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Purposely Misplaced Decade
I know. I know. I’m late to post today. Sorry.
My Beautiful Wife and I are going to a 1990s trivia contest tonight and I’ve been studying up on Wimbledon champions and Kentucky Derby winners of the 90s.
Reviewing headlines from the decade as well. Man, that was a depressing time. Columbine. Kevorkian. Lou Bega. [shudder!]
I forgot there was no World Series in 1994. I forgot Arthur Ash got AIDS from a blood transfusion. I forgot about Scott O’Grady being shot down in Bosnia and how tense those eight days were before they rescued him. I forgot the lyrics to the Hampster Dance.
Apparently something happened with some guy named O.J. Simpson? I don’t recall any of that.
I remember being busted-ass hobo broke, paying a third of my meager takehome in child support and trying to find enough change in the couch to eat. I remember going back for my Masters and working two full time jobs to pay for it. I remember not having time to sleep. Good days and bad days. Bachelor life with my single-digit son was a blast. I was also making up for lost time on the dating front. In retrospect it represented some glory days of sexual excess. But — at the time — the revolving door of girls didn’t seem so fun. I wanted a steady girl. I was just too bitter to keep one.
I remember standing inside the Cape Girardeau river floodgates in 1989 and looking at a dumbass standing in the middle of the Mississippi River with a lawn chair and a barbecue grill because the river was down to four feet. I remember driving across the Shawnee bridge 1993 and looking at the river about to overtop the 18 foot floodwall. Amazing.
I don’t miss the 90s. Calvin and Hobbes, yes. The rest, no.
But I’ll endeavor to remember them for a couple hours. Wish me luck and quick synapsis. I’ll dial up some Goo Goo Dolls on Pandora to jar loose some impacted memories.
Anything you’d care to remember about the decade? Or perhaps forget?
3 comments
Bacon
I do miss the nineties.. You left out Kurt cobaine, pearl jam, smashing pumpkins and the musical revolution to be known only as grunge, alternative and then there was post grunge that was interesting but hardly revolutionary. The 90’s was pre Internet bubble. When folks still had privacy, and you could find a pay phone. When of you wanted to know what was happening on Friday or Saturday night you went to Taco Bell or Pizza Hut. Unlike now where you pick up your iPhone and look at face book and can see everyone’s life history both good and bad without ever getting your lazy butt off the couch. “Remember desert storm… “. Remember the flood of ’93. Noriega surrendering and east and west Germany together again. Rodney king and the la riots. Bush barfing on the Japanese PM and Clinton being elected. The birth of beavis and butthead. All the stars from in living color. Including j-lo. The first WTC bomb and Mogadishu (black hawk down). David Koresh and WACO. The years of 95-99 were less eventful but significant to me as I remember graduating high school, (94) the marine corps, my first love (92) and the birth of my 2 wonderful children. (96,97)Not necessarily in that order. The nineties were far enough from the 80’s to be reveloutionary but close enough to still be familiar and simple.. The world has changed. Between columbine, Oklahoma City, 9/11, and the Internet. The nineties was in my opinion one of the most significant decades in our lifetime. Lets not forget the Y2k bug hysteria. And finally the Internet. Which can be characterized as your best friend and worst enemy all wrapped up in one tidy little package known as the iPhone.
Cheryl
I loved the 90s! I left my high school sweetheart, ran with a biker gang for five years, went to an Outlaw funeral and rode in a procession of thousands of bikes, went to Bike Week, married a stranger, got divorced, got a guy to take off his pants on the dance floor of a night club and walked away laughing, sailed around the Bahamas on a 40′ sloop with three friends, drove to the Pacific ocean and back TWICE, sold most of my belongings and had the rest of them stolen, bought all new belongings, including a car, which I promptly drove straight to the ocean because I needed a vacation, became a single momma to the coolest kid, watched him at his one-year check-up as he said to the doc (who asked me if he could say any words yet), “Yeah, I can say words. What words do you want me to say?” (<<<honestly, that was probably the highlight), I got FIRED from the only job I've ever been fired from, for the most awesome reason ("Lewd and lascivious behavior"—I was a bartender! I laughed at my boss and said, "That's what you HIRED me for!"), got a new job within three days making twice as much money, I still had that uncanny ability to get random guys to fix random shit for me even after I declined to go out with them, I LOVED the 90s. Best decade ever. I was in my 20s and I did all the shit you can only get away with in your 20s. LOVED IT.
Vanessa
The 90s, the good: the divorce!
The bad: the post-divorce dating.
The great: finding my Knyt in shining armor.
I missed a lot too, for similar reasons to yours, I suppose. Sometimes I suspect I didn’t miss much.