1990's Memories

[The_Jeff]

Paper route, I was paid in dollar bills so I felt like a gangster pulling a wad of singles out of my front pocket.

Got my drivers licence. Quit paper route. Got summer job washing dishes and staying in a $45/week flophouse. And getting plastered nightly at parties on the rocks down by the ocean with campfires and trash cans full of beer and ice. My room was underneath an old fashioned fire siren that went off every noon just for testing. Got me good the first time! Flophouse had free coffee and building contractors wandering in and out gossiping about whatever contractor wasn't there... because he was working.

Beavis and Butthead!!!

Gas going from $1.15 to $1.29 made the evening news in 1996.

X-files.

mp3s

Computers that could actually accomplish something. I got a 25 foot cat 5 cable in 1995 that my wife just took into work so she could move her desk around how she likes it. Used computers and parts were within hobbyist price ranges. Stoked to find a CRT VGA monitor in the dumpster that just needed pins straightened out in its connector.

Ebay! I remember when it was aw.ebay.com with the aw standing for auctionweb. Ebay was some consulting firm or something and the auction was a sideline. I sold some diana camera I got at a yard sale for $1 to a yuppie for $62. Lots of dumb idiots with play money back then.

90s ended with me getting my 1st real job out of college that I still hold, met my gf/wife/mother of my kids, moved to this region. 2000s had nowhere near this level of optimism or growth or excitement about new direction, IMO.

 

[rjundi]

The "perfect storm" off New England. I was in college going to a halloween party. A combination of high winds, thunderstorm and occasional snow. Weird.

Incredible time of my life, COLLEGE. I managed a 3.0 in engineering but still partied like mad, skied 50 days/year, barely worked and poorest at any time of my life.

I remember pulling a cruddy VT100 terminal(screen with keyboard no CPU) out of the dumpster. I hooked it up to the well advanced for time Ethernet jack in my brand new college apartment and playing on the "internet" using a unix text browser. Also some unix program that allowed you to type and see what other person was typing on top of screen. Precursor to instant chat but really cool.

 

[Cristobal]

In Southern California we had a drought lasting years with a bizarre cold snap. You can still see the dead tamarisk branches on the road to Las Vegas. In Big Bear it hit zero which is rare for Southern California. Farther north in the desert areas it easily got to about 8 below zero, and Ely, Nevada saw about 27 below zero. You could go to these places and there was not a fleck of snow or ice to be seen. This was in 1990 about the 23rd of December.

 

[kb01]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
2000s had nowhere near this level of optimism or growth or excitement about new direction, IMO.



I was actually just thinking about that. As cheesy as it sounds, if I were to think of one word to describe the 1990's, it would be: optimism.

I grew up in the 1970's and 1980's and it was really reamed into us that we were a nation in decline and we were the first generation who would have it worse off than our parents. It seemed like the world was going down hill -- crime, drugs (esp. crack), terrorism, inflation, factories closing left and right, and our massive perceived inferiority to the Japanese.

And then... The Iron Curtain fell, we defeated Iraq, crime and every other bad social statistic started to fall, and the "new" high tech economy was here -- an economy without inflation and not susceptible to the growth/recession model of the "old" economy. There was a lot of money to go around and it really felt like things were changing for the better.

Of course, things were more complex than that and everything started to fall apart by the early 2000's. But the 1990's really were an exciting and optimistic time, especially compared to the malaise of the first decade in the 2000's.

 

[greenjp]

I turn 34 later this week so the 90s were my high school & college years. Things I remember well:
- driving to my grandparents' house to help with lawn work when the news that Kurt Cobain killed himself came on the radio
- sending a random dude on the internet some blank Digital Audio Tapes in exchange for CDs of unreleased sound board recordings of some Metallica concerts!
- Super Bomberman
- freshman year of college, email was Eudora Mail in DOS
- ESPN's website was called ESPNet.Sportszone.com or something like that. It took them a while to realize just plain ESPN.com would be a better name.
- Buddy telling me I had to go see a movie called "Pulp Fiction"

jeff

 

[PandaBear]

That's when computer and video games become popular. How could I forget such a time. Pirating means borrowing a CD Burner from a friend and buy some blank disks from Fry's, every several years we have to upgrade because Internet is coming, 3D graphics is coming, GUI is coming, etc.

Life wasn't easy but not as bad as today, you can find a job that can actually pay you enough to buy toys rather than not even survive on. Gas was cheap, I remember 99c a gallon.

Maybe I was just young at the time, I do not see too many people with depressions and chronic pains as I do today.

 

[jmac]

Originally Posted By: Pablo
The 90's are over? What?


^This. I see everything since as an extension of the 90's with no differentiation. It seems earlier decades were more distinct from each other. It may have some to with getting past a certain age, it may be also things are not so different to be as distinctive.

 

[Silver_civic]

I definitely loved the stanley cups year by year in the 90's as this was the time period that the Red Wings, Avalanche, and Devils won and were great teams. When I watched the Devils beat the Red Wings 4 games to none I was like what the heck! I do remember the "three peat" of the Chicago Bulls and the Buffalo Bills losing 4 straight super bowls. Yeah; Florida State was a real powerhouse in the 90's and their rivalry with "the U" of Miami was classic.

 

[Cause4Alarm]

Eric Lindross!

 

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: jmac
Originally Posted By: Pablo
The 90's are over? What?


^This. I see everything since as an extension of the 90's with no differentiation. It seems earlier decades were more distinct from each other. It may have some to with getting past a certain age, it may be also things are not so different to be as distinctive.


We didn't really accomplish the goals of the previous decade.

1) Find Osama.
2) Invent rain-to-gasoline magic machine.

Cars run as well as they did in the 80s (fuel injection), fashion hasn't come out with any closet-busting must-haves, kitschy restaurants are (still) everywhere. Computers have enough power to run "farmville", High speed internet is the same speed it was in 1998. Little round 5.25" discs still fit in a tray that slides into your home entertainment center. A pound of coffee still weighs ten ounces. Flying overseas is even less fun. Bedbugs are taking over cheap hotels stateside.

So, yeah, the decades kind of blur now.

 

[Silver_civic]

kb01, I grew up northeast of pittsburgh in Punxsutawney (about 130 miles northeast to be exact). Lived in Penn Hills, first when mom divorced my dad, joined NAVY, then lived in Chippewa area(near toll road RT60) till 08' then I moved to Aliquippa where I live, have lived here since Jan 08'. Yeah, I never cared for the Pirates, always loved the STEELERS and PENGUINS. Glad to see the Penguins win another cup in 09' also.


adam

 

[TooManyWheels]

In contrast to those who are into the Seattle music scene, I view the nineties to be when Rock and Roll died. In ninety-three or four, the last real rock and roll was released with Van Halen, Guns and Roses and U2.

Then grunge hit the scene. I haven't found any way to appreciate it yet.

 

[Pablo]

Grunge sucks almost as bad a hip-hop and rap and disco and country and western.

1990's I pretty much went through music free. The Barney Song and teletubbies don't count.

 

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels
In contrast to those who are into the Seattle music scene, I view the nineties to be when Rock and Roll died. In ninety-three or four, the last real rock and roll was released with Van Halen, Guns and Roses and U2.

Then grunge hit the scene. I haven't found any way to appreciate it yet.


In college (mid 90s) I did a campus radio show. Rich bud bought all the "Billboard top hits" compilations from the mid 50's to 1990. Then he stopped, as it was all rap.

You don't even hear about the Billboard charts anymore. iTunes influence?

When I left, mp3s were just starting to come on the horizon. Was fun digging through boxes of 25 cent records at yard sales. "Frampton comes Alive" was always there.

Radio station bought the first CD burner anyone ever played with and it was grand fun ripping records to digital. (Despite audiophile purists claiming it steals the soul.)

Buying music online has no challenge to the hunt.

A coworker lent me his bootleg tape Stan Freburgs "brief history of the United States", I lost it, but was able to make good with an iTunes copy. About the only use I've ever had for that.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels
In contrast to those who are into the Seattle music scene, I view the nineties to be when Rock and Roll died. In ninety-three or four, the last real rock and roll was released with Van Halen, Guns and Roses and U2.

Then grunge hit the scene. I haven't found any way to appreciate it yet.


Have to agree with that. While Rush has made some great material this decade, they have the venue to sell the music: touring. New bands don't have 3-4 decades of a fan base.

New rock bands don't have any radio stations to play music so it's more difficult to market and become successful. The new Country music scene (since the mid 90's) is more pop/light-duty rock infused, that's where the $$ & opportunity is at so that's where the musicians are at nowadays.

How many stations like 96 Rock (Atlanta), 95.5 WMET (Chicago),etc, exist like that today?...where you *want* to listen to such stations as the music is good all over. They rarely exist anymore, or at all.

Rock is dead. Long live rock.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels
In contrast to those who are into the Seattle music scene, I view the nineties to be when Rock and Roll died. In ninety-three or four, the last real rock and roll was released with Van Halen, Guns and Roses and U2.

Then grunge hit the scene. I haven't found any way to appreciate it yet.

I disagree.

Rock and Roll died in '84 when Jefferson Airplane finally morphed into Starship and released Kneedeep in the Hoopla . What a pile of [feces] that album was. Heart's 80's albums made certain that rock was dead.

It was re-born in '86 by the Pixies. Born raw as **** Dale surf rock and as compressed as Buddy Holly's songwriting style. It's still out there. I hear flashes of it in The Burden Brothers, Queens of the Stoneage, etc... It's just hard to find

As far as grunge? I never liked Pearl Jam. I tried real hard, even saw them live But still do not like them. And I'm pretty much the quintessential Gen-X'er. But I do not like them. I like Nirvana. I like Soundgarden. I do not like Squirrel Jam. Just personal preference.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Originally Posted By: Spazdog
It's still out there. I hear flashes of it in The Burden Brothers, Queens of the Stoneage, etc... It's just hard to find



As you and T&S say, a portion of the problem may be due to structural changes in the industry which make the decent music hard to find, not to mention that at this time in my life I don't have the desire or time to be looking for a needle in a haystack.

 

[Dave Hess]

Quote:
Rock is dead. Long live rock.

Unfortunately most kids (white, black, hispanic) now or days listen to HipHop / Rap. Radio stations that play rock are disappearing.

 

[Volvo_ST1]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette

Unfortunately most kids (white, black, hispanic) now or days listen to HipHop / Rap.



That's why now or days English is devolving.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Originally Posted By: Volvo_ST1

Quote:
Unfortunately most kids (white, black, hispanic) now or days listen to HipHop / Rap.



That's why now or days English is devolving.



fo shizzle. www.gizoogle.com

I have to agree with that. It's sad to see young boy bands sound like any other band of any other race or creed. Weird. If diversity is so important, why is everyone trying to be the same?