90’s Summer

The 90’s have been trending for a while, and I’ve been seeing a lot of social media discussion about having a 90’s summer. Since I was in peak childhood during the 90’s, I’ve been trying to remember what my summers were like. I don’t have memories of fun, amazing summers. I remember being bored all the time and having to do really weird things to entertain myself. Ya, I rode my bike everywhere just like the kids on TV, and we didn’t have cell phones and all the addiction problems that come with them, but it wasn’t all magical. Here are the things I did to stay busy when I wasn’t at school:

Rearranged my bedroom

Hung upside down from my knees on the swing set

Sat on the front porch and counted how many cars drove by 

Stared at the neighbor girl through the fence slats and tried to creep her out (I would intentionally position my face so she could see one eyeball looking at her)

Watched The Box (for hours everyday)

Watched all the talk shows like Jenny Jones, Ricki Lake, and Maury

Played in the irrigation ditch

Hit golf balls across the street

Walked to stores or gas station

Talked on the phone

Played Super Nintendo 

Climbed on the roof of my house

Put grapes from the yard in my mouth and spit them as far as I could

Sat in a tree and watched people at the park behind my house

Organized my Jonathan Taylor Thomas posters

Worked on my novel on our DOS computer

Played Solitaire, Minesweeper, and Mah Jongg on the DOS computer

Read the phone book

…and the encyclopedia, but we only had "E"

Memorized song lyrics from my CD booklets (if you want to hear “Might as Well Be Walking on the Sun” or “Wannabe,” just send me word)

Did cross stitch

Some of these things might sound nostalgic and wonderful, but did you catch the part where I used to count cars and read the phonebook? Do you think I can convince my kids to do that when they’re bored next week?

90’s Britt