Help me curate a 90s summer

[Anonymous]

I remember hanging out afternoons at Arlington Forest Club reading paperbacks and swapping them on the moldy paperback rack and hearing mothers read Harry Potter to their kids.

[Anonymous]

rent a convertible

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We used to just drive around aimlessly. Driving past the houses of boys we liked. Going way out of our way to get slurpees or some kind of drink. Playing our mix tapes singling along. Having sleepover parties and making cocktails with vodka we stole from our parents liquor cabinets. Good times.

heaven really

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Inspired by the nostalgia of the JFK Jr Love Story series, I’m wondering what it would take to adopt a 1990s vibe for the summer (or maybe the spring).

What would it take to attempt to recapture that simpler time?

Silence my cell phone

No internet outside of the house, and only for specific tasks (no mindless scrolling)

Going out more with friends. Just for fun. No big plans.

Going dancing. (I’m probably too old to go clubbing, but I’d love to be out after dark listening to music with friends.)

I won’t smoke, but every time I see Carolyn light up it takes me back to having a cigarette towards the tail end of a drunken night when everyone is standing outside of the bar/club/party trying to decide where to go next. Sigh.

Simple clothes and makeup. Not fussing with my hair.

What else?

most people did not smoke in the 1990’s.

I guess you weren’t in college in the early 90s. People still smoked…especially when out drinking.

Anyone fellow Terps remember how smoky Planet X was? Or walking outside of Tracks on college night?

Anyway, I haven’t had a cigarette since the early/mid 90s and even then I wasn’t a regular smoker.

But people still smoked…especially young drunk people.

no, I was not in college, but I was in the working world. Most people did not smoke when I went to college in the mid 1980’s. .

[Anonymous]

Zima!!

[Anonymous]

That feeling of nostalgia and simpler times is really just because you didn't have a job. So chasing it is tough because the reason we all remember back so fondly is that we had no responsibilities. Of course life was good.

[Anonymous]

Read Vanity Fair, always have a stack of magazines, shop at Jcrew, smoke cigarettes and day dream, watch lots of movies, go to late night restaurants and drink wine and smoke and have deep conversations, take the subway to work, walk long distances, do the stairmaster at the gym, take a step class, take pictures of friends and drop your film at CVS to be developed, go bar hopping on a Saturday night and hook up with a cute boy and exchange numbers on a piece of paper…wear skirts and heels to work (offices were formal!). Mine required panty hose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Inspired by the nostalgia of the JFK Jr Love Story series, I’m wondering what it would take to adopt a 1990s vibe for the summer (or maybe the spring).

What would it take to attempt to recapture that simpler time?

Silence my cell phone

No internet outside of the house, and only for specific tasks (no mindless scrolling)

Going out more with friends. Just for fun. No big plans.

Going dancing. (I’m probably too old to go clubbing, but I’d love to be out after dark listening to music with friends.)

I won’t smoke, but every time I see Carolyn light up it takes me back to having a cigarette towards the tail end of a drunken night when everyone is standing outside of the bar/club/party trying to decide where to go next. Sigh.

Simple clothes and makeup. Not fussing with my hair.

What else?

most people did not smoke in the 1990’s.

I went to a prep school in the 1990s and was in college in the late 1990s into 2000s. Social smoking and even regular smoking was very common. And it was an "elite" school. Then the yuppie bar scene in DC or NYC or Boston. No shortage of smoking.

Good times. Can't fathom a cigarette now. But hanging out with a beer and cigarette. God. That was fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We used to just drive around aimlessly. Driving past the houses of boys we liked. Going way out of our way to get slurpees or some kind of drink. Playing our mix tapes singling along. Having sleepover parties and making cocktails with vodka we stole from our parents liquor cabinets. Good times.

Gas was 0.99 for a bit, that made “driving aimlessly” an affordable choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to just drive around aimlessly. Driving past the houses of boys we liked. Going way out of our way to get slurpees or some kind of drink. Playing our mix tapes singling along. Having sleepover parties and making cocktails with vodka we stole from our parents liquor cabinets. Good times.

Gas was 0.99 for a bit, that made “driving aimlessly” an affordable choice.

Compared to what kids do now? Ordering Door Dash, taking Ubers around, buying $9 Starbucks drinks? Most of us had jobs too so we barely spent money and saved what we earned. Teens today spend money like water and don't work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That feeling of nostalgia and simpler times is really just because you didn't have a job. So chasing it is tough because the reason we all remember back so fondly is that we had no responsibilities. Of course life was good.

I had a job for the entire 90’s. It was still fun. We would have dinner parties with menus from Gourmet and take our wine spectator to the store to get recommended wines.
Traveling was so different - email and fax was the way to communicate with hotels etc around the world. Map skills were essential. But could be much cheaper - before the EU places like Greece were dirt cheap!
And who can forget the old NIH apartments in Bethesda? Grab the metro at medical center and ride in to the city. Do the campus heart walk on nih campus if you had energy left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to just drive around aimlessly. Driving past the houses of boys we liked. Going way out of our way to get slurpees or some kind of drink. Playing our mix tapes singling along. Having sleepover parties and making cocktails with vodka we stole from our parents liquor cabinets. Good times.

Gas was 0.99 for a bit, that made “driving aimlessly” an affordable choice.

Compared to what kids do now? Ordering Door Dash, taking Ubers around, buying $9 Starbucks drinks? Most of us had jobs too so we barely spent money and saved what we earned. Teens today spend money like water and don't work.

Why don't they work?! We all had jobs!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to just drive around aimlessly. Driving past the houses of boys we liked. Going way out of our way to get slurpees or some kind of drink. Playing our mix tapes singling along. Having sleepover parties and making cocktails with vodka we stole from our parents liquor cabinets. Good times.

Gas was 0.99 for a bit, that made “driving aimlessly” an affordable choice.

Compared to what kids do now? Ordering Door Dash, taking Ubers around, buying $9 Starbucks drinks? Most of us had jobs too so we barely spent money and saved what we earned. Teens today spend money like water and don't work.

Why don't they work?! We all had jobs!

If you're going to bring up spending habits it's a good question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to just drive around aimlessly. Driving past the houses of boys we liked. Going way out of our way to get slurpees or some kind of drink. Playing our mix tapes singling along. Having sleepover parties and making cocktails with vodka we stole from our parents liquor cabinets. Good times.

Gas was 0.99 for a bit, that made “driving aimlessly” an affordable choice.

Compared to what kids do now? Ordering Door Dash, taking Ubers around, buying $9 Starbucks drinks? Most of us had jobs too so we barely spent money and saved what we earned. Teens today spend money like water and don't work.

Why don't they work?! We all had jobs!

Some do. We worked but we could also be high achieving academically but well rounded and living balanced lives with the chance of getting into top colleges. Not so today, the expectations now are INSANE. So the kids are grinding in a way we didn't need to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We used to just drive around aimlessly. Driving past the houses of boys we liked. Going way out of our way to get slurpees or some kind of drink. Playing our mix tapes singling along. Having sleepover parties and making cocktails with vodka we stole from our parents liquor cabinets. Good times.

Gas was 0.99 for a bit, that made “driving aimlessly” an affordable choice.

Well, minimum wage was like $4-5 an hour back then. Do you think gas should still be $.99 given minimum wage now? Seems like the price increase is fair with what min wage is now.