The '90s: mighty morphin' memory lane
By Tara Sahdev
The 90s are back. New Kids On the Block is touring with a new album and 90210 is on television again. What could be better?
Let's revisit the time when big-eyed Furbies replaced household pets.
It was a time when every member of the opposite sex had been cursed with cooties, when Baskin-Robbins was the hot spot in town and when everyone talked about Miss Susie and her steamboat, which had a bell.
These were the days of our youth, the times of economic growth, technological innovation and Red Rover: These were the '90s.
With the '90s came Generation Y. The World Health Organization removed homosexuality from their list of diseases. "The Simpsons" started its golden years, initiating the trend of adult humor cartoons.
Generation Y grew up to become jelly shoe-wearing, Baby-G time-telling, "talk to the hand"-insulting elementary school kids. If you weren't one of the kids wearing jellies, you were lucky enough to have the yellow "Power Ranger" shoes that lit up every time they hit the ground.
We begged our parents for Nintendo and won our fights with rock, paper or scissors. Pokemon was our game of choice. Our favorite food was a Happy Meal from McDonald's, and the toys that came with it were important enough to collect.
"Super Mario" and "Oregon Trail" had replaced hopscotch. Technology advanced so much that by fifth grade we were sending chain letters through our America Online e-mail accounts and cell phones no longer resembled walkie-talkies.
A few years later, we were in middle school. Our Rollerblades and board games were left in the closet to collect dust. We started to listen to pop music, dress like pre-shaven head Britney Spears and idolize the Backstreet Boys.
We became AIM-aholics. When we weren't at school, we were at home, on AIM.
Prank calling potential love interests was a thrill. We realized that cooties were only temporary and that middle school dances resulted in awkward -- but exciting -- attempts at slow dancing. Boys' voices started to squeak and girls found themselves taller than their crushes.
In the world outside of braces and five-paragraph essays, the charming Bill Clinton was caught in the biggest scandal of the decade. He was impeached over an infamous stained blue dress which he once claimed to have no connection to. Dolly the sheep -- the first animal to be cloned -- was born in Scotland.
Princess Diana became the victim of a fatal car accident, eliciting grief in her admirers around the world. The economy was doing better than ever and reached a peak due to the advancement of computers and the increasing popularity of the Internet.
But these events hardly fazed us. Our daily life consisted of recess, P.E. and glasses of milk. All that concerned us was if mom packed strawberry Fruit Roll-Ups for lunch (and if those Fruit Roll-Ups had tattoos) or if the English teacher caught us passing notes in class.
We were determined to be actresses, National Football League players, firefighters or Batman. Oblivious to the world around us, we did not realize that times were changing.
In eight years, we would turn into living, breathing adults. We would become concerned with important things like money, education and politics.
After high school, we would attend college to invest four more years into the pursuit of a profitable future, and after that, possibly graduate school.
We are becoming accountants, lawyers, CEOs or teachers. Some of us are still trying to pursue our childhood dreams and do theatre or play college football. The days of our youth and the '90s may be in the past, but who's to say that the good old days are over?
Contact Tara Sahdev at (408) 551-1918 or tsahdev@scu.edu.