Anybody else here miss the Nineties?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Remember when the most popular form of music was guys with bad voices mumbling (or screaming, it was one or the other) some form of vague melody? We laughed at such acts like the Spice Girls, blessedly ignorant that their descendants (the Brittany’s, the Augualarias (or however you spell their names)) would knock our music back to the “alternative” section.

Who here secretly (or openly) cheered Bill Clinton as he fought back from pummelling after pummelling, daring the world to declare the emperor had no clothes, inviting it even, and still getting away with it? How many times did you think “That’s it. He can’t survive that” only to see him survive whatever the latest scandal was (for me, I thought it was the Lincoln bedroom thing. How foolish was I!) It was fascinating watching a man with pretty large character flaws on the world stage, and how he handled the inevitable lapses of judgement that he made.

For the vast majority of the West’s population, the Internet was “invented” sometime in the '90s, DARPA be damned. :wink: All of a sudden a torrent of money went to anyone who could dummy up a computer demo for financial savvy, but tech-foolish, venture capitalists. Who here didn’t dream of riding that gravy train, somehow, anyhow, to Easy St. and beyond? And even if you were just an end-user, what wonders the net brought! “Talking” to people living thousands of miles away, for FREE! (or $19.95 a month… or $21.95… or $23.95…) The net made it possible for the first time in history to easily and inexpensively form global communities of people with convergent interests but different backgrounds. And, on the fun side, playing computer games with opponents a continent away, talking smack as you fragged their ass was and is a heady experience the first time you try it.

And then we had Dolly and the advances in genetics and medicine. No cure for AIDS and cancer yet, but then, neither disease is an automatic death sentences if caught early enough. Unfortunately, I think the “pill culture” really dug itself in in the nineties, so not all things were perfect.

The breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of state-imposed Communism as a substantive ideology for the West… The first WTC attack and the successive instances of Islamic/Western antagonism… OJ and the “trial of the month” period that American news went through for a couple of years… Michael Jordan lighting it up with the Bulls… The damned Yankees… My beloved Braves… A booming economy…

Now Jordan is a joke, the Braves are retracting while the Yankees are not, the Islamic/Western relationship has gone on the skids, and worst of all imho, we have no idea whether or not the economy actually boomed during the nineties (that might be worth another thread - “Did the Economy really boom in the Nineties?” Would that be GD or GQ?).

Oh, wait. I forgot that America might be turning into… something that’s not America. Hell, I don’t know and I don’t want to turn this thread into another politics thread. Anyway, now that I think about it, that’s the worst of all. :frowning:

Man, I miss the Nineties. Who else?

2

Well, yes I do. It’s when I went to university. From 1991 to 1997, 6 fine years I’d love to do again. Never in my life will there be a six year period where I can learn so much (inside and outside the university library), and have so much fun at the same time. Screw accountability. :slight_smile:

Sometimes, it’s hard to believe it’s already been 5 and a half years since I graduated.

I’ll be 30 in February. Arrrrrggghh. :slight_smile:

3

Good times, them nineties.

4

Yeah, praise the nineties.

1 Better Music
2 Better government
3 Crazed terrorists an afterthought
4 Civil Liberty threats an afterthought
5 Economic growth throughout decade
6 Seemed like we were headed to a brave new world of internet coolness
7 Clinton gets mad props for (finally) admitting to do what so many Republicans do and dont get publicized for doing. Even though Clinton’s crimes were very small in comparison to some highly abusive conservative preacher folk, yet I digress
8 I was younger and more carefree

5

1990 - 1992: elementary school, hardly remember it
1992 - 1995: junior high, the worst time of anyone’s life
1995 - 1999: high school, 4 years of trying to run away from home for the weekend

No, I don’t miss the 90s.

6

I certainly miss my 20s, which happened to neatly coincide with the 90s.

7

What about the World Trade Center bombings of 1992, and the Oaklahoma City Bombing of 1995? And, on a lesser yet as tragic scale, the Columbine Shootings of 1999?

8

The last couple years were ok. I really don’t miss most of it.

9

Well, yeah, but the last two weren’t part of an organized “kill all Americans” campaign, and the first one appeared, at the time, to be the work of some real imcompetents (remember the guy who kept going back to the rental place, trying to get his deposit back for the van they had used to deliver the explosives? What a moron).

10

Isn’t it a bit early for nostalgia for the 1990s?

11

I thought they occurred in 1993. :slight_smile:

As for me, the 90s involved junior high, high school, some college, and then nothing really after that. Some parts I miss, and some I could do without reliving.

F_X

12

This has been a crappy year. :wink:

13

I knew I had the wrong year! D’oh! :smiley:

14

Not really. The bulk of the 90s were my secondary school years, and while nothing awful happened, it was still a thoroughly bloody miserable experience. School aside, whole decade was pretty unremarkable in general to me.

Sometimes I wish I was born 10 years earlier. Perhaps then I would have been old enough to fully appreciate the 80s, which I seem to remember much more fondly.

15

Heck, I’m already getting nostalgic for the 2010s.

16

The 1990s? In America, we started off the decade with a recession after the bubble economy of the late 1980s popped, and we were left with the bill from the megadeficit spending of the Reagan Administration. Then we had roughly half a decade of ‘jobless recovery’ after the recession technically ended, before the recovery started making an actual difference in most people’s lives. Then we had a few years of a new bubble economy at the end of the decade. So economically, I don’t see much to look back at fondly.

In the news, it seemed that the 1990s was mostly about Bill Clinton and Ken Starr. I hope nobody’s expecting me to get nostalgic for that.

Musically, every decade has some good music, and the 1990s were no exception, but as the music industry has increasingly been about the industry, rather than the music, the effects have shown. Musically, the 1990s were less interesting than the 1980s, which were less interesting than the 1970s, which were less interesting than the 1960s. So it goes. When Douglas Adams was asked if Oasis was as good as the Beatles, his response was that they weren’t even as good as the Rutles. :slight_smile:

No '90s nostalgia here.

17

Hmm. Sorta what Cessandra said. 1991-1995: grade school, which to be brief was nobody’s picnic.

1995-1999: high school. And as you all know, I loved high school as much as anyone loves watching their bones snap in several places.

And of course the tail end of '99 was decently pleasant, but 2000 was largely awful.

OTOH, the tail end of this year has been nice enough;)

18

Yeah, lets party like its 1999, I miss the 90’s

19

I miss the 90’s, well kinda.

20

I do not miss the 90’s at all! But the 80’s, ah those where the days…