yep summer slides, I guess that was where they got the term Hot pants. Fall and spring was always the best seasons for sliding.
The middle class does seem to take the brunt of most change, the poor will be looked after, the middle class will either survive and grow or become the new poor. I really don't see just the three tiers most people talk about, rich, middle class, poor. In a lot of ways it is also attitudinal. I don't think you can ever really make a middle class person poor if they don't want to be poor.