I was watching Craiglist to buy a desk / loftbed for my kids' room when it occurred to me.

I grew up using a twin mattress on a metal frame.  As long as I lived we never bought furniture for the kids . . . ever.  I think my mattress was upgraded once between my years in a crib and when I moved out at 18, and that was when a friend of my Mom moved away to AZ and gave me an old mattress and box spring. 

I have no idea when or where my dresser came from, it was just always there . . . at the dawn of my first memories of my childhood home and at the dusk of my last memories of them. 

And the stunning part of the comparison is that we lived in an old established neighborhood in an upscale Chicago suburb (the north side of Downers Grove, in the cobblestone neighborhood, for those who know).

Yeah, I do not have the economic means to order the new one from Costco for $1300, but my Mom never even considered trivialities like furniture for the kids.