Mostly our definitions of lower class, middle class, and upper class have changed. Middle class used to mean two to three kids in a bedroom and a purchase of one used car per family, which was parked in the driveway.
Exactly how I remember my childhood. And my parents always identified as middle class.
So for clarity, a family of 5, in a 2 bedroom house with one used car was middle class? Not your perception, step back. Is this on a lot in town? How big is the lot?
I did not know any "families of five". All I knew were families of six or eight or twelve. And they were struggling to make payments on 40 to 200 acres while keeping the cows milked twice a day, or doing the same on sharecropped ground.
Two thirds of the boys in our grade school came to school with cow schitt on their boots every day. The other third were townie kids.
But yes, the Moms all made every dress the girls wore, and they made the boys' shirts. They brought flour, and salt, and sugar home from the market and actually cooked three meals a day.
Fast food? Nobody even knew the meaning. Frozen meals, that was something we saw advertised on TV. Probably marketed to the ultra-rich.
My Grandparents raised six kids born over twelve years in 800 sq feet with two bedrooms. The girls got the bedroom. The boys slept on the two "davenports" in the living room.
They always had a nice Buick purchased about ten years old and usually kept for five to ten years. And an older farm pickup. I remember they were still using a 52 Chevy pickup in 1975. And I remember a 59 Chevy Fleetside pu in 1979.
Grandma always had a nice sewing machine, because that was more important than a new car. And she had a huge range with six big burners and two ovens, because the working men had to be fed. And nobody ever thought of them as poor. They always had cash available to buy a coat or shoes for a needy grandkid. They paid their tythe every month, and kept cash for the offering plate. And they always were quick with a helping hand for those less fortunate.
And that is how "middle class"was defined by people I knew in the '60s/70s.
