twist on a class meme
People in the media who dressed and talked like me were not portrayed positively, if you mean poor farmers in backwoods places. If you mean white people, then yes.
I grew up in a single family house, which my parents owned, and I think it was paid off before I graduated from high school. I didn't have my own room till I was 13. I had a hallway. Then, when I was 13, we finished a room in the half-story which became mine. It still didn't have a door, but I did haul the phone in from the room next door. I won a 12" black-and-white television from the local NAPA store, which I couldn't use till I had my own room. It was the same as the living room television we had had, and we only got 3 channels.
I was painfully aware of how much (or little) heating bills were for my family. It was called chopping wood every summer and hauling it to the house every winter. There was only one small baseboard heater, and that was near the bedrooms/bathroom just in case the fire went out at night.
We had more than 500 books in my home as a kid, and was read to by my mom when I was small. I had sax, trombone, piano, driving and swimming lessons before 18, three of which I quit.
There was original art in our house when I was a kid, but it was my mom's art (or mine). As I got older, there was a little more of mine, and then, my dad bought some from a friend of mine.
I didn't go to private high school. My grandmother offered to pay -- I turned it down.
I was not in the same social class as my high school teachers.
My clothing was a mix, always. My grandmother was a thrifting queen, and my mom made almost all my clothes till high school. Looking back, it made me the butt of a lot of jokes.
My mom went to college for Art Ed, but quit when she and my dad were married. My dad went to college after I was born, and finished at least one program. To my knowledge, nobody in my family is an attorney, doctor, or professor. My uncle, by marriage, was a professor many years ago, though, so I'm not sure if that falls into the "in your family" category, especially as he lives very far away, and I only ever saw him every couple years.
I never went to summer camp. I never had a private tutor, because I was a tutor. I never took an SAT or ACT prep course. I did take the PSAT and some practice ACT tests. When I was a junior in high school, my dad bought me the best car $1500 could buy, which wasn't much, but it got me where I needed to go, and lasted me until 1993 when I was happy to trade it in for a pregnant roller skate.
For college costs, depending on where you cut off "college" and what you call "costs" -- I had scholarships for years 1-2, and then worked for 3; the parents paid for 4-5; and then I've paid ever since. I didn't have a credit card until college, which may or may not have been before I turned 18. I don't remember when I got it, but I believe it came with 2 two liters and an umbrella, which I needed. As far as knowing about financial stuff, I still couldn't tell you about mutual funds and IRAs.
Family vacations involved staying at hotels, sometimes. Others, we stayed in the back of our car or with family, depending on where the trip was. Vacations often revolved around learning. My parents took me to museums and art galleries all the time, and usually as focus of the trip. My family never went on cruises, and we never flew. Until 1999, I had only flown commercially once, when I was a lap child. I barely remember it.