1990’s

Watching the Olympics made me a little nostalgic for my childhood (which has been a feeling that’s happened a lot lately).  I miss the 90s. The times were simpler—no technology to really influence our childhood. We had to use our imaginations. My friend Melissa and I used ours a lot. We used to sleep over at her house and play MASH-O (MANSION APARTMENT SHACK HOUSE-OUTHOUSE). It was the perfect way to predict the future of your husband, where did you live, how much money you made, etc. One day, we took it to the next level: I married Michael Jordan (huge Chicago Bulls fan, thanks Dad), and we planned a black and red ceremony in Melissa’s basement. We also pretended to be gymnastic stars in my parent’s basement after we watched the 1996 Olympics. We played house in our backyards. We rode our bikes all over town, and we played pretend drive-through. We spent hours outside. We used our imaginations. I used to write plays, and make my siblings act them out. We also acted out a lot of Soap Operas. The only time we used technology was to play Oregon Trail in technology class, where we still got to use our imagination to make decisions to make it through the game. I always made a family with a boy that I liked at the time, and “our” children. I would get upset when the people died. They felt real to me. The story was real to me.

Not only did we use our imagination, but our music was SO MUCH BETTER than today. We had the era of boy and girl bands. My sisters and I used to pretend that we were married to members of different bands. We hung up their posters. We danced to their songs. We also appreciated the music of our parents. Ask a Lehman child, we can sing every Fleetwood Mac song—we grew up listening to our parents’ records. To this day, listening to a Classic Rock album on vinyl makes my heart happy. Vinyls are becoming popular once again. Artists are releasing their music on record players. BUT, they are still not as good as the classics.

Growing up during the ’90s was the perfect combination of analog and digital living, from the infuriation of dial-up internet (most of us 90s babies can imitate the AOL log-in sounds), to the excitement of Blockbuster rentals of VHS tapes (PLEASE BE KIND, REWIND!). We played with our pet Tamagotchis, hacky sacks, made mixed tapes and CDs, Lisa Frank ruled our world (she’s coming back, too!). Ketchup was considered a vegetable, and everybody wanted to know: GOT MILK? The 90’s were amazing, and I want to live some of the best parts of them for you. Things only 90 kids would know.

1. Blowing out a video game cartridge. Imagine, your video game glitches in the middle of your Mortal Kombat session. We knew blowing out the air did not fix the problem, but in our child brains, it was the cure. Popular video games; Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, and Duck Hunt (a personal favorite).
2. Flip Phones. There was nothing like hanging up on people by closing the phone shut. With attitude. Like Cher in Clueless. If you had a Razor, you were super special. Guess what: they are making a Smartphone version now! Oh, and lets talk about T9 texting….or not, because you’ll get that message in a couple of hours, lol.
3. Custom CDs. If you had a crush on someone, or you wanted to apologize to your best friend, you gave them a mixed CD. It took hours to decide on the perfect songs, and then *illegally* downloading them, and then carefully writing the soundtrack for that person. Hopefully, they didn’t get scratched because if they did, your heard work was for naught.
4. We tried to scare each other by reading R.L. Stein books late at night. The covers were creepy, and the stories were even creepier. There was even a TV series about them. We also read a lot of Boxcar Children, Babysitter’s Club (a movie), and Sweet Valley High (also a TV show). If you ordered them from the Scholastic Book fair, even better! We’d spend hours looking through the books in the catalogue, and circling the ones we wanted. Then, even longer, at the Book Fair. We would spend our allowance on books.
5. Minesweeper and Solitaire. When we were bored at home, we would log into our Windows 95 and try to beat Solitaire or Minesweeper. Look out for those bombs!
6. Overhead projectors. Dry erase on a lit screen, what could go wrong with that? They were messy, and if the teacher forgot to erase the last lesson, the current lesson might be illegible. If the light went out, then your lesson for the day was done.
7. Pogs/Slammers. Pogs were the currency of the playground. Collecting the best designs and possessing a heavy slammer earned you bragging rights. Losing your favorites in a bad round was heartbreaking. Every day you’d see kids all over the playground trying their hand at the game.
8. Film photos. 24-36 pictures on a role. Bring that role to the drugstore. You’d never know what you were going to get. It was always disappointing to pay for a blurry photo or one with your thumb covering the subject of the picture.
9. Beanie Babies. Little stuffed animals filled with beans. They were everywhere. We collected them. We thought we were going to get money from them. Especially when McDonald’s put them in the Happy Meal (what a great marketing tool!). They are not worth a lot of money now, but they may be worth a lot of sentimental value.
10. Messenger. Your away message needed to capture your mood exactly: usually with emo song lyrics. Signing on and off constantly was a ploy to catch your crush’s eye. Away messages were the first “Do Not Disturb” mode. Often, on the messenger late because you had to wait until the phone wasn’t being used to be on the web.
11. Floppy Disks. Saving documents on small disks that didn’t hold much. You hoped and prayed the disk didn’t get corrupted because your assignment would be lost forever. There was a lock at the top that slid, and you better make sure it was closed. I still have a pile of floppy disks with short stories on them, and it’s a pain to try to recover the information from them.
12. Line dances were king. The Macarena. The Electric Slide. Cotton-Eyed Joe. If there was a dance, you were sure to hear these songs. Everyone knew the dance, and everyone did it, even if they didn’t like it.
13. Animated toys, Most kids had a Furby (talk about creepy!) These small robot animals would wake up in the middle of the night and begin speaking (like a Gremlin). Parents wished they had not purchased them within minutes. There was also Tickle Me Elmo, which people fought over on Black Friday.
14. Voice recorders. Also, known as Talkboys and YakBaks. These tape recorders allowed children to be amateur pranksters. The Talkboy, popularized by Home Alone 2, made us all try to record our voices in disguise or in slow motion. Yak Baks were smaller but equally annoying.
15. Scented markers. Sketch scented markers made art class more fun. Everyone had a favorite smell and most people hated black licorice. We would all color our homework, and then smell the paper to see how delicious it smelled! There were also stamp markers!
16. Funky Kid’s Shows. Slime was everywhere. Figure it Out, Double Dare, and Slime Time were favorites, as were Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and the Temple of Doom. We used to love cartoons, too, like Animaniacs, Hey Arnold!,, All That!, Ren & Stimpy, and Rugrats.
17. Jelly shoes. They were Crocs before there were Crocs. Glittery and transparent, even cooler if you got the colored ones, were painful as heck, but everyone wanted a pair. If your feet got wet, they were also super smelly.
18. CD catalogues. Ordering your CDs from a catalogue. Using stickers to select the CDS, then mailing those selections and waiting for them to come to you. Columbia House was my favorite. There was also BMG. You sent in a penny, and you got some free music. It was such a deal. If you didn’t want to wait, you could go to the music store at the mall.
19. Chuck-E-Cheese. If you had a birthday party here, you were cool. The arcade, the tickers and prizes, and the Robotic Singing Animals. Chuck-E-Cheese was Dave and Buster’s before Dave and Buster’s. If you didn’t have your birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese, McDonald’s was a prime location with the orange drink and the carousel.
20. Doc Martens. We all loved to wear them with our overalls. Big, black, and chunky. They were heavy, but we loved them.
21. Polly Pockets. The toy fit in your pocket with all the pieces inside. They were compact. They were fun—you could take them on car trips. McDonald’s also put these in the Happy Meals.
22. Walkman/Discmans. Handheld music. They were super cool if they had a radio on them. They also were expensive, so if you had one, you knew you were cool.
23. Hose drinks. Yep, we used to stop what were doing outside to drink from the hose.
24. Pure Moods CDs. You could listen to the samples in the store, and the commercials instantly made you feel calm.
25. Jock Jams. Compilation CDs of sports-themed music: need I say more!
26. Burger King Disney plates. You collected them. They were like the kid version of fine China.
27. Sick days. You loved staying home sick because you got to watch Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud, while eating Chicken and Stars soup.
28. We loved hiding under the parachute during gym class. Don’t forget the planetariums. Presidential Fitness Tests—man, those were tough. Rope Climbing, sit-ups, pull-ups, running a mile.
29. Our TV lineup on Friday Night was golden and cheesy. Family Matters, Full House, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Step-by-Step. We had popcorn parties with our friends wanting to see what was next for our faves.
30. Saturday Morning Cartoons. We’d wake up the next day and watch TV—Sonic, Rescue Rangers, and Duck Tales. We also learned how to Recycle/Reduce Reuse!
31. We had this fascination with gum. Big Chew, Fruit Stripe.
32. Bill Nye. We learned science from a crazy guy in a lab coat, and we enjoyed it. For added science help we had The Magic School Bus and Ms. Frizzle.
33. Wood spoons. We ate our small tubs of ice cream with wooden spoons. Watch out for the splinters!
34. Skip-it. We busted our ankles trying to jump over on a ball on a plastic stick.
35. Bop-it. Bop-it, flip-it…you had to be fast and follow the directions.

There was so many great things about the 90s, and I could add more. I’d love to hear your favorite part of the 90’s. There’s a reason why some of it is coming back in style. Life was better—we were freer; we were kids; we didn’t rely on screens, The 2000’s were pretty great, too. Some of that will come back, too.