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It’s funny. I was watching Eat Your Kimchi’s post on being 90s kids where they answered questions from their followers. That got me all nostalgic as I’m a 90s kid myself. An 80s baby and a 90s kid. Even though I was technically 4 when the 80s ended, I don’t have any memories at all of that time period.
Oddly enough, I was actually into Asian entertainment already at this time…but I didn’t know it. The 90s was the era of Sailor Moon on FOX. My sister and I’d sit down and watch Blinky Bill (that loveable Aussie koala) and then watch our favorite Sailor Scouts kick butt. Also, my dad pointed out that when my sister and I were little we used to watch this one series, Macross, that was another anime brought over to the US. I don’t really remember that one though. Anime in the 90s also consisted of Ronin Warriors (aka Super Samurai Troopers) and Escaflowne. I didn’t discover Cowboy Bebop and Inuyasha until after the millennium when I was finishing up high school.
So while I was enjoying those animes, I was also watching Gargoyles, X-MEN, the original animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (I own all the live action movies, too) which is sooo much better than the new version they have on cable now, Darkwing Duck, Rescue Rangers, Duck Tales. My sister and I also used to watch Who’s the Boss?, Charles in Charge, Empty Nest, Perfect Strangers, Two’s Company. Oh…and who doesn’t remember the loveable alien Alf? We also used to watch Brady Bunch reruns along with I Love Lucy reruns in the wee hours of the morning before school. And of course we watched the Simpsons. And we also watched the short lived Kindred the Embraced and we watched a lot of Highlander.
Ah, 90s movies. There were so many Disney movies. I think Disney has kind of gone a bit downhill in certain respects of their movies, but I remember all the Disney movies then and how we enjoyed them. My sister and I had a tough time splitting up our movie collection when she moved out. But also notable besides the usual Disney fare was Rookie of the Year, Little Giants, Little Rascals…and…it’s kind of hard to remember which movies = 90s movies at this time. Oh…Land Before Time!!!! “Wait…you leave without Petrie?” And the adorable little Duckie. My sister and I actually have a set of glasses from some restaurant with the full cast of LBT dinos. Those where also hard to split up, lol. And then I think Indiana Jones was in the 90s…but am not 100% certain. Absolutely LOVED those Harrison Ford movies.
My sister and I grew up…I guess in what is technically known today as…”working poor”. My family made less than $20,000 a year which was WAY below poverty line for a family of four. But…I don’t think we ever realized how poor we were as my grandparents did everything they could so we had everything we needed, plus we did get some child support from both our parents. That being said, our first gaming system was my dad and aunt’s ATARI. Wow. Those great old games. Pac Man, River Raid…I can’t remember the name of all the games now. That was our only video game source of entertainment until my dad bought us a Game Boy when he was stationed in Japan. We both got Tetris which came with the gaming system. We scrimped and saved our meager allowances to buy other games. My sister went for Mario and I got Donkey Kong and Kirby. My Game Boy is now falling apart, but it still works believe it or not! Though I have long forgotten now how to really play the games on it. And these handheld systems were the only gaming system we had until college when my sister and I pooled our money together to buy a PS2. When we went to our cousins’ house we got to play their Sega. So we got to enjoy Sonic the Hedgehog and Mortal Kombat (which was another movie…I think made in the 90s that wasn’t too awful).
Our main source of entertainment was television and the movies we had on VHS at the time. But, since we live out in the country and have 2 acres, we had lots of room to play. Soccer, kickball, baseball, football, hockey…we did all of that. When we were older, we got a volleyball and badminton set. We really enjoyed volleyball, but didn’t understand badminton whatsoever. Plus, we always got the shuttlecock stuck in the spruce tree behind us. Getting that down from there was NOT fun. We also always had a swing set. And my grandparents got us a playhouse! It is a tiny little house and we used to camp out there. Grandfather would sleep in the middle with his feet sticking out the door while my sister and I slept along each side. The fun days.
Our final swing set and our little play house
We also did chores—from dishes to laundry to gardening. Our pay? A penny a week. We eventually worked our way up to a whole whopping quarter (then I think we were getting $0.50 – $1 by the time high school was over). We did get some big paydays like getting $10 for raking the entire lawn…it’s good for the lawn, but when you have 2 acres…it sucked for little kids. But we were very proud of ourselves and the money we had earned.
On certain weekends in the summer and early fall, we’d take drives. We’d go to the next town over which had a Dairy Queen and get our twisty cones (you know the soft serve ice cream with both vanilla and chocolate. And in the summer, we’d pile up in the car and go on longer trips. I can’t count how many times my grandparents and aunt would take us to Hartwick Pines—really it’s a national park in the middle of a forest that recounts the years of Michigan logging. We had a lot of logging going on, but it makes sense, there are a lot of forests around. And we’d do daytrips across the straits. We’d go to Seashell City, the forts on our side of the bridge and the opposite side of the bridge. We’d also go up north and spend weekends in Harrison in a one room cabin.
Arch Rock on Mackinaw Island
We’d go berry picking. And…due to two incidents that happened when we were picking blackberries…I kind of got turned off of berry picking. The first incident involved getting lost multiple times and getting scratched to all heck. When my sister and I managed to find the way back to out car by ourselves, we stayed planted and never went back to our grandparents and aunt. That earned us a big scolding, lol. But better than getting lost after dark. And…when we went berry picking again, we got way lost and ended up on a road a bit far from our start point. After that, I didn’t go berry picking any more. We also used to go fishing. I suck at fishing. My grandfather kind of gave up on me and my sister in that respect. Especially after I hooked his ear when trying to cast.
Thanks to growing up in a multigenerational household, my sister and I had access to all sorts of things. From records to 8 track tapes to cassettes. My dad, when we visited him when he was stationed in Florida, also had a laser disc player. We first had our own personal cassette players, and then our own personal CD players when that format finally came out. We didn’t get a DVD player for ages and finally bought one because other people gave us DVDs as a gift…when we didn’t have a DVD player…what a thoughtful gift, wasn’t it?
It amazes how different things are now as compared to back them. So much has changed, hasn’t it? Like…I still remember when gas was only $0.99 a gallon. Unfortunately for me, I was working a gas station when we started hitting the soaring prices we see now. It doesn’t pay to be a gas station attendant and dealing with people cussing you out for the gas prices, which I had nothing to do with.
I guess I’m done rambling now, lol. Just…it’s been on my mind since watching that video…and then I was listening to Mark Wills’ “19 Something” and that made the nostalgia grow even more. An interesting thing to note…I went to several concerts in the 90s. Maybe one or 2 in the early 2000s…I haven’t been to a single one since high school graduation. Wow. Hard to believe, ne? And unlike other friends, I have no one to go any place with to see local bands play. The only friend around here isn’t into music as much as I am. I’d love to go to a place where it’s nice and cozy and listen to some good, live music some day. Guess that means I have to be more extroverted…which probably won’t happen.
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17 March 2014 1:57 AM
This might sound weird but the main part I focused on was the berry-picking part. O_O I remember as a kid I would read the children’s books where the characters go berry-picking and I thought it sounded so cool LOL. But..I never went berry picking. >_>
17 March 2014 7:06 AM
OH, it’s not bad. It was fun to start, but spending the whole day doing it, getting scratched to beat heck, not eating anything save the berries here and there…it made for a very unhappy day. I did, however, enjoy the preserves, canned blackberries and frozen blackberries that we got from that trunkful (yes an ENTIRE TRUNK) of berries.
17 March 2014 6:36 AM
It’s so great you have all those fun memories to recall. We seem to be around the same age! I loved watching just about all of those shows you mentioned – though minus the american soaps and sit-coms as I’m Australian. Lol. Yay! Blinky Bill! Haha.
Land Before Time was one of my most favourite movies when I was a kid. Little Foot! Yay!
I loved growing up in the 90s!
17 March 2014 7:10 AM
Really? I’m an 85er. Yay for some Australian TV coming over to the US. I absolutely loved Blinky Bill! My sister and I would always run into the living room to watch that at 10 and then Sailor Moon at 10:30. That was quality television back in the day. I like the 90s cartoons so much better than cartoons today.
Oh, Land Before Time! Little Foot, Cera, Duckie, Spike, Petrie. Loved them all. I’m surprised my sister and I didn’t completely wear out that VHS. I should buy it on DVD so I can have it forever as they are less likely to die out on you than an actual VHS.
I can also honestly say I loved growing up in the 90s, too!
17 March 2014 7:18 AM
Pretty sure my Land Before Time VHS did wear out! Yep! 85 line for the win! 🙂
Yes, those 90’s cartoon were the best. X-Men, Gargoyles and Ninja Turtles. We loved the turtles so much my first per dog was named Raff after my favourite, Raphael. I loved Sailor Moon a lot too. They certainly don’t make them like they used to. The only cartoon I’ve watched over the past few years is Avatar, The Last Air Bender. Nothing as good as the classics.
17 March 2014 5:24 PM
Yay! Same age chingu! I haven’t watched mine in ages…so who knows if it even works any more? Now I want to watch that and some of the other shows and movies I was talking about, lol.
My last cartoons…besides watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse over and over again thanks to my niece…were actually two recently aired animes that left me scratching my head wondering what I just watched. I sometimes have rotten luck in choosing shows based on synopses alone.
18 March 2014 4:36 PM
Land Before Time was the best. The. best. I’m a little traumatized now that some archaeologists think dinosaurs may have had feathers. Based on my childhood memories, dinosaurs will never have feathers. >_<
18 March 2014 8:08 PM
I may have missed that whole dinosaurs have feathers thing somehow. But…I agree. Just like Pluto will always be a planet no matter what scientists say today.
21 March 2014 8:54 AM
I thought only Aussie kids watched Blinky Bill! I loved that show when I was a kid! I’m an ’86 liner so everything you wrote about, i just kept thinking “i watched that. I watched that too!”, lol, even the American soaps. Passions was the most hilarious soap opera ever. It was a parody of soap operas except it also tried to be serious. I could never figure it out. Bold and the Beautiful was on at 4pm so I always tried to be home from school so I could watch it.
Okay, get this. In Australia, we were 4 YEARS behind the US in Days of Our Lives. We were getting episodes that had aired in the US 4 years previous. But one day, they decided to FAST FORWARD 4 years. Like, they just stopped airing the season that was showing, and started airing the newer episodes. I missed Belle and Shawn’s entire relationship! It’s funny to think about now. At the time, I was really annoyed.
I agree with everyone about Land Before Time. My brother and I still get excited when we see any of the movies rerun on TV. “Land Before Time, I’ve gotta watch it again!”
21 March 2014 9:00 AM
Nope, the US brought Blinky Bill over. My sister and I adored that show and used to use his catchphrase ALL the time! Ah, American soaps. My sister and I always wanted to be home in time from HS to watch General Hospital back when Lucky and Elizabeth were falling in love. And then they ruined that…sniffle. Passions did at times seem very much like they were spoofing other dramas, but then they tried to have their serious points. I really loved Timmy from that show. It’s so tragic that he died in real life due to health issues (horribly on the same day I think his character was killed off). I missed a lot of Days during Belle & Sean’s relationship, but yeah, that would be annoying when they just jumped 4 years without trying to catch up.
I now want to watch Land Before Time…but I don’t have a working VCR anymore! All of ours have broken. Sad day. And they are so hard to find. Will have to see if Netflix or somewhere else has it.
5 April 2014 1:59 AM
NeeNee, you have no idea how happy I am that you are a fellow 80s baby! 😀 😀
Man, the Ninja Turtles and Duck Tales were my life, lol. Sailor Moon is also LOVE. And NOTHING is a better time killer than the original Tetris on the original Game Boy. I swear if they had tournamnents back in the day, I would so totally be famous, LOL.
But that pic of the playhouse and swing out in the snow is romantically GORGEOUS. I can totally picture a Korean drama couple caressing each other in their final moments on Earth together there now… no, wait, wrong script, LOL. Let’s go for a super fun snowball fight where they end up rolling around in the snow, laughing, before finally getting their pash on. 😛
P.S. Also highly concur— Pluto will be forever a planet to me. ❤
6 April 2014 6:55 PM
Ah, more 80s babies! At work, I was always with people who were a few generations older or a few generations younger 😛 I don’t have very many friends/cohorts from my generation believe it or not. 😀
Ah, TMNT, forever a favorite and Duck Tales! Not to mention Rescue Rangers with Chip & Dale and Launchpad and Gadget. Ah, the nostalgia. I got even more nostalgic about my childhood when a friend from elementary school posted an old class photo on his Facebook account. Wow. That’s also a way to make you feel a little old even when you’re not, lol.
I was really happy how that snow scene pic turned out. I think that was the snapshot where my family didn’t even realize it was of our backyard at first 😛 Totally love your little kdrama synopsis for that pic.
7 April 2014 8:02 AM
Technically, you would have to call me unni in real life I believe so don’t feel too old yet, lol. But I know the feeling. When the Running Man cast came to film in Melbourne, I luckily had the day off so set mission to try and stalk, er, catch a glimpse of them. Never felt older in my life -___-lll
Anyways, speaking of stalking, and also since you mention Facebook, feel free to shoot me an email and we can add each other on there if you like. Of course, I know it’s a bit random so if you don’t feel comfortable with it, I can totes understand, no hard feelings at all I promise : )
Finally, I just realised I’ve never clicked the “Follow” button to your blog. How lame. I shall amend that now : )
7 April 2014 5:59 PM
No one ever comes to the mitten state…drat. No trying to stalk celebrities…but I really don’t have the time to do that anyways, lol. It would be kind of cool to seem them in real life, though. I read that post and the subsequent falling in love with Kim Woo Bin thanks to his hair, lol.