What was something you thought was an 'indicator of wealth' when you were a kid?

Having a phone in the house

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A car.

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I can’t recall what I thought. I’ll ask my servant to see if he made a note of it for me.

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Well me dad used to push me in me pram all the way to Hack bridge
Station to sneak coal out of the station yard, take me out of the pram and then
put me on top of it and push me back home again !!
We did have a large range and oven though ??
And we only did that after we had chopped up all the furniture !! :roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

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A farmer with an Armstrong Siddley.

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@Besoeker , “Armstrong Siddely”. ??
Was it a Sapphire ?

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A local woman had a Jensen Interceptor. Not only was it a new car, but the sound of fuel being consumed, mixed with the sound & smell of tyres being ripped, as she pulled away from the village shop just had to be the sound of a healthy wallet.

two local farmers owned their own aircraft & had private runways on their farms. That also felt rather a good symbol of wealth.

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I think it was. I was probably about ten at the time and that was over sisty years ago.

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Living in a house that the German bombers had missed.

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Some Teachers used to shout out the names of those kids who got free school dinners.

They had to go forward & tick something.

I wasn’t one of them, but I cringed on the classmate’s behalf!

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If they had a new or new-ish car.
If they owned a colour TV
If they owned more than one TV
If they could go on an airplane somewhere
If they could afford to go on a cruise

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If they had a bidet.

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You must have gone to a godawful school my school never did anything so crass .
We knew who got free dinners and didn’t care there weren’t any cruel kids in my class .

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You have made me feel old, I think only the first in your list would have even been considered when I was at school and even the single B/W TV would have been rented not owned., I don’t think I knew anybody who even thought of having two.

As for holidays, a week at Butlins was considered the height of sophistication and luxury

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Going back further, I would add one more which just come to mind…

If someone had a TV which could pick up BBC 2.

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As a child I remember thinking how lucky some - but not many - of my friends were when they got brand new clothes and not hand-me-downs.

At first year Grammar School I remember being TOTALLY impressed with another girl who had money EVERY day to get one of those chocolate biscuits covered in foil paper from the tuck shop!!

We are still good friends … which is better than biscuits !!

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If they had a private plane they were definitely rich and my idol. My godfather had one, when I was 8 he was going to take me flying for my birthday. He was flying back from Scotland the day before and crashed into the North Sea. Some mystery about it as there was supposed to be a mystery passenger but they were never found and my godfather died. Wasn’t so sure that being rich was all good after that.