I will cut right to the chase here. The timeframe spanning from the years 1990 – 1999 (AKA the 90’s), was, without a doubt, the greatest decade of all time. Don’t get me wrong; there are all sorts of great decades out there:
· The 80’s were pretty righteous from what I can tell. Those years gave us Motley Crue, Hulk Hogan, and the foundation for Hot Tub Time Machine.
· The 70’s sounded interesting. My dad had side burns (but was still bald) and George Lucas introduced Star Wars to the world.
· The 1770’s seemed pretty cool, too. We told the Brits to hit the bricks and to take their stupid monarchy and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
All of these are pretty darn cool blocks of time, but, in my humble opinion, they still don’t top the 90’s. I mean, c’mon, this was the decade in which I was a blossoming, impressionable youth. Now, one could write volumes upon volumes (or tons of episodes of I Love the 90’s) on why this was such an amazing time, but I will try to limit it to some of the highlights (and then welcome any and all additions).
The first thing that comes to mind when I think back on that time is playing outside. Though we had all sorts of indoor distractions (i.e. Playing video games, watching TV, searching for our older brothers’ nudie magazines, etc.), we still placed a high value on getting outside and using our demented little imaginations.
My buddies and I always loved breaking out our toy guns to play war. Some days we would be battling each other, and some days we’d be shooting at aliens and saving imaginary babes that totally wanted to date us. We would fight these made up battles in the woods, near the lake, in our forts, and sometimes we would opt for imaginary urban combat right around our houses. Fortunately, we always won and had no casualties, so I have no lingering PTPTSD (play time post-traumatic stress disorder).
I had the good fortune of growing up in a neighborhood that was bursting at the seems with kids who enjoyed playing outside. On most summer weekends, we would congregate in the middle of the cul-de-sac and play “Night Games.” (Looking back on it, that name sounds like something a perverted uncle would ask his nephew to play, but I assure you, these games were innocent and fun). We would play capture the flag, tag, roller hockey, pick on the smaller kid (just kidding), etc. Heck this was how I got my exercise back then. If it weren’t for these games keeping me active, I would have been just another obese kid with a bowl cut. Instead, I was a slightly-less-than-obese kid with a bowl cut. Take that, Jenny Craig!
Going back to the indoor distractions, those were pretty fun, too. The 90’s produced only the finest titles in television history. All That? It was all that and a bag of chips. Boy Meets World? More like Show Blows My Mind. Are You Afraid of the Dark? Are you freagin’ kidding me? Best show ever. X-Men, Beavis & Butthead, Power Rangers, Clarissa Explains it All, Fresh Prince, Doug, Rugrats, Muppet Babies, Saved by the Bell, Goosebumps… this could take awhile…Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Doogie Howser, etc. I think you get the point here.
We also saw some of the best movies to hit theaters during that ten-year window. Ace Ventura, Independence Day, Speed, Titanic (What’s up, Kate Winslet?), Saving Private Ryan, Liar Liar, Dunston Checks In. Not only were we given these treats on the silver screen, but if we waited three to four months, we could buy/rent them on the most bitchin’ media format ever: VHS. And renting movies? Oh man, that was one of the most fun parts about growing up. What better way to spend a Saturday night than by going to Blockbuster, spending two whole hours picking out a movie, and falling asleep half way through watching it.
The toys from the 90’s were the bee’s freakin’ knees. Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Transformers, and Micro Machines were by far my favorites. Then we had trendy, awesome little items such as Furby, Tamagotchi, Beanie Babies, and Tickle Me Elmo. Again, we had to use our imaginations to bring our toys to life. You’d give your action figures back stories, ex-wives, whether or not they’d contracted communicable diseases while on leave, etc. As silly as it may sound, playing with toys inspired us to stretch our imaginations in the most creative ways possible (that’s probably why I still have few sitting on my desk right now).
There were plenty of great video games such as Golden Eye and Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, but the true rad factor of games from this era can be summed up in two words. Mario. Kart.
This was also an interesting set of years for professional sports. Michael Jordan won a bunch of championships with the Bulls, left basketball to play baseball, sucked at baseball, returned to basketball, and won a bunch more championships. Also, at the time, I thought professional baseball produced one of the greatest generations of players to ever grace the diamond. We thought Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa built their homerun hitting muscles with hard work and eating a ton of red meat. Instead they shot steroid needles into their asses until they could launch a ball 450 feet. Nonetheless, it was really fun to watch.
And who can forget Y2K? This false scare let us figure out which of our friends and family members were crazy and paved the way for such reality television as Dooms Day Preppers.
I’m sure that a lot of people from a lot of different generations claim that the decade during which they grew up was the best. And that is more than fair to think that way. But I’m sticking to my guns when I say that the 90’s were the absolute best years this world has ever seen. It was some sort of hybrid between the “good ol’ days” and this mostly digital age we live in now. I owe a lot to this decade. All the goofy stuff stated above helped inspire me to be the person I am today. From an oddball who loves to use his imagination to the max (probably too much), thanks 1990’s. Thanks a lot.