The Long Lost Early 90’s

The Early 90’s was when my memory starts kicking in. I get a few memories from Pre-school but nothing major. Once I hit the later years of elementary school, I believe you start to develop a better understanding of what is happening around you. That’s why I remember the early 90’s and some of the products and events that stood out. Here is a list of some random items and topics that I will never forget.

Video Game Consoles – Neo Geo & 3DO

I would assume that most people born before me would never have known these two systems even existed. Throw in Sega CD and these were probably some of the biggest console flops that no one owned. I didn’t even have a friend, aside from the McGrath’s, who owned one of these consoles. I remember the Neo-Geo costing $650 bucks or something ridiculous. Fatal Fury and Metal Slug were the bread winners for series. I have not seen a 3DO in my life. The popular systems were the ones they made games for and that’s what people played. The progression was Atari, then NES, next was Sega Genesis and SNES, then Playstation and N64, then PS2, Xbox 360, Wii. PC picked up steam when a connection fast enough to run the games with no lag was huge to gaming. Many consoles were out there though that didn’t catch on and these are two that come to mind. Lynx is another.

Addams Family Movies

I was a huge fan of the Addams Family movies. I know the TV series ran in the 60’s but these movies were my first introduction to the family. I particularly liked Cousin ITT and Thing. I sort of remember thinking Wednesday, played by Christian Ricci, was hot. Pugsley just got on my nerves and I didn’t even realize Fester was played by Christopher Lloyd years later when I knew who Christopher Lloyd was. Addams Family Values, the sequel, I believe was when Wednesday and Pugsley went to some camp which wasn’t as good as the first one when Uncle Fester came back brainwashed from a Bermuda Triangle incident. I honestly forget but I still remember enjoying these movies tremendously as a kid. I think it was the quirkiness of the characters and the death jokes.

1992 Dream Team

The greatest basketball team ever assembled. They defeated their opponents by an average of almost 44 points a game which I would consider embarrassing the opposition. They took home gold in 92′ and stamped the USA as the most dominant basketball nation existing. Obviously the world has caught up in terms of talent since 92′ but this was a historic team and we will never see this type of annihilation again in history. The committee was not going to include Barkley because of his aggressive personality but he proved it was a wise decision by going 71% from the floor and 7 or 8 from 3 point land in the tournament. I bought a set of Dream Team player cards that I still have today. They aren’t worth anything.

Jansport & Eddie Bauer

There was a pretty funny scene in 21 Jump Street when they are discussing if you should wear one strap vs two that I remember pretty accurately being the case in grade school. What type of bag you had could also bring about some ridicule. A black Eddie Bauer, 2 strap look is what I used to rock. Remember when you’d have 5 big ass text books and it would bulge your bag out? I was like 4 ft tall carrying around 50 lbs of books on my bag, torture. I wish I had some photos of my old backpacks because I don’t think it was until 6th grade that I got a real backpack. I’d have TMNT or GI Joe. I remember taking pride in having a neat and tidy backpack. A pocket to hold #2 Ticonderoga pencils was a must. I swapped to a .07mm lead mechanical pencil in high school and college.

Roller Blades

The move from Abec 1 bearings to Abec 3 was a major change in my life. I always wanted to move onto Abec 5’s but I’m just not that much of a wild man. We even built a two foot ramp that we’d do minor tricks off of. Rollerblades were also essential to roller hockey which I believe we had a decent time playing. It’s a little bit sad to see these lose popularity but I still see some people whizzing by on Kelly Drive with them. I also remember taking some serious spills when your brake got so worn out it would be nothing.

LA Gear

I never owned a pair of LA Gear light up shoes but they were still pretty cool in terms of hype. I suppose people could see you walking around in the dark which must be their greatest advantage. I honestly can’t think of another reason why you’d want your shoes to light up. With a little research though it seems like they sold 100 million pairs throughout time. That is not a typo. They’ve also failed to regain popularity but that shouldn’t be surprising considering their spokesmen were Luke Walton and Ron Artest.

Tandy Computers

Did anyone not have a computer class in middle school? We had these types of machines, I honestly can’t remember if they were Tandy or some 486 stands out in my mind. They tried to teach us spreadsheets and how to type but all I remember is playing arkanoid and Gorilla in QBasic. I think back to those days and do believe that Mrs. DeFranco teaching me how to use the homerow is one of the greatest things I’ve ever learned. Even though I thought she was the worst teacher, she taught me the most useful skill. I also learned a decent amount about DOS which I’m sure kids today have never even heard of.