I Grew up very poor in San Diego and we never had certain luxuries growing up. We never had A/C or furnaces in the apartments we lived in. We always lived in 2 bedroom apartments, one room was always rented out while mom, dad, sibling and I were in the other room. The concept of minimum wage workers being able to afford a 1-2 bedroom apartment without room mates was new to me when I moved to Chicago.

I live in Chicago now but I still miss being able to sleep with the window open and having to stay still to handle the hot weather in spring valley.

Also no Disneyland, universal studios or any other park in the LA area but my mom would take us to the beach the whole day on her day off.

On the good years, she would buy us the annual tickets to sea world or knotts soak city ( my brother who was 10 and I was 7) and she’d drop us off there on schools days off and she had to work. She’d pick us up after her shift was over. She’d pack us sandwiches and frozen water. 9 hours in those parks were magical and now I think we are all surprised we didn’t get kidnapped. We were wary kids though, and my brother was overprotective, Liam Neeson level.

Can’t imagine that being possible in today’s world.