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Laid off by a large institution I had worked for for twenty years, along with a large number of middle aged people. Spent the next few years trying to scrape together enough money to pay for an expensive surgery whose cost was only partially covered by my insurance - eventually the surgeon was paid by insurance, but I walked away from an enormous hospital bill. (The hospital has folded recently.) Then, having had sixty plus years of the U.S., I gave my furniture away to various charities, packed my suitcase and emigrated from the Old Country as the old millennium was dying.
The late 90s was a weird time where everything became more "extreme" and risque, like pro wrestling and trash talk shows became popular. People complain about reality TV now but Maury, Jenny Jones and Jerry Springer were just as trashy.
I liked the time, there was still optimism about America unlike now because the Cold War was over and there was the excitement of the internet and all kinds of new technology. Those were my high school years where I'd go to school and hang out with friends after then do homework and spend time with family. I used to always watch shows that aired when I wasn't home on VHS and had a daily schedule of shows I'd tape, a lot like I do with DVR today. Only thing different now if I think about it is I work instead of school and don't just chill with friends anymore.
Exactly right.
The '90s started on an incredibly high note(the end of the Cold War, liberation of Kuwait) and slowly spiraled into economic and social collapse(All the EXTREEME BS, glorification of THUG culture, little girls started dressing like hookers, Springer, cynicism, the Clinton scandals mainstreaming certain sexual practices and touching off Moveon.org style SCORCHED EARTH political partisanship etc).
But as late as 1999 things were still seemed "normal" for the most part.
The biggest news in summer 2000 was shark attacks...
But by late-2000 tech stocks had collapsed and larger economic collapse was imminent, and less than a year later 9/11 happened...
The '90s were the decade when the Torch of Leadership passed from the older Silent and Greatest generations who had built everything to the self-centered, '60s spoiled Boomer generation that just didn't give a sh*t outside of getting paid. The leadership of banks, corporations, government institutions and media all began tilting towards boomers in the late '90s and the pronounced drop in public trust(as reavealed by polling) towards these institutions quickly followed as various corruption scandals hit.
What was daily life like back in the mid-late 1990's (say, 1994 to 1999)?
I was a grade-schooler at the beginning of the period and a middle-schooler at the end. Most of my developmental "milestones" came at the end of the decade.
I remember TGIF on TV followed by 20/20 (and my parents even let me stay up to watch the local 10 pm news and a show after that towards the end!); goofy sitcoms like "Ellen" and the "Drew Carey Show"; Ace of Base on the radio in the beginning of the period, followed by such acts as the Hootie & The Blowfish, Goo Goo Dolls, Coolio, TLC, All 4 One, and Paula Cole in the middle, and then a change to very "commercial" groups such as Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, and 98 Degrees at the end. For a short while (say, 1995-97), it seemed like the top hits appealed to adults and youth alike, as they were often so mellow. I don't think country was that big back then, or at least we didn't listen to it on our rural acreage. Big, curly hair and BUM shirts in the early part of the period gave way to baggy, sagged JNCO jeans and flat hair on girls, spiked on boys, and whiteboys wearing "thug" brands such as FUBU at the end. Clothing on girls and women seemed to be more modest; the baggy fashions even made inroads into young womens' clothing. I remember cartoons on Saturday morning in the earlier part of the period, watched by everybody my age; I abandoned them for "Daria", "Simpsons", and "King of the Hill" in around 1997 or so. This was also the era I re-discovered dance music with Amber, Real McCoy, La Bouche, 2 Unlimited, etc. playing on the radio, and I soon downloaded samples of their songs off of Musicblvd.com (later acquired by CDNOW, and eventually folded into Amazon), but didn't buy their CDs, as I was too embarrassed to reveal to my parents what music I liked.
News and politics-wise, I grew up in a Republican household. My dad would constantly bash Clinton and "the liberals". I don't remember much at all in the news in the mid-90s, except the OJ Simpson trial, Clinton v. Dole election, and the Oklahoma City bombing, but didn't watch much back then. In the late 90's I became more interested in current events and remember the almost non-stop coverage of the Clinton scandals, especially the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Locally, I remember the Iron Range was struggling with mine closures, probably similar to the factory closures that devastated Duluth in the 1970s. I remember the small city, sort of a suburb, where I attended church and went to school for a while was in much worse shape in the late 1990s than it is now. I remember more people smoking; both of my parents smoked, and if my memory serves me right, many restaurants did not even segregate the smokers from the non-smokers. However, the health effects of smoking were known, and many people attempted to quit.
I remember getting online (on Compuserve) and running up the bill to $60 by going over my allotted minutes. We switched to AOL; eventually, we also went from a 2.4 kbps modem to a 28.8 kbps modem, and it seemed so much faster, although the massive growth in subscriptions to AOL meant endless busy signals. While the internet was still nascent, "multimedia" CD-ROMs thrived. Computers bought at major retailers came pre-packaged with a ton of CD-ROMs, everything from maps to Encarta to games. What speed your CD-ROM drive was really made a difference. By the end of the decade much had changed; computers were sold at vastly reduced prices, sometimes given away, by having the buyer sign a contract with an ISP (much as cell phones are today); broadband had appeared in some areas but the vast majority of residential users still connected by dial-up, albeit on unlimited plans with 56k rather than 14.4k modems; filesharing had began en masse; etc. Stocks and investing were in the news a lot, and lots of people were enriching themselves off the Dot.com boom (or attempting to) in 1998 / 99.
I've said my word (and could say many more, but have to go to bed)...what do YOU remember about daily life in the mid-late 90's?
Those were college years. MTV raps went away but we still had Rap City. Teen Summit may have still been on, not sure, but BET was still huge as there was no TV One, Bounce, etc.
Networks were still huge. Fox was relatively new, In Living Color, etc. Just Simpsons, no Family Guy, etc. Cable TV was still a big deal back then as few people had Satellite. Cell phones were expensive. I had a pager then, which was cool then but really stupid now. A pager was like Twitter, just without notifications, best way to describe it.
Daily life for me back in the mid to late 90's was pretty much the same as it is now other than the obvious such as using the internet and cell phones ( OK smartphones now ) more nowadays...but one thing I do remember about this time was the changing landscape when it came to chain restaurants and big stores invading a large number of small towns during this time period.
Target, Best Buy, Borders Books, PetSmart, Pier One, Olive Garden, Kohl's, Chili's, Circuit City, Toys R Us, Ruby Tuesday and the like..sure one could find those places in the metro areas ( well most of them anyway ) during the early to mid 90s but by the late 90's they were now opening up in many smaller towns and cities ( aka..non-metro areas ). Sometimes those places had became kinda like something to brag about such as the one town that wasn't too far from me which landed an Outback Steakhouse. Being the only one for several miles the town made a big deal about that. When my hometown in Virginia got a Kohl's in 1998 so many people back then had felt that was the "most wonderful thing". Many parents loved the idea that Toys R Us was now in our small town too..no more driving "..to the big city" to shop at one.
I worked full-time in radio during the 90's. The rise of so-called "corporate radio" and the effects of it were starting to become a worry by 1997. Big companies buying up so many radio stations, more syndicated shows were becoming available, automation became more and more acceptable which unfortunately resulted in more and more layoffs...it was a time for stress for many in the biz at the time. I can still remember in early 1999 when CapStar ( later to be known as Clear Channel and today I Heart media ) had bought a local small cluster of station only to fire an announcer who was on the air in the area for 40 years and then automated a very successful station firing just about all of their staff..I can remember driving to work one day thinking if we will be next.
That was a great time that unfortunately will never come back.
You had computers and the internet, but very few people had cell phones.
Cell phones ruined the world. Life was better when people didn't expect to know where you are and what you are doing at any time they decide to call you.
I was in High School...so my life pretty much consisted of Sports and Music. My clothes were MUCH baggier. I think I was about 5'11 and 170 lbs and I wore size 35-38 jeans and XXL size shirts lol and I spent TONS of money on designer clothes that I had no business or any right buying.
..and the music I listened to was MUCH more violent. When I listen to it today...I have no idea how I could have listened to some of it.
One major difference between then and now is that back then...there was little internet...certainly a more archaic version of it. Few people had it, and it was used for very little; certainly not for people's primary means of shopping and paying bills or doing research. The internet's primary use was PORN and dating back then lol through chatrooms, AOL etc etc.
Now it's still somewhat like that today, but the use of the internet wasn't as narrow as back then.
And cell phones were almost just as rare as a Lamborghini.
That being said, everything was pretty much done in person and weekends were usually the best time to get some things done. You had to go out, it wasn't really a choice.
One major difference between then and now is that back then...there was little internet...certainly a more archaic version of it. Few people had it, and it was used for very little; certainly not for people's primary means of shopping and paying bills or doing research. The internet's primary use was PORN and dating back then lol through chatrooms, AOL etc etc.
Very true about the then primary use on the internet was porn and dating but it was especially true when it came to gay men especially if they didn't look like a typical gay man to the average person such as Paul Lynde or someone on Will & Grace were. For example back in the 90's I had a very close friend who was a large guy with a beard like the type one would see on Duck Dynasty. He also smoked cigars and had lots of chest hair too. Because of this despite being a gay man he still couldn't get into the local gay bars back in those days because of his "hairy" appearance. Around 1996 or so he got his first computer and very quickly found the internet within no time he had discovered that not only that there were many other gay men just like himself but there were a growing number of online social clubs and even "get togethers" that were held in a number of cities which catered to guys just like him. It was a whole new world for him.
The rise of the gay "bear" community.
Last edited by tantan1968; 03-14-2015 at 09:53 PM..
The late 90s was a weird time where everything became more "extreme" and risque,.. trash talk shows became popular. People complain about reality TV now but Maury, Jenny Jones and Jerry Springer were just as trashy..
Phenom, Great post.
This was the most conspicuous trend in my recollection ^; the hardcore/extreme aspirations ppl had. In the early 90s, few teens had tattoos, gaged ears, etc. It was usually only seen in music scenes, etc, but by the end of the decade it seemed like every kid & people in their 20s, were getting inked & pierced. The high-profile music of the early 90s, generally had guys like Cobain, Layne Staley who may have been rocking a single tattoo, 5 o'clock shadow, which gave them some edge.. but by the time of Korn, et al.. guys and girls were covered in full sleeves, multiple piercings.
Other cultural trends were also hyping self-aggrandizing extremeness.. X-games in sports, the exploding industry of online porn. I remember relatively insulated, suburban kids characterizing everything as being 'pimp'. The shameless idiocy of televised baby-mama drama became commonplace, and no longer scandalous bcuz of constant saturation. Seemed like a dam of traditional modesty, that had been creaking, finally ruptured (?), and it hasn't stopped gushing yet.
I had a lot of good times in the late 90s, but I could see then (and reinforced now with 20/20 hindsight) society was getting dumber, indulging more perversity, and turning into a living reflection of Fred Durst.
Wow seems I am getting old, younger people here talking about being born then or being in grade school. It does not seem like that long ago but the reality is that we are talking about 20 years back. Where did those two decades go??? In 95 I had not been exposed to the internet or cell phones yet, I was just hearing about them. Those years are really pivotal in the digital revolution that really created our world today. Few times in history changed peoples lives as much as the mid to late 90s did. When we emerged into the new century it was a whole new world, whether that is for good or bad is up for debate.
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