What did "middle class" mean to you when you were 20-30 something?

[hfojvt]

23. my family was sorta upper middle class

but there were five kids and my parents saved a lot, so we lived somewhat cheap, rather than trying to keep up with the Joneses. Dad had a credit card, but I remember us having to search for a gas station that took it, because not all of them did.

Our house was small by today's standards and the basement was unfinished. I can still remember dad laying the tile in the basement and building a wall to separate the kids play area from the laundry/shop area. Our first TV was black and white and we had a party line phone. The rooms got carpeted one at a time and the house got expanded. A screen porch was added in the back as well as a 2nd garage, although our driveway was a single lane that widened and not a two lane. Dad drove an old station wagon, but in 1976 bought a "new" one - last year's model at a discount, but still used the old one. The new one mostly sat in the garage and was used for vacations. Dad sold it about seven years ago and the exterior was still mostly in mint condition.

For some reason, a family room was added in 1980 even as I, the 2nd oldest was graduating. As I remember it though, I was sorta planning to goto Germany with the German class, and had that happened, it would have eaten up that money for the family room. However, with all of these expansions to the house, dad did a good portion of the work himself. Even my little brother did a lot as he was taking industrial arts at the time. I mostly remember doing a lot of hauling - of concrete blocks and packs of shingles.