When I was a kid back in the '50s', we didn't have TV, AC, or a dryer. We did have a washing machine and a special room in the basement where the coal was dumped for the winter time (it could get down around 20-25 below for a couple weeks).
I never remember being terribly uncomfortable, though I spent a lot of my 'kid' years in the community swimming pool in the summer.
Now, however, I don't think my dear wife and I could exist (specially this year) without AC and all the other goodies mentioned.
The poorest of us are pretty rich (I don't consider us 'rich' by US standards at all ... living on a small fixed retirement income), but when I hear missionaries in our church talk about what is normal, for instance, in India, I feel very, very rich! And I think a huge segment of the Indian population (as well as other such countries) would consider even the poorest in the US, very rich.
I'll keep handsorting those pennies....one at a time probably!
