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Comment by smcl | Hacker News Reader

> What else could it be?

Swimming trunks/swimsuit. Clean indoor trainers for basketball/volleyball/circuit training/etc, or scruffy outdoor ones for cross-country running, orienteering or anything muddy outside. In winter they may need to take something warmer if there's outdoor activities planned, some locations in the north or near mountains may even do skiing or cross-country skiing. In our school in winter time we sometimes did scottish country dancing, so you didn't really need "normal" P.E. class gear if that's what was on.

I don't know what this school in particular offered but there's a bunch of possibilities.

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> (casually implies kids have multiple workout outfits/shoes and regularly engage in expensive outdoor activities)

Man, sometimes I'll run into a reminder that I grew up poor as dirt, haha

Or as poor as 90% of the world's population.

If it's any consolation, I grew up in a well off family, and had a single pair of somewhat smelly gym shorts.

The swimming trunks argument still holds though.

I grew up in a middle-class family, and as a kid I was generally expected to be aware of when we had a pool day, or a skating rink day coming up, and to be responsible for bringing the right clothing/sundries on every day in school. Using the analog technology of 'remember it', assisted by 'write it down in your day planner'[1].

[1] Which I would never do. My memory, as an eight-year old was, of course, infallible.

Ah come on "multiple workout outfits" is a little bit of a stretch of what I said. Everything I described except for the skiing stuff is normal in anything but the very poorest countries - in addition to what you listed, you didn't have a jumper for when it's cold or some old trainers for when it's muddy? I just wore my normal shorts for football whenever we went swimming (fyi my school didn't have a pool, but some do) but obviously that's not practical for girls so swimsuit was worth mentioning.

I never got to go skiing as a kid, but in Central Europe (Czechia for sure, but probably Austria, Switzerland and Slovakia) and the Nordics (importantly where that story took place) it isn't just a fancy pursuit for rich people. I know people earning like 20000 CZK/month ($10k/yr) here who go skiing.

Cross-country skiing is cheap and affordable for nearly anyone. All you need is a pair of used skis, a pair of boots, and the ability to bum a ride from a friend.

Downhill skiing is the bourgie hobby.

Well it's a bougie hobby if you fly every year with your private school to Switzerland, and get a new set of skis (deliberately exaggerating of course, it can be various levels of bougie). Cross-country is definitely cheaper (no ski pass, skis are generally cheaper) but there are plenty of places where affordable ski slopes are nearby and it's normal for someone working in (for example) a pub to own a set of skis, and be able to head out with some friends for a day of skiing

To be fair, I had everything I wanted, which was food, shelter, access to a powerful personal computer, and a lot of old sci-fi books. If other kids had all been equipped like you describe and I'd asked, my parents probably could have scrounged that stuff up for me.

I just wore my regular clothes to class and gym class, although in winter I'd change into shorts instead of exercising in jeans. I had a coat that I wore on the walk to school and one pair of shoes. Sometimes I'd have boots, but my family could only afford/only knew about cheap crap boots that'd disintegrate pretty quickly.

It blows my mind again and again living in the SF Bay Area nowadays, watching a brand new BMW pull up to Starbucks and unload a bunch of teenagers who proceed to buy $40 worth of coffee and snacks. Those dang kids don't know how good they got it! I grew up near the poverty line in the USA, so I can only imagine what it's like for engineers who grew up in actual poverty in other parts of the world.

I do not think having multiple pairs of gym shoes is normal outside of the very poorest countries. I grew up in the US and I never had multiple pairs of gym shoes. Neither did many of my friends. We had "shoes" and "dress shoes" if we were fortunate.

I grew up in the USA and only ever owned two pairs of shoes at once: my regular shoes, and shoes for church that were several sizes too big so they wouldn’t need to be replaced.

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