We had a big day of celebrating the 90's in music yesterday at work (for those not in the know I work at a radio station which is why a day like this would make a lot of sense) and in between 90's hits (and the occasional miss, not all music from that decade was enjoyable) I found myself busy spamming Twitter with 90's memories and things I've missed.
And after that I find myself wanting to build a time machine and relive some of those glory days once again..
...but probably as I am now and not the confused and moody teen I was circa 1993-1999. Twenty plus years on and hopefully by now I'm a little more wiser to the ways of the world, even if that's not the case I'm certainly far more appreciative of what I had back then, now.
-Thanks to my great mate Heath I scored a job every Saturday morning at Prahran Market Newsagency, selling papers, magazines and smokes to a mostly nice crowd of customers with the occasional grump a-hole to keep things interesting. I ate a lot of chocolates and read FHM, learnt about gambling from Tony behind the counter and spotted the occasional celebrity. My brother also worked with me for a time selling papers outside the market itself and sometimes made more than I did. I earnt a staggering $72 for my Saturday shift and somehow managed to make that last across the week to the next one. I didn't have a credit card back then and since bourbon and cokes at the clubs were about $4.50 back then, well $72 could really get you places..
(How good would it be to have a 2021 wage back in the 90s??)
-I carried a brass Zippo lighter around which is hilarious in itself because I never smoked. But since many of my friends did and I wanted to do the thumb and two fingers opening trick I'd seen, I bought one for the vic markets for $40. I reckon I used it a total of five times to actually light up cigarettes and far more just playing with it.
-Korn's A.D.I.D.A.S. Where did this song disappear to exactly? I feel it arrived, blazed briefly for a few months and then went back on the shelves where I'd completely forgot about until yesterday when I was reliving 90's tunes we weren't playing via Youtube.
-Kids getting free credits out of arcade machines with whipper snipper/line trimmer string bent in a certain way and or old oven clicker/ignitor starters. God only knows how someone figured out the clicker trick but it worked most of the time on the Street Fighter 2 setup across the road from Princes Hill Secondary College when I was there.
-My favorite clothing brand was 26 Red which had its own shop on Chapel Street. No one remembers either but I loved swanning about in my very baggy black pants and jacket that was strong enough to outlast religion. (I only donated this to an op shop recently, that's how long it lasted!)
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| That computer is probably worth a bit now. |
-The best chocolate bar out of the 90s? Cadbury Crave. I craved Craves and ate many on my Saturday job (like Freddo Frogs.) Sadly like the Korn song above, it came and went in the space of a cup of coffee, never to be recalled again.
-I took driving lessons in a Hyundai Excel Sprint and a Mazda 323 and growing up then I wanted one as my first car (the Hyundai although the 323 would have been good). Luckily that never happened but I still recall harrowing lessons of driving in stupidly busy conditions near Lygon Street Melbourne as part of my driver training. If you could survive those nerve wracking conditions you could survive anything.
-I remember drinking a lot of Hahn Ice beer, which was Heath's fault. I don't remember what it tasted like though, I think we were drinking it because it was affordable and came in 30 can blocks.
-A couple of times we had shots of this shortly after being set alight and then quickly doused. It didn't make it taste any better, that's for sure..
-So many dollars spent at Magic City in Camberwell playing Crusin USA and Killer Instinct 2. On a good day with Jago and a lot of frantic button smashing, I was unstoppable.
-Blink 182's Damnit (Growing up) was one of the first cd singles I ever owned and it was a song that punched me right in the soul, managing to mirror some of the things I was experiencing at the tender age of 17. Add that to Ixnay on the Hombre by the Offspring and there's my angsty 90's teen soundtrack right there!
-Shortly after Crown Casino opened I'd visit with a mate and win enough coins in the machines for a ticket to the movies and lunch from the food court. I also remember the bar Barcode, cocktails in the sports bar (my friend Nara was working there at the time) and vague memories of Heat and Odion nightclubs at the top of the escalators.
-Buying a lot of comics from Minotaur and Classic Comics. Image and Marvel mostly but lots of random stuff from the bargain bins as well as the occasional mad magazine. Then CCG's like Marvel's Overpower and Wildstorm Rising.
-The $2 Herald Sun student offer at Tafe. Pay $2 (once) for a cardboard card that got you a free Herald Sun every day for the rest of the year! I lost my card within the first few weeks but since nobody cared to check, I still got to take advantage of all those free papers.
-Melbourne's pop up street cafes. Where you could get a latte and slice of chocolate cake for just $5 while sitting on Bourke street watching the trams go by.
-Play and You've Come A Long Way, Baby. Both vital parts of my 90's soundtrack. See also: Edges of Twilight - Tea Party, Muse-Sick-N-Hour-Mess-Age by Public Enemy, Ixnay on the Hombre by The Offspring, Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack, Come Find Yourself by The Fun Lovin Criminals, ECW Soundtrack, Metallica's Black Album, Funkmaster Flex Mixtape Vol 2 and Pure Killer by Defrhyme.
-96145374X from memory was my VCE number back in 1997. How and why I still remember that today is beyond me but it's still there.
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| I don't think he gave a shit really. |
-The most popular smoke for those who smoked at school were Benson and Hedges extra mild, followed by Stuyvesant soft pack. I sold a lot of both when working at the newsagency. Apparently there was a milk bar near school that used to sell cigarettes for 20 cents each but I never saw if first hand.
-Gumbuya Park was the bomb back in the early 90s and still kicks on today! So much time on the toboggans and cars, so many battles between my brother Guy and I on the mini golf course while our grandma read the paper and drank ice coffee in the Ford Laser in the carpark.
-Watching WCW tapes, taped by someone with cable back when the NWO was coming to fruition. Watching many a bootleg ECW PPV tape with shitty sound and just as bad quality vision but being gob smacked at how crazy this wrestling was.
-Coming home to a still warm woodfire at 3am after clubbing. Not going to bed for another hour due to standing in front of that amazing warmth.
-Everyone wanted a Chicago Bulls top except for me, who wanted to rock a Pheonix Suns one. Basketball card trading was huge for a time and then like yo yos, faded away.
-Underage nightclub parties at Metro nightclub and drinking vodka and slushie while waiting in line to get in (hello painful brain freeze!)
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| Number 2 wasn't a patch on the original.. |
Sigh, surely Elon Musk has built a time machine to relive all this? Who's keen on revisiting the 90's with me?
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