Posted on Feb 28, 2021

People Are Sharing Memories That Only People Who Lived Through The '90s Will Understand, And The Nostalgia Is Too Much

If you didn't live it, you just won't get it...

Andrew Ziegler

by Andrew Ziegler

BuzzFeed Editor

Reddit user u/Azathoth90 recently posed the question: "What's your most 'Only '90s kids will remember' memory or experience you are willing to share?" Here are the responses that transported me back to the '90s:

1. "Every house had a computer room, a whole room dedicated to the computer."

An old '90s era computer room

2. "Using a Game Link Cable to connect our Game Boy Colors so that we could trade Pokémon."

Two Game Boys connected via game link

3. "One of the things I loved about the Pokémon fad was that the MissingNo. rumor was true. It was like if Bloody Mary actually worked — a rumor whispered on the schoolyard, attempted alone, and then it happens and you either become wealthy beyond all dreams or lose something very precious. It brought together kids like nothing before."

A still from the classic Pokémon game that says "Wild Missingno. appeared"

4. "When Pokémon cards were banned at my elementary school. They were already seen as a distraction in class by most faculty, but the last straw was when one day every one of us first-graders started singing the Pokémon theme song instead of the 'Pledge of Allegiance.'"

A Charizard Pokémon card with a huge crease in it.

5. "VHS tapes. They made watching movies as a kid almost ritualistic. Opening the box, the sound of the tape sliding in, the loading period and static feeling in the air as the thick-ass TV started. Discovering the person before me stopped watching in the middle of the movie, then manually having to sit there and rewind the tape, laughing as I watch The Rescuers (anyone remember this gem?) do everything in reverse. Then press play."

An old blockbuster rental tape sticking out of a VCR that reads, "Please remember to rewind"

6. "There was just respect for people's time. Before smartphones, it was considered rude to call someone too late after dinner and there weren't many alternatives. We had time away from social clutter and it did so much for sanity."

An old corded telephone fastened to the wall

7. "Nickelodeon having live afternoon TV broadcasts at Universal Studios Florida complete with a bunch of slime and then finding out when we're there that they didn't film on weekends."

Universal Studios Florida complete with the slime fountain

8. "Going to Blockbuster on a Friday night."

Rows and rows of movies to rent at blockbuster

9. "At Blockbuster, the movie cover was on top, with the VHS-carrying containers behind them. So you could walk up to an entire section of, let’s say, Homeward Bound, but they would be out of them. So you’d have to get Free Willy AGAIN."

A father and daughter shopping for a movie to rent at blockbuster

10. "I remember going to a sit-down Pizza Hut restaurant and getting plastic collector cups for movies that were coming out in the theater at the time."

"Fievel Goes West" cups from Pizza Hut

11. "Just the experience of calling my friend, only to go 'Hi Mrs. Smith, is Sarah home?' Then taking the corded landline to my room, talking for a few minutes, then saying 'Hang on, let me ask my mom.' I'd go and ask mom if it’s okay if Sarah and I can ride our bikes and beg for a dollar for the gas station to buy a candy bar — which, by the way, I could get two of because candy bars were like 50 cents. My mom would say, 'Be back by 4 p.m.' I'd ride my bike to Sarah’s house alone, then she and I would ride around the neighborhood. And of course riding past Kyle’s house a few times because he was the class cutie. After two or three pass-bys, it was time to go to the gas station. We'd leave our bikes outside, walk in, get a Slush Puppie and a Starburst with the dollar my mom gave me. After that, ride over to Megan’s house and ask her mom if she can come out and say hi. After a while, it’s about 3:45 and time to pedal home."

An old photo of a bunch of bikes scattered on a front lawn

12. "Finding a pay phone at the mall to return a page."

An old pager that reads "on"

13. "Renting the latest Adam Sandler movie on VHS, ordering Pizza Hut, drinking Surge, while wearing a Stone Cold Steve Austin shirt and having spiky frosted tips."

Mark McGrath's frosted tips

14. "Ah what about recording the top 10 charts from the radio onto tape?? You had to get it just right so you didn’t get the radio person talking at the start or end of the songs!"

Someone recording over a cassette tape on an old radio

15. "Those slap bracelets were banned from my elementary school because kids were, predictably, using them to inflict pain while slapping them onto wrists."

Slap bracelets being modeled

16. "Every website was just text (and maybe some images/small animations). Sometimes, the text and the background color was some ungodly bright color that seared your eyes."

An old Noggin.com website from the '90s

17. "One of my classmates in fifth grade got in trouble because she asked to step out of the classroom to feed her Nano Pet."

A nano puppy with a keychain fastened to the top

18. "Having to select channel 3 or channel 4 when connecting the Nintendo."

The static on a TV screen when you'd turn to channel 3

19. "My friend refused to pay up his lucky slammer when he lost to me in a game of pogs so I stole his Tamagotchi and went home and watched Goosebumps 😎"

An old pog slammer with a skull on it and serrated edges like a saw

20. "I was born in 1990. When I was a teen, I'd get annoyed with my then-stepbrother being on the phone all the time because I wanted to go on the internet, so I'd boot up AOL just to annoy him."

The old AOL desktop complete with the friends list, chat box, and channels

21. "Anyone remember when Nick At Nite actually played '50s and '60s sitcoms during the Block Party Summer? Munster Monday, Lucy Tuesdays, Bewitched 'Bewednesdays,' etc. God I miss that. And I may have been a little kid but I didn’t care if they were old shows! I used to watch Lucy and Bewitched at my grandma’s house. I remember sitting in the kitchen in, like, 1994 and seeing Ricky nearly electrocute Lucy in the "Vitameatavegamin" episode. I also used to get up early on Saturday mornings and catch the tail end of Lassie or Flipper. 🤣"

The old "Nick At Nite" title screen

Do you have any memories that are specific to the '90s? Anything that kids today just wouldn't be able to understand? Tell us in the comments!

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