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When you're a kid, you get certain impressions about things given the way they get presented to you and how parents act with them. Many of these impressions you later in life learn were completely wrong. One of the classics is things that you, as a child, thought were something special, something fancy, probably expensive, because they only showed up on special occasions, and probably rarely. ...and then you grow up, and figure out that no, these things aren't actually special at all, they're readily available at regular stores and aren't any more expensive than similar stuff either. There are, of course, the two classics:   Now, my example of this is a soda.  I don't even remember exactly the occasion or location I associated with it, I think it was my grandfather's place but might also have been our summer house, but I definitely remember it being something I thought was special, because it was one of those things that I only got to drink at special times. It was something I mentally sorted as different from those regular sodas we used to have at home. Better. Fancier. But, of course, a regular soda was exactly what it was. A regular soda available at the regular grocery stores. I've had it for lunch at work occasionally, which definitely isn't a fancy or special occasion. So, what things did you have this revelation about? Of course, it doesn't have to be food-relatd stuff, but that's definitely something I feel this is common with.
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Sep 9, 2023 21:25
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| # ? May 11, 2024 15:26 |
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Wine. Kind of like how TV writers think "smart people only listen to jazz", wine was what rich people drank on Monday Night Mysteries, and therefore must be expensive. (I was from beer-&-whiskey territory, obviously.) I also thought there were more servings per bottle than there actually is. It's what, 3ish per standard bottle? Later on, one of my uncles would buy jug wine, and I had one of his empty jugs to put pennies in. 
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Sep 12, 2023 00:21
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GoodyTwoShoes posted:Wine. Kind of like how TV writers think "smart people only listen to jazz", wine was what rich people drank on Monday Night Mysteries, and therefore must be expensive. (I was from beer-&-whiskey territory, obviously.) I also thought there were more servings per bottle than there actually is. It's what, 3ish per standard bottle? Typically 5, restaurant bottle pricing is usually the same as 4 individual glasses at the same establishment so you get one serving ‘free’
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Sep 12, 2023 00:44
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Way back when Burger King was a rare occasional treat, the rarer visit to a full sit-down restaurant seemed incredibly fancy. Things like Olive Garden, or even *gasp* Chili's! Awesome Blossoms, the first delicacy imaginable 
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Sep 12, 2023 01:41
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Viennettas are definitely fancy. I had never had one until a few years ago when they brought them back to the US, it's the most basic rear end vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup, but it's totally fancy. The champagne of grape juice!! So fancy! So elegant! You get to drink it out of a special glass on New Years Eve!
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Sep 13, 2023 01:19
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big dyke energy posted:Viennettas are definitely fancy. I had never had one until a few years ago when they brought them back to the US, it's the most basic rear end vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup, but it's totally fancy. I mean, those look something like this here:  Edit: I suppose I should post content. For me it was this:  Yep, we ate plenty of bread of course, but just like, make a sandwich with the cold slices. A couple times per year though, my dad would gather the family together, bring out this old toaster, grab an extension cable, and put the toaster on the middle of the table. You see, the spring had been broken since before I was born so he had to pop the toaster manually to prevent the bread from catching on fire. Making toast and eating it together was a whole special family Event. Carbon dioxide has a new favorite as of 09:56 on Sep 13, 2023 |
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Sep 13, 2023 07:48
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Carbon dioxide posted:For me it was this: 
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Sep 13, 2023 08:11
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Just an image of a toaster I pulled off a random site. I reuploaded it to imgur now.
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Sep 13, 2023 09:56
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big dyke energy posted:
This, but Martinelli's instead, just look how fancy that is, gold everywhere!  We make a big show of pouring a glass for my nephew on every family holiday, even though half the family doesn't even drink booze. 
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Sep 13, 2023 10:43
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Captain Hygiene posted:Way back when Burger King was a rare occasional treat, the rarer visit to a full sit-down restaurant seemed incredibly fancy. Things like Olive Garden, or even *gasp* Chili's! Awesome Blossoms, the first delicacy imaginable Olive Garden and Red Lobster were the height of fine dining to my mind growing up. It was weird finally realizing they were mostly poo poo (endless breadsticks/cheddar bay biscuits being the exception)
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Sep 13, 2023 16:38
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Elviscat posted:This, but Martinelli's instead, just look how fancy that is, gold everywhere! I remember this and it's really crazy how all of the adults who made it a thing are alcoholics
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Sep 13, 2023 22:46
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Cable TV Indoor plumbing Heat Credit cards Name brand clothes Cars that weren't rusty Can you tell I grew up in poverty? I thought opening a steel door in the ground to climb into an underground concrete box to prime the well pump was a somewhat normal thing to do every day. Lotsa spiders down there.
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Sep 14, 2023 20:50
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AARD VARKMAN posted:Olive Garden and Red Lobster were the height of fine dining to my mind growing up. It was weird finally realizing they were mostly poo poo (endless breadsticks/cheddar bay biscuits being the exception) Going to Red Lobster in my youth meant you had to dress a bit nicer. Macy's Department Store. Where I grew up was a couple of hours away from the nearest one. Belk and Penney's were one town over, but it was a trip to go to the Macy's, Gap or Banana Republic. You were fancy in middle school if your gym clothes wre in a Gap bag.
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Sep 15, 2023 06:02
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RC and Moon Pie posted:Macy's Department Store. Where I grew up was a couple of hours away from the nearest one. Belk and Penney's were one town over, but it was a trip to go to the Macy's, Gap or Banana Republic. You were fancy in middle school if your gym clothes wre in a Gap bag. I love how often "fancy" as a kid just means "takes a special trip." There are several restaurants that still register as fancy to me entirely because the nearest locations were in the big city that was a full day's drive away from where I grew up, where we'd only go maybe once a year -- mortifyingly, one of them is Arby's. My mom loved Arby's, and it was in the fancy mall in the big city! Special occasion dining!! Also, anywhere that gave you cloth napkins, because you could put those in your lap to show you had good manners. I don't know why my parents focused so hard on napkin etiquette when I got of age to start going with them to sit-down restaurants, but by God, if I go to a place with a cloth napkin it's going in my lap.
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Sep 15, 2023 10:05
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Antivehicular posted:I love how often "fancy" as a kid just means "takes a special trip." This was TGI Friday's when we were kids - there was one about a 50 minute drive away from us in a retail/business park that also had a UCI cinema. Both were rarely visited and seemed like such a Big Deal when we did. Especially TGIF's because it had dark wood panelling, antiques on the walls (we always tried to sit at a table under a moose head), Tiffany lamps and a bar in the middle. There was an independent department store in the nearest city as well, which I remember as being the ultimate in sophisticated opulence but mostly because it was in a big Victorian building and as well as being full of expensive-looking stuff of every sort had a sort of library-like quietness to it that made it seem important and grand. Actually it was because it was perpetually on the brink of bankruptcy and looking at photos of the time it was a crumbling Victorian wreck with some awful 1970s decor inside.
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Sep 15, 2023 14:25
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Our "fancy" restaurant was Ryan's buffet, since we only went for birthdays.
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Sep 15, 2023 15:30
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Emily Spinach posted:Our "fancy" restaurant was Ryan's buffet, since we only went for birthdays. I miss eating 20 yeast rolls at that place as a kid
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Sep 15, 2023 15:31
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We were more of a Ponderosa and Chi Chis family, but the neighbors dug Ryans.
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Sep 15, 2023 15:33
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Name brand anything -- food, clothes, shoes, etc. Individual appliances, like, toasting bread in a toaster instead of in the oven, electric egg beaters, stuff like that.
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Sep 15, 2023 15:34
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Sizzler however was Not Fancy and Actually Gross
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Sep 15, 2023 15:34
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Albuquerque, anything in or to do with it. Go to the Albuquerque Walmart and buy a copy of Battleship? Better place those pegs with your pinky extended. My family would go there for anything we couldn't get in our town or Santa Fe. Ironically Santa Fe actually is kinda fancy.
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Sep 15, 2023 21:48
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What's that thing called where everybody gets a tiny pan for frying food on a small electric or alcohol burner while you're at the table? That.
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Sep 15, 2023 22:04
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YeahTubaMike posted:Name brand anything -- food, clothes, shoes, etc. I grew up in the 70s and name brand sports shoes (sneakers, tennis shoes) were pretty much Keds or Converse. I usually ended up with Trax (K-Mart's brand). As long as they lasted the whole school year, they were good enough. My other school clothes came from K-Mart or, if times were good, JC Penny's. In high school, I was more into cords than jeans and had to have Levi's. I would end up getting two, maybe three pair for the whole year. Way off brands of sports shoes were called "cat heads", but I have no idea why.
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Sep 16, 2023 01:29
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The 3DO and the Philips CD-i. Looking at the advertisements in magazines, my child brain didn't understand how anything could look SO different from my SNES. These must be serious, hi-tech systems for ADULTS.
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Sep 16, 2023 02:41
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The two-story mall that was about an hour away. It was sooo huge! I now live ten minutes from there, and go there for lunch.
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Sep 16, 2023 02:48
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Cars with cloth seats. I was born in 1980, but all the families I knew had early 70s or earlier beater cars with vinyl that would burn the backs of your legs in summer, usually with no seatbelts in the back. In about 1988 my dad got a company car with his new job and it was a Toyota carolla with cloth seats and a tape player, and we were absolutely NEVER allowed to eat in it.
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Sep 16, 2023 10:26
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Air conditioning. Grandma had AC in her house and her car. The height of decadence and luxury.
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Sep 16, 2023 11:13
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Elviscat posted:This, but Martinelli's instead, just look how fancy that is, gold everywhere! martinellis is way better than most wine
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Sep 17, 2023 01:05
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Grassy Knowles posted:Sizzler however was Not Fancy and Actually Gross I have a vivid memory of going to Applebees when I was about 4 or 5 and thinking "this is worse than microwaved food at home" and drat if it isn't the most correct thing I've ever said. Peaked early.
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Sep 17, 2023 04:29
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PinheadSlim posted:I have a vivid memory of going to Applebees when I was about 4 or 5 and thinking "this is worse than microwaved food at home" and drat if it isn't the most correct thing I've ever said. Peaked early. Applebees for a long period really did just microwave their food so you were quite astute
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Sep 17, 2023 04:34
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The first "super" Wal-Mart I saw in the early 90s' blew my goddamned mind.
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Sep 17, 2023 05:36
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sizzling steaks and lava cakes (on a sizzling plate) were The poo poo and your parents hate it when you wanted to eat those because it meant having to wash their hair and change clothes immediately at home
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Sep 17, 2023 05:49
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Middle schoolers in full hot topic gear
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Sep 17, 2023 15:20
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Stairs. Most houses here are one storey so if you had a second floor in your house? Wow.
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Sep 17, 2023 16:37
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Ordering pizza by phone Owning a PC *and* a game console Wood panelling on walls Glass blocks in bathroom Candy/sweets/cakes from abroad Door bells with a melody
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Sep 17, 2023 17:29
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laserghost posted:Ordering pizza by phone Lol, yes. We grew up far enough out of town that we couldn't do that at home. I remember visiting our cousins one times and being in awe at them just ordering a stack of Papa John's...with dipping sauce too  Truly we feasted like kings on that day!
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Sep 17, 2023 17:50
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definintely hoss' steak and sea house. https://hosss.com/  
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Sep 17, 2023 17:55
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Tiggum posted:Stairs. My ex from Texas and another friend from Georgia said the same thing to me and it blew my mind, where I live single story homes (without basements) are by far the exception and not the rule. You know what’s fancy though? A finished basement that’s not just a moldy concrete box.
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Sep 17, 2023 23:33
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It turns out Orangina is just a normal kind of fizzy fruit juice my dad bought to keep us quiet at the grocery store and not a fancy drink reserved for special occasions.
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Sep 18, 2023 17:03
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| # ? May 11, 2024 15:26 |
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I thought Chinese buffets were really fancy as a kid. Especially if they had a chocolate fountain.
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Sep 19, 2023 03:30
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