Privileged

[msmemory_archive]

OK, I'll join the crowd.

This blog-game is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University as reported by Quaker and Social Class. The exercise developers hold the copyright and ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.

* Father went to college
* Father finished college
Father had a B.S. degree.

* Mother went to college
* Mother finished college
Mother had a B.A. and M.Ed. She was the first in her family to attend college; my grandmother had an eighth-grade education.

* Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor.
Mother was a college instructor.

* Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers

* Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
* Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Certainly more than 50 of my own, probably more than 500 in the house. Mother and I were the readers, Dad preferred a good newspaper to nap with.

* Were read children's books by a parent
Of course. Mother used to proudly tell the story that she realized I had learned to read when I demanded she read to me and she refused, telling me "Not right now, I'm reading my own book," and I grabbed it from her saying "Then I'll read to you."

* Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
* Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
Piano and swimming. But I really wanted ballet too/instead

* The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively
And one of the anchors on NBC-NY is a sort of cousin

* Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18

* Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
* Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Most of it was financial aid.

* Went to a private high school

* Went to summer camp
Day camp when I was 9 or 10. One week at a time sessions of sleep-away camp in high school, on "camperships."

* Had a private tutor before you turned 18

* Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Well, motels. I don't think my mother ever camped in her life.

* Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Except for handmade stuff by my mother or great-aunt. But we had no compunctions about secondhand books or furniture.

* Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them
Heck, I couldn't get them to give me Dad's old one when he stopped driving!

* There was original art in your house when you were a child
I'm not counting the watercolor by my cousin the art student, or the reams of needlework.

* Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
Heh, we had a party line til I was 15 or 16 (when we found that a party line shared with another family with a teenage daughter was non-workable!). I remember the point at which my parents installed an extension. And they never did surrender the hardwired dial phones.

* You and your family lived in a single family house
* Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
* You had your own room as a child
But I was an only child.

* Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course

* Had your own TV in your room in High School
It had been a premium for opening an account at a local bank branch.

* Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College

* Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
I was 16 when I flew for the first time.

* Went on a cruise with your family
* Went on more than one cruise with your family

* Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
Yes, Sturbridge, Plymouth, Mystic Aquarium, Essex Steam Train, that sort of thing. First time in an art gallery was on a high school class trip.

* You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family
I couldn't have told you dollar amounts, my parents guarded that sort of thing. But there was constant tension over the thermostat and dad kept lowering it to save.

Comments

[silme.livejournal.com]

See, I think this meme really does concern age as well as privilege. Okay, so my parents were working class and yours were better educated, but that telephone thing is something we have in common, probably due to our ages. We were thrilled to have a non-party line phone, even if it was only one phone in the house! (We'd had a party line when I was younger.) :) My parents grudgingly surrendered that hard-wired rotary phone in the early '90s when the township was changing the phone lines and they were forced to switch -- either that or not have a phone at all. But it still was the only phone in the house. :)