[K-Dog]

Their paper route didn't make enough to borrow the parents car and put some gas in it?

The suburb I graduated high school in was mixed working class, average and skilled proletariat.  I left paper routes behind when I was 14.  By then I was working under the table, my wages were written off as cat food in a pet shop, and I was making $1 an hour.  Much better than delivering newspapers in blizzard conditions at 12 years old at 6 am before school.  Six days a week.  The Minneapolis Star and Tribune was one of three routes I had when I delivered.  Two were small local papers.  I did morning papers.  The Sunday paper was part of the Evening Post edition of the tribune.  They had been separate and merged.

Bicycles got me around.  The burb was death without someway to get around.  My parents made it very clear that I was an expense, and I needed to take care of myself.

parents car ?

Not everyone had it so good.  There is a forgotten America which thought suffering built character and that unearned riches were the devils tool.  Sometimes suffering can build character.  Most of the time suffering just breaks people. 
Those who could have provided more often did not.  ✟  There was no arguing with their reasons.  No wiggle room at all.  'Back in the day' was not the nostalgic hedonistic paradise many assume it was.  There were far more 'rules' then than now.  Religion was a big deal.  The minority that could evade religion was small.

[TDoS]

Bicycles got me around.  The burb was death without someway to get around.  My parents made it very clear that I was an expense, and I needed to take care of myself.

How unfortunate. So what "expenses" were you incurring that would cause such a reaction? Eating?

There is a forgotten America which thought suffering built character and that unearned riches were the devils tool.  Sometimes suffering can build character.  Most of the time suffering just breaks people.

This one I get. I'll go with the character building side. But then I'm "old" American, as opposed to the pussyfication that appears to have overrun the country. Helicopter parents for christs sake....ruined the entire country.

'Back in the day' was not the nostalgic hedonistic paradise many assume it was.

Damn straight. Fucking groundhog when the venison ran out.