shit, saw that pink and was like, "Naw, throw my shit back on the grill. This shit ain't done. This shit mooing still."

He said, "Naw, dude, trust me. I wouldn't bullshit you."

I bit into that shit like Simba with the bug on Lion King, but better...



That shit was good, good good. Blew my fucking mind good. I had no idea you weren't supposed to burn the fuck out of steak. I had no idea of anything other than medium well and well done. I had no idea what a good cut of meat was.

All that meat was in the freezer was 'fajita meat' from that point forward. I was filet mignon from that day on

***

Also, I was much older than I should have been before I found out that the butcher at the grocery store can cut meat that's packaged at the store.

After I discovered filet mignon, I discovered that it's much cheaper if you get a whole tenderloin (between $55-80 at most stores), Give it to the butcher and tell him to cut it into filets and you can get 13 or more fillets out of that tenderloin PLUS they give you the remaining leftover pieces as ground meat - and they do it for free!