all my friends' parents had multiple homes or lake houses back in the day. they weren't rich. just normal middle class folk who "are doing well for themselves", as they'd say. lake houses with boats, fully furnished with nice old furniture. i don't know where you find nice furniture anymore. it's not something they make now i guess. i'd stop at the neighbors' and there'd be some guy sanding his 28' sailboat getting it ready for a paint job. some dude who didn't have to work that day apparently. i can't even imagine myself having free time to sand a fucking boat off on some lake property in michigan. yet the boomers did it. i remember going to my dad's buddy's house on the river that he supervised the building for himself (who has the time and money for this?) and sitting in his project car (an old vw van he was refurbishing). his son had a 2x86 computer that he'd play text-based adventures on, or play simple games on with 5 1/2 floppies, and he had the robbie the robot for nintendo and a bunch of accessories and stuff, and his mom didn't work. they just had this lovely home with a great big fireplace that spanned two floors and a kitchen that overlooked the river and looked beautiful and cozy on a cold winter day. he was a mailman. a mailman. his son had space camp pictures on the wall, and his daughter had a cd player like two fucking years before i ever saw one in the wild again. and i'd go visit other friends and their dads would buy them waverunners for their birthdays, and everyone was cozy and perfect. i don't know what happened. this was something i personally witnessed. everyone around me had a second house. and the houses they had were fucking nice, and everyone's dad was just kinda a dude who maybe worked at the local car dealership, or was a foreman at the factory. now i can barely feed my fucking family while paying a mortgage and insurance costs. i don't even have time to go to visit a friend across town.
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