Maybe he was talking about the Mom hanging plastic picnic table covers as curtains in the boys room because they were poor ;-)
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/July-2013/Ricketts-Family/
The ultimate, however, was Marlene’s decision to use plastic picnic-table covers with a 1976 bicentennial theme as curtains in the bedroom that all three boys shared, recalls Pete. “We definitely were the poor family in the neighborhood,” Todd says. “I tell people that one of the reasons I have a bike shop today (see “Take a Ride with Chicago’s Craziest Bicycling Subculture”) is that I never had a bike as a kid.”