I loved the 90s. Not entirely because I'm biased. Not entirely because I grew up in them. But mainly because of what they brought and what they meant to me. The movies, the culture, how we hung out on weekends, the music, the toys, etc. You may be reading this and thinking how could you fully appreciate all that under the age of 10? Or how "the good ol' days" can be attributed to every generation. Believe it or not, I did have awareness and appreciation at that age and because I that was my life experience, the 90s are my good ol' days.
Movies and TV shows as a kid were a big factor. In 1994, Disney released The Lion King. If I need to say anymore as to why that is a big deal, then you've been living under a rock. In 1995, Pixar released Toy Story. Yes, THE first Toy Story which is now 26 years old. That movie revolutionized animated movies. It flooded the culture. It made kids like me see toys in a whole new way. When burger king released Toy Story toys in their kid's meals, you better believe I managed to get my parents to take me so I could get the large set of toy army men from the movie. That very Christmas I was given a Mr. Potato Head toy that I still own to this day. The amount of non-animated family friendly movies were huge. Movies like Air Bud, Beethoven, Homeward Bound, The Mighty Ducks, Free Willy, Summer of the Monkeys, Flubber, just to name a few. The movie experience wouldn't be complete without Blockbuster. Kids today will never know the experience of seeing that big blue sign being a welcoming beacon to a world of wonder and then entering the store to see hundreds of movies displayed to catch your eye. Towering racks of neatly organized candy and popcorn begging you to buy some, larger-than-life cut out posters of whatever movie star or animated character was hot that year displayed throughout the store. Since our parents would only let us choose one or two movies, we'd take our sweet time fretting over which movie we really wanted to see and which would have to wait until next time. And they were all VHS tapes. DVDs had just made their entrance into the world late 1996 and the excitement of finally picking out a movie and taking it home, to the slight disappointment you'd have to wait for two-four minutes for the tape to rewind because the last renter failed to do so, to the giddiness of seeing the MGM Lion, the Paramount stars, or the Disney castle open the film in all its low quality, grainy goodness. What a time to be alive.
TGIF. The acronym for Thank God It's Friday, meant a whole lot more to me as ABC used if for a Friday night spectacular. I always made sure chores and homework were done because I was not missing TGIF. The line-up changed throughout the 90s but included the likes of Full House, Family Matters, Boy Meets World, and Two of a Kind to name a few. These TV families were part of my Friday nights for years and no matter what kind of day I was having, they brought a little more joy into my life.
Music in the 90s had a broad range of popular genres. But one word comes to mid when I think of that decade. Boybands. Boybands ruled the 90s. From Backstreet Boys to N'Sync, to 98 Degrees, to Boyz II Men, to New Kids on the Block, I was jamming out to those tunes to my heart's content. My friend Zach who I mentioned previously, had just acquired the new 98 Degrees album. Their opening for it was a tuned voiced that said "98 Degrees is spreading all across the land". One night when Zach and his parents were outside, he turned on his boombox and pressed play. Then he played with the volume knob to make it sound like he was tuning a radio station. Then at the exact moment that opening came through the speakers, he stopped and let the full phrase come out. Then he turned the volume way down and his mom legitimately thought that she had just heard an actual weather report and went inside of the house to get out of what she thought was an oncoming heat wave.
One of the coolest toys I ever received was a 2XL Robot made by Tiger. I got it with Christmas money in early 1997. It took four D batteries and had it's own cassette tapes to play its programming. As the tape played, the robot would talk and ask you trivia questions that you could answer by pressing one of four buttons on its lower half. Since it required cassettes to work, you could also stick music cassettes in it and it would play them. CDs had been around since the 80s, but they didn't really overtake the cassette until the 90s and even then, cassettes managed to hang on through most of the decade. As new music was coming out, my friends still got cassettes to play in walkmans as those were still the way to go as CD players were expensive. One summer day, Zach brought over a new cassette tape. I didn't have a boombox, but I had my 2XL. The cassette was newly released in 1997 by a European band known as Aqua. They had began to achieve international success with this album mainly for the song on that album called Barbie Girl. That song is quite silly and sometimes cringy to my now adult self, but as a kid in the 90s, it was a lyrical masterpiece that we played on repeat on my little 2XL.
I didn't care really about fashion then , but what six year-old does? However, the one popular clothing item I loved then and still wear to this day are the baggy jeans. They were cool then and to me, they were and are the most comfortable jeans to wear. Why skinny jeans for men ever became a thing I will never ever understand. The only downside to them was when riding a bike. I cannot tell you how many times while pedaling a bike that it would suddenly come to a screeching halt and my leg felt like it was going to get ripped off simply because the jeans got caught in gear and chain. The worst part was when they got caught so bad that I had to drag/carry the bike all the way to the house where I could acquire the proper tools to get unstuck. Even with that minor inconvenience, I still rocked them proudly.
I never dreamed of being an astronaut, but I spent countless nights staring into the sky gazing in awe at everything that hung there. Some nights I would not be satisfied until I spotted either the big dipper or little dipper constellations. 1997 brought a stargazing moment that captured me for the ages. Discovered in 1995, the comet Hale-Bopp came closest to the earth in late March, early April of 1997. It was incredibly bright and could been seen with the naked eye for 18 months. Every night when the sun dipped to the other side of the earth, I'd scan the night sky looking for that comet. Every time I saw it, my heart filled with mirth. Some days I'd be upset if I couldn't spot it right away, but once I did, I was in a happy place. This rare space occurrence had a deeper significance for me. Because in the month of May, one month after the comet had reached it's closest point to earth, my third brother, fourth sibling, now totaling five kids, named Stephen, was born. My parents dropped us other four kids off at Al and Sue's so they could go to the hospital. I cannot recall where we were coming back from with Al and Sue one night, but once we got back to their house, Al pointed into the sky and said "Look, someone's shining a flashlight in the sky." From that moment forth, every night until it disappeared, that comet was my flashlight.
I already mentioned POGS as one of the 90s fads, but a classic toy made an incredible comeback. The yo-yo. Designed with thick, hard plastic edges and transparent faces that gave you a look at what was going on inside of it as well as having names like X-Brain, Fireball, and Maverick, these toys were in every kid's pocket or being walked as an imaginary dog everywhere they went. I eventually acquired a sleek, black X-brain yo-yo as a birthday gift that I still have to this very day. I never did master walking the dog though.
There's definitely more I could say about the 90s and I surely will later on, but this is only a taste after all. With the arrival of Stephen, he rounds out the older five kids of the Pennsylvania era. The next few chapters will take a pause from the timeline and will tell of different series of events that occurred during my childhood. Buckle up because it's going to be a fun trip down memory lane.
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