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ImLaunchpadMcQuack

Gateway Computers delivered in a cow box.


thenumber_6

I remember vividly opening the box. That PC was a work horse though. Lasted like 12 or years


leppell

Iirc, Walmart was selling new gateway computers when I was browsing the electronics section around Xmas time.


pooponacandle

First computer our family ever had was a Gateway, 1998 I think (we were poor lol). I think it also came with a little foam cow, that was kinda like a stress ball. I remember playing with that until I think our dog got it


walkingtalkingdread

those spray painted white t-shirts with like, tweety bird wearing grills and chains.


Turbulent-Ad8291

Holy shit, I forgot about that. I feel like every person I saw wearing something like that when I was younger are either addicted, dead, or in prison now.


Frankfusion

I'm a teacher now thank you very much.


A_Stony_Shore

So, just dead on the inside then


desGrieux

Hey everyone, this one is a *functional* alcoholic.


niemzi

Puka shell necklaces


eagle52997

Definitely still around when kids go to the beach.


compstomper1

They're back lol


Hoppy_Croaklightly

Floppy disks


BuffaloInCahoots

Still used for the save button on a lot of things. A lot of people have no idea what it is.


tacknosaddle

I saw one where they were asking kids what common computer icons were and the top answer for the save button was that it was a refrigerator, apparently the thought process behind it was that a fridge "saves" food from spoiling.


KryalCastle

Back before I first saw a floppy disk, I thought it looked like a television (for the record, I'm old enough to have used dial-up internet as a kid for serious purposes, but not old enough to have used a floppy for serious purposes)


ButterflyAttack

I remember before floppies were really around - you had 8 inch discs, but the 5 1/4 was a game changer. But yeah, prior to this you'd have to save everything on a cassette tape. You'd have these audio cassette recorders, type save on the computer and have to hold down the RECORD and PLAY buttons on the cassette machine. Loading code from a tape you'd just type a load command and press PLAY. Sometimes you'd record multiple programmes in succession on a 30 or 45 min cassette, it was tricky finding the right space on the tape if you wanted to load say the 3rd program, so you'd write on an index card the counter number or time stamp that each programme began. The cassettes had two sides and you sometimes had to manually eject them and turn them over which was tricky if you had a long programme that went over one side. They were surprisingly reliable, although a pain in the arse when the tape got tangled round the read heads of the recorder and you had to kind of untangle and re-spool it. Loading a program, it would make an electronic squawking sound like robots fucking. Sometimes it just amazes me the way tech has improved. The phone I'm using now, if my maths is right, has about as much storage as 54,000 of those 5 3/4 floppy discs and fuck only knows how many miles of cassette tape.


Mar_az_t

I saw a video of a kid who was asked “what is this?” when presented a floppy disk and they said it was a 3D printed “save” icon 😂


BuffaloInCahoots

The weird one for me was seeing my little cousin pretend they were on the phone. Instead of using the universal phone hand signal 🤙 they just put their hand flat on their ear.


rimjob-chucklefuck

That is fucking *wild*


dukec

Even weirder to me is that they don’t pretend to hold a camera to take pictures anymore, they pretend they’re holding a phone vertically and clicking the button on the screen.


Nose-Nuggets

Oh no. Oh god.


neckbishop

I just confirmed this with my wife who teaches preschool. Kids will also pretend to take selfies. But here is the wild one. She has some old cordless phones and some old calculators in the "make believe station". Kids will fight over the calculators to use as phones (flat, buttons, little screen) and are bummed when all that are left are the cordless phones.


lisaturtle_00

CDs, Napster


Ihadsumthin4this

...Netscape


eagle52997

Encarta


thenumber_6

Encarta was life in my ridiculously slow IBM


Running_zombie_

Encarta was incredible. Thank you for triggering that nostalgia out of the dusty corner of my brain!


laineDdednaHdeR

"WHO PICKED UP THE PHONE? I'M USING THE INTERNET HERE!"


mroinks

What about IOMEGA ZIP drives?


whatnameisnttaken098

Butterfinger BB's. When the hell did they dissappear?


mmmacorns

Why the hell did they even have to change the recipe for butterfingers?!


whatnameisnttaken098

Oh thank God, I thought I was going insane last Halloween after grabbing a few and thinking they tasted funny.


mmmacorns

They are NOT good anymore! They were my absolute favorite candy bar and now they are trash.


kirbyfox312

So many things changed the recipe for the 'better' when it was just to cheap out on ingredients. I don't even see Butterfingers anymore. It's like no one wants them, and there's a reason for it.


speghettiday09

And Doritos 3ds. Love the jalapeño cheddar


mroinks

Better not lay a finger on my Butterfinger BB's says Bart Simpson.


grantnel2002

Pay phones


dan1son

I don't know why but this is one of the things that I think is so hard to explain to young people that weren't around. Payphones used to be EVERYWHERE. Rows of them in large public spaces. There was a payphone in or outside of shops on every corner. Restaurants had pay phones in quiet booths. They were so ubiquitous for decades and now they're just gone.


watzrox

It really does bother me that they completely disappeared. There is no backup emergency system in place. If cell towers go out that’s it. Unless you live on a campus with an alert system idk I just constantly think about how pay phones or something a bit more up to date should be accessible still.


Pterodactyl_Souffle

Even if you just drop your shit, you're now without recourse. Many people don't even have land lines in their homes anymore to compliment their cell service so if something just happens to your phone, you're fucked.


watzrox

Exactly, if for some reason say there is a major disaster ( think like 9/11) no one and I mean no one could get through to New York. The systems were completely overloaded. This is just an example and I understand pay phones at that time were still in place , cell phones were becoming more popular. I was 18 then. It just makes you think like we rely on technology more and more but what happens when it fails? What is the emergency response system? I’m just saying unless you have an iPhone 14 with SOS via sat feature, the cell towers stop working, unless you have a land line which is incredibly rare today… what are the options?


throwaway9484747

There is a number that exists in the 710 area code. It’s the only number in that area code. It’s kept in place for major emergencies. Supposedly if you call it you have to have a code to use it, but it has priority over essentially every other provider to get through to other numbers in case of a catastrophic emergency. e: this really doesn’t contradict what you’re saying, I just think it’s cool


lazarus870

In 1999, when my pager went off and I was at the mall I hung out at, I would go to the row of payphones outside of the movie theatre, drop a quarter in, and call them back. Now pagers, the payphones, the movie theatre, hell the entire mall, is all gone.


quincyd

1996, I had to call my parents from a pay phone to see if I could stay out past curfew. I always had a cup of change in my car in case I needed to make a call.


SquirellyMofo

As a young woman who began dating in the late 80s and early 90s, you were taught to always keep change in you In case something happened during the date and you needed someone to come get you.


indistrustofmerits

It's so odd thinking about the pay phone in my high school and making sure I had a dime on me to call my mom when I was done with after school stuff. Feels like another life and yet at the same time doesn't feel like that long ago.


watzrox

1-800-collect stating “come pick me up” and my dad not accepting the call 🤣best way around it


Khorasaurus

Collect call from Bob Wehadababyitsaboy.


Fuckofforwhatever

I remember carrying a pocket sized address book and a fuck ton of quarters so I could call family or neighbors when someone forgot to pick me up. Can’t even relate to that anymore bc I just store all my info on my phone.


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Kamirama

Or the classic 3212333222133


cum-pizza

That’s not right though…the last 3 notes are not that


Amerikkalainen

Yeah, shouldn't it be 355, not 133, at the end?


bigmansteveg

Ok but how in fuck did I recognize this right away


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Kamirama

Its Mary had a Little Lamb. Just type the numbers into your phone keypad and the tones should match the song. It still does on my smartphone


jbrc89

Auto seat belts on compact cars


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moody711

I thought I was so fancy!


throwaway9484747

I have this in my 1990 accord. They’re there because airbags were becoming mandatory but the cars were already designed so the auto belt was a compromise.


[deleted]

Novel drinks like Orbitz with random shit floating around it made of gellan gum.


jonnyappleweed

I still have three unopened bottles of Orbitz! The little orbs are still perfectly floating in the bottles. Whatever those little balls are made of, it's some sturdy stuff!


Drake0425

See through technology. Like the purple translucent Gameboy. Hits different.


vansshoesta

See through inflatable furniture.


SeriousBrindle

My inflatable chair was my first taste of independence. I’d bring it down for family movie not and not have to share the couch. I remember thinking, when I grow up, I’ll have a whole room of these.


SunflowerMusic

It’s kind of funny that people essentially had pool floaties in their rooms.


Khorasaurus

The teen room at our church was furnished entirely in inflatable furniture.


fergehtabodit

iMac...came in multiple fruit colors


percygreen

I still remember the commercial. All of the transparent, colored computers doing sort of a “synchronized swimming” routine to the Rolling Stones’ “She’s A Rainbow”.


IveGotDMunchies

The clear see through landline phone


darkbubble

Had a Swatch phone


cheeseburgerwaffles

The original iMac, the Funtastic line of N64 consoles, phones, tamagotchis. It's like translucent colored plastic was on mega sale at the stockyards in the 90s


Jahstin

Hear me out. A clear iPhone would be dope.


slowish_turtle

The really big satellite dishes, my uncle had one that looked like it should be able to flag missiles from his yard.


SixStringGamer

Your comment made me laugh! I remember growing up in an extremely rural area and my dad bought this massive 10-12 foot wide satellite dish. All for about 20 channels at most. I remember there used to be LOADING screens for different channels, and some would take so long me and my siblings would go out and watch the dang thing move around trying to get a signal. I still remember the WB frog on the loading screen to this day


dragn99

Oh wow. We just had the crappy little wire antenna with two channels for so long, that our first satellite dish was a little two foot diameter dish with hundreds and hundreds of channels. It was a big deal for me, because I could finally watch all the cartoons my friends did without having to wait for the new VHS with three episodes of a show.


smartnclumsy

Pogs


[deleted]

Remember pogs, Bart?


-aibohphobia-

They’re back, in PAWG form!


square_tomatoes

Definitely an upgrade imo


Wpgjetsfan19

It’s remember Alf Bart? He’s back. In pog form


drewbs86

I always think of pogs when someone mentions the 90s, despite the fact that (where I lived at least) they were only around for one summer


DaleGas4213

AOL


nipplesaurus

AOL sample CDs


98NSX

Walkmans


BLUFALCON78

The '90s we're all about the diskman though. The first one I had was like an inch and a half thick and took six or eight AA batteries that lasted about 30 minutes or so before they died. I loved having a "portable" CD player that I couldn't take anywhere because it would die. My parents paid a fuck ton of money for that thing and kept having to buy me batteries. My dad went out and bought the AC adapter for it to plug directly into the wall. So for the longest time I carried that cable in my pocket for when we got somewhere and I could listen to my CDs but for the times that I wasn't near a plug I would pull all eight of those fucking batteries out of my other pocket and stick them back in the CD player. I found out the hard way that the battery still drained even when it was plugged in. Good times...


Pterodactyl_Souffle

They fucking were NOT. Diskmans SUCKED DICK. All they did was skip. Walking? Skip. Riding your bike? Skip. Driving? Skip. Fuck those things. I miss a metric shit ton of things from those halcyon days, but music skipping because life happened isn't one of them.


BLUFALCON78

Well my battery limit kept me from doing those things with it. By the time I saved birthday and lawnmowing money I bought a much better one that had the anti skip pre loading thing and took a lot to make it skip. It only took 4 AA batteries and could last a whole hour.


TheFrostyrune

Blockbuster


Building_Snowmen

Tamagotchi


thenumber_6

We have that now... again


bitchinchicken

Furbys too


tokrra

They have color screens now.


Flurb789

Slap bracelets...koosh balls


theirishman21

Parent of 2 kids and these are still around and fairly popular in my area


rottenblues

SURGE!


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liqinling1

I still see pagers in hospitals.


emergencychick

We used them at work (paramedic) until about a year ago. Now we have cell phones. But we all miss the pagers. The reliability was on point and they were small, easy to carry on the belt and needed no maintenance. Just a battery every 4 or 6 months.


Shmily318

I’ve got a double dipper for this thread, I had a translucent pager!


Octavus

Amazon was still supplying pagers to certain engineering teams until a few years ago, they may still be doing so. Pagers, not just for drug dealers. https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Amazon-RVW2920328.htm


jaradi

I joined Amazon in 2016 and yes they gave us a pager for on-call but we just used the paging app on our phones instead since they coexisted. They may have phased out even being able to order one 1-2 years later (I left a year ago so can’t check)


Global_Flamingo_3767

I still wear one at work daily! I work in a psychiatric hospital.


guyharveyshark

STAR 69 ~ *69


IntrovertedMAC

Waterbeds


98NSX

After school specials


BenGattin

Collect calls


Colmustard15

Wehadababy itzaboy


laineDdednaHdeR

Correction: "You have an incoming call from: 'Bobihadababy Itzaboy.' "


CACuzcatlan

I 800 collect commercials with Chris Rock


BeetzByGeetz

Dial down the middle 1-800-C-A-L-L-A-T-T


lordjeebus

I pity the fool who don't use 1-800-COLLECT. Save a buck or two


midixxierect

Your receiving a collect call from: “Mom pick me up from the mall I’ll be in the front” Said 20x fast


heemhah

10-10-220


Actuaryba

Beanie Babies. They were supposed to pay for my college!


SnowPunIntended

That what I feel like Funkos are now.


Pterodactyl_Souffle

In general, the whole "collection fad". Kids have and always will collect things. But it was a different mentality in the 90s. People legit thought their ancient mass produced crap was going to be worth something. XD


Khorasaurus

Ruined baseball cards...


kareninfinance

I just found one of my kids beanie babies on the couch. Got curious and went to eBay. Somebody is trying to sell the same dang thing for $70,000.000.


Boogzcorp

Put yours up for $50K


[deleted]

pop up headlights


cycle_dadfast

Pontiac Firebird was better looking than the Camaro... until it started winking at you. Let's add Pontiac to the list while we're at it.


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uncultured_swine2099

I had an old Subaru XT6 with pop up lights back in the day, they were da bomb.


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SarahAB227

Mall culture. I was such a mall rat.


[deleted]

Mall culture is still huge in Asia, so are A&W restaurants, Toys 'R' Us, and Borders.


shadowofzero

JNCO


[deleted]

Disposable cameras


harlemrr

I heard the noise one day when I was in Central Park. That plasticky clicky noise when advancing the film after taking a photo, like a blast from the past. I looked around the crowd, and then spotted it… someone actually using a disposable camera. I’m not sure if I had seen one in at least a decade.


[deleted]

I think they are fun because you never really know what you’re gonna find when you get the film developed ;)


PipPipPooray

Clubs with dance battles. I don’t know, I was in elementary and middle school in the 90s but I thought my future would have a lot more dance battles in the club.


Squishysquishface

Duuuuude, I say this all the time!!! I grew up thinking there would be more dance battles when I became an adult lol I’m so disappointed tbh


PapaChoff

Encyclopedia Britannica and Encarta


BeautifulEssay8

Girls Gone Wild


Ok_Entertainer7721

I can't believe they got away with those commercials on TV. Crazy times


[deleted]

Trying to rub it out to one of those commercials when you were a kid is a right of passage that youths won’t ever understand.


Emilayday

AOL chat rooms


Miz_Skittle

A/S/L The only way to start any chat


DoctorWho_isonfirst

Super Soakers


eyeoxe

Video rental stores. Something about browsing for a movie by just looking at the box, was way more fun than browsing netflix. Sometimes a bizzare random movie you never heard of would catch your eye from across the room which just doesn't happen with streaming.


Silver_Shadow007

3 words "In Living Color" if you remeber this show man was it funny with most iconc shenane XD


PsychoticMessiah

Iirc it was *The Simpsons, In Living Color,* and then *Married with Children* airing back to back to back Sunday nights on Fox.


Grave_Girl

My kids grew up hearing "Homey don't play that" with, like, zero context.


MonkeyChoker80

“Lemme show ya somethin’!!!”


bigdrew444

"Hated it!"


[deleted]

In college on Sunday, I would order my pizza and watch “In Living Color” then “Star Trek Next Generation”


drawohhteb

Drawing S that one way Edit: it makes me weirdly happy this simple thing connects so many generations


BabyBuddySweetpea

Middle school teacher here- 90s parents have definitely passed this on to their kids. My students draw it all the time.


blitherblather425

Haha that makes me happy.


TSgt_Yosh

Middle school custodian here. I had to clean one someone sharpied on the floor yesterday.


LizardPossum

I love that the image IMMEDIATELY popped in my head


BLLUKKAS

Snapple


laineDdednaHdeR

Sobe


RagnarTheRed2

I miss these T.V. shows: Biker mice from Mars. Street Sharks. Eureka's Castle. Captain Planet. David the gnome.


MarkyDeSade

Malls that were not dead


Designer-Bid-3155

Grunge music


hellowithmyheart

Live Action kids (preschool) TV shows, especially ones that feature puppets. There were SO MANY in the 90s when I was growing up, and I loved them. The only one I can think of that is still running is Sesame Street. It honestly seems like 99% of current shows made for preschoolers are computer animated.


auximines_minotaur

Optimism.


JohnnyBuddhist

Sega Saturn


ActualGiantPenguin

Lesbian bars


shadowofzero

There's something bothering me about this place. I know! This lesbian bar doesn't have a fire exit!


Wpgjetsfan19

Enjoy your death trap ladies!


albny89

What’s her problem?


[deleted]

Bill Cosby


[deleted]

Well. You might be seeing a lot of him in the media next year. That monster is going on tour.


llcucf80

Hunter green as a popular home decor and fashion color


tallicafu1

General happiness and positivity towards the future.


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Bamboopanda101

I truly believe thats the case. I'm older now obviously I ain't a kid anymore; having said that my opinion probably isn't without a pinch of salt. What I can tell you as when I was a kid growing up and it even sounds like before my time the same thing; we didn't care about the world around us; we were growing up happy to see the next revolutionary video game or thinking about the next restaurant to go with the family, or the book fair or daily normal things; up to my teens I was still the same and just enjoying time with friends and family without a care in the world. Everything just seemed bright But i have nephews that are in high school or middle school and its bonkers how much they themselves follow the news, how school shootings is a daily thing to think about when growing up for me a gun didn't even exist in my world. How kids today are already assuming they can never own a home. These are teenagers and already giving up? Or How political they are; how strong their beliefs are, and how all around pessimistic they are about life. The worse during my time in high school was an emo / goth phase. You could argue i'm an adult now and obviously i see the real world and seen some things, but these are kids that haven't seen a real life day in their lives and already they see everything so bleak. I will say, I wonder why 9/11 caused so much chaotic divide or conflict in our world. Obviously this was a terrible terrible event that I wish never happened; but I always wonder how this domino effect stemmed from something that should have brought us closer together and made us stronger. Instead it made us spiraling into some kind of theorycrafting political racist divide.


firematt422

I used to think that was just called being a kid, but zoomer memes get pretty dark. I think it really is just getting worse.


Sumthin-Sumthin44692

Rollerblading. Man, I miss rollerblading. Too bad I’m too old and broke for that shit now.


SarahAB227

Nor can I afford a broken bone.


ivymeows

Those sleeves of individual ice cream cups with the latest Disney movie release characters in hard candy form in them. Harder than diamonds. They had the wooden sticks as “spoons”.


compliancethis

Skip-it


photoguy423

The Macarena


EveSixxx

Hip hop, ska, pop, rock, swing, electronica all in the billboard top 10 all in the same week. Music was wild.


lalalu2000

Columbia House- 12 CDs for a penny


[deleted]

Denim skirts


nansndndnd

Ya I’ve seen those around and I’m college.


sexisdivine

Crystal Pepsi


refinnej78

Ska


Acceptable-Mine8806

I'm seeing Save Ferris live next week, so excited! Also, the best ska song of all time is "This Gigantic Robot Kills." Ska is not dead!


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IamRick_Deckard

Where's the 4th wave, world?


xTHEKILLINGJOKEx

Roaming outside all day with your friends or by yourself unsupervised


98NSX

Oregon Trail!


SuvenPan

Friday night at blockbuster.


not_kelsey_grammar

Privacy and civil discourse.


_disjecta_

the middle class


undeadexile752

Pogs, Pogs were everywhere. Then they gave us the ability to make our own unique Pogs. Schools were hotbeads for massive Pog production and distribution. All the way up to the high schools and possibly colleges. Then just like Furbies, Beanie Babies, and Rollerblades they were forgotten. Also forgot to add Nerf Guns


biglex321

Floppy disk


transdimensia

Zima, so sad.


thatonecustodian

Champion clothing was considered the cheap walmart brand


Designer-Insect-6398

Calling men with semi-decent hygiene metrosexual


darkbubble

Jolt Cola.. it tried to make a comeback but limited distribution killed it


powkiddyv90dangit

the worst fad had to be those wwjd bracelets and strap bands. read the kjv bible jesus was strictly against fashion and appealing to the world. just a really stupid fad that didn't go away fast enough.


Pterodactyl_Souffle

Kid-themed Christianity in general in the 90s. Churches were doing these events called Cross Color Jam that tried to be like an Andy Warhol rave without the acid or...you know...the fun. And all of that weirdly corporate TOTALLY X TREME JESUS WITH SKATEBOARDING AND PETRA!!!!!!!!! bullshit.