Could you compare your knowledge of life during WWII to the lives of the common Northerner in the Civil War?

I know that American lives at home was pretty much on hold until the war was over in World War II. They may have increased their income from nothing to triple something but what luxuries could you buy?

During the Civil War people in San Francisco were enjoying the new idea of something called 'vacations'. Lake Tahoe was enjoying lots of 'em during 1863.

David