(no subject)

[unicornduke]

I'm always fascinated by like, aspirational middle class shit as seen through commercials

like there was a febreeze commercial and it's like, all these soft things in your house hold in the odor! How awful! your house is absolutely sterile otherwise so it must be that!

I'm like, I'm staring at a giant hole in my parents ceiling right now because the plumbing was leaking all over. It's definitely the 25 year old couch causing smell issues that I'm really concerned about. 

Comments

[unicornduke]

I think for me, I kinda did think we were middle class and we might actually been somewhat near that if not for the farm but I'm thinking of the house we lived in before we moved to the farm and well, it was a little bit odd. My parents stripped it out and refinished the insides. I was a wee bab so I don't remember.

The clothes we got from cousins and the repairing clothes and having good clothes for nice things and the weird money hoarding thing I did. And the shower that leaks no matter how many times dad caulks it and all the farm junk and I have many memories of going to the local consignment shops for clothes. Our house has always been filled with stuff. We went to the library a lot. I had friends who lived in literal filth but it was fine. The nasty basement and the truly creepy hole crawlspace in it. The cold in the winter and sleeping on the floor by the woodstove on the coldest nights. The unfinished flooring still upstairs. the big fucking hole in the ceiling which is not a new plumbing problem. We spent so much time outside, playing with cousins and on the mountain and all that. Farm work. Getting mad at other kids who got an allowance for doing household chores.

And then I went to college and realized we were definitely not middle class by normal standards! And watching these commercials, I scratch my head. And living with Jade is also kinda part of it because she is so very middle class suburban and it is weird. And we had playdates at other friends houses when I was little and it was weird to be there and we never had playdates at our house.

My aunt and uncle bought a piece of our property and they had one of those two part houses mashed together and I thought it was the coolest thing! And they had air conditioning .

I think my mom also was a little horrified too because she grew up in the suburbs but it was definitely working class and her parents were working class folks whose parents immigrated and she has seven brothers and sisters and they lived in this weird little ranch house in new jersey. I think she tried to aim for middle class because I think a lot of her friends growing up were but boy did she lose on that one.

Our town (800 people ish) is kinda sorta getting a little revival, as much as it possibly could. A few families have moved in because it's cheap to live here and I think a lot of the folks with drug problems have either stopped or gone away. There's still no jobs really unless you drive to the city but that's not new and the only jobs are warehouse jobs.

I listen to a lot of podcasts and stuff and it's a fascinating view because so many of those people live in cities and I'm just. Fucking astounded at the shit they say. It's just mind blowing! I didn't know people really did stuff like go to the grocery store every day to buy food because the store is right there. Wild! Who even does that!

[dragonlady7]

oh my god i have lived in this house since 2005 and I still! have! trouble! with the groceries thing!!! I still buy everything in quantities for a family of six as if it'll be a month before we can get more supplies in! I cannot shake the belief that if we run out of something it's a 45-minute drive each way to get more!!!
Even at the farm, Annie still shops like that too, even though the Market 32 on Hoosic St. is ten minutes away at most, and Stewarts is within walking distance.

We had all hand-me-down clothes too, and I didn't learn how to buy clothes for myself until I was well out of college; the whole idea that you could choose clothes, entirely, instead of just wearing whatever you were given or found?? Nutty! So I still hoard clothing and can't stop. And I also hoard money all weirdly, the only reason I handle it at all well is that I just turned over all of it to Dude and he makes sure the bills get paid.

Since I went away to college Mom and Dad have had the time and money to nice-up the house I was born in so much-- the back porch that used to be a mudroom has a woodstove now, and nice linoleum and painted walls and insulated storm windows. The cracked linoleum in the kitchen is hardwood now with a tile entryway and tile backsplash behind the kitchen. The grubby wall-to-wall carpeting in the living room has been replaced with fairly expensive area rugs. There's no more unpainted drywall, or bare studs where we didn't get around to drywall yet; my old bedroom is no longer off an unheated hallway. It's suuuuuper middle-class now, because they had decent pensions and they're getting them now.

The basement is still incredibly creepy, though-- it floods in spring, and frogs live in the rock walls. The entire idea of a finished nice basement is totally foreign to me.