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People Break Down The Things From The 90s That They Miss The Most

People Break Down The Things From The 90s That They Miss The Most
Javier Martínez/Unsplash

Oh, the 90's. So many of us, especially millennial's, have an affinity to the nostalgia of that decade. It's hard not to love the retro aesthetics, compact discs and Sony Discmans, the jazz blue and purple pattern that was on all of the cups, and dial-up internet.

Well... maybe not the dial-up part. But if that sound isn't burned into all of our memories!

Some of these things we just can't do anymore, because they simply do not exist (RIP Blockbuster). It's sad, but true. The most we can do is hold tight to those fond moments of our childhood.


Redditor tjapp93 wanted to take a trip down memory lane:

"What's something from the 90s you miss?"

Let's take a stroll through the past together.

Sitting in a Pizza Hut.

"Sit in Pizza Hut."

"I was on vacation in the mountains up state and they had one in town. I got to have pizza in an actual Pizza Hut for the first time since the late 90's early 2000's. We had one outside of town and then that closed and they made a to go one that ended up also closing. Now I can have one of the local places or Papa John's or Domino's."

"The target nearby does have the mini Pizza Hut pizzas and some of their appetizers. It's hardly the same as getting it from a Pizza Hut itself."

- twin-shadows

"One of my guilty pleasure is Pizza Hut pizza buffet. Haven't been in years and my girlfriend doesn't like it but that's okay I don't need to be there on the reg anyway. That Tony hawk demo disc though..."

- tjapp93

"Remember dessert pizza?!"

- hrowaway0981211

"Those stained glass chandeliers."

- iFFyCaRRoT

"And red plastic glasses"

- CrazyQuiltCat

Airports have changed dramatically since the 90s.

"Pre-911 airports."

- touchbar

"I was moving cross country and called a friend to bring me my toolset he borrowed so I could put it in my checked baggage. He never showed up and I thought well, that's that. Sitting on the plane, the stewardess walked up and said are you '____ ' I said yes, and she just handed me my 120 piece toolset complete with hammer, socket wrench, screwdrivers, carpet knife and explained the friend had arrived at the gate just after I boarded. Even back then I was like...'seriously?'"

- seq_0000000_00

This would never happen today.

"I remember I was flying home after my first year of college, where I had taken some art classes."

"When I finally got home I was looking in my backpack and forgot that I had left some art supplies in there including a couple of box cutters (the weapon used on 9/11). Security said nothing."

"Another time I was seeing one of my friends off at the airport as they were going to an out of state college. I arrived to the airport with my other friend and his little brother who had brought a toy rifle with him to the airport for some reason. Anyway, we were super late and rushing to the gate so we could say goodbye to my friend who was leaving. The little brother was too small so my buddy picked him up so we could sprint to the gate. In the process his brother hands me the toy rifle. So there we are the 3 of us running through the airport and I'm holding what looks like a rifle. This was before the security checkpoint and I realized this might not look good but I'm in a rush so I just chuck the rifle behind some chairs. I literally just threw it behind some airport seats."

"Nobody said anything, but I'm still surprised security wasn't called."

- Not_Helping

"The summer before 9/11 my father and I flew to Cincinnati for a national science competition thing I qualified for. While there we decided to drive into Indiana. One of the first things we noticed were firework stores (not stands, but stores)."

"My family ran a couple of firework stands back in Texas, where we are from, for like 30+ years until our town got too big to sell them."

"So, being firework people, we stopped and discovered that not only did they sale fireworks year round (not just 11 days in June/July and 13 days in December as is the season in Texas), they also sold original 'bottle rockets.'"

"These are the rockets on a stick that have a body about as big as a standard firecracker (not quite two inches) and are about 10 inches overall. They had been illegal to sale in Texas since 1981 and not a firework season had passed in my entire life where I wasn't asked if we had any, and then asked again and told they were 'cool' so I could trust them."

"These things were like the holy grail to 18 year old me. They sold them by the gross at about $6 per. My dad and I figured we could put 8 gross into my duffel bag, so that's what we bought. Even bank then we didn't know if they would make it back on the plane."

"We arrive at DFW airport and nervously wait in the baggage area. After a few moments, out comes my black duffel bag. I grab it, open it up, and the bottle rockets had made the flight."

"So, what I miss about the 90s is being able to put explosives in your checked luggage and transporting them home."

- dxbigc

Window Cleaners Share The Best Things They've Ever Seen | George Takei’s Oh Myyy

The electronics.

"Colorful translucent electronics."

- thewidowgorey

"Oh yea that purple N64 controller."

- tjapp93

"Game Boy Color, seeing all the circuit board through the plastic was way cool."

- CattyPatter

When viral video's weren't a thing.

"Being able to act goofy without having anyone record it and share with the world."

- LucyVialli

"Ugh agreed. I had to stop drinking with one of my friends because she'd ALWAYS record everyone doing anything even remotely fun or goofy and it'd be on snapchat or Facebook within seconds. Like, I just wanna get a little drunk and dance and have a good time with my friends, I don't want every person I hardly know seeing me let loose."

- nothoughtsnosleep

"l never forget watching a last day of school video from June 2001 and while there's a lot of differences especially in style and fashion, hands down the biggest difference was the relative novelty all the students and teachers gave to the video camera. like, only this one guy decided to bring in the camera, there were no phones or other recording devices at the time so it was so cute seeing someone walk up to him and then their eyes go wide and they say 'Ooo! a camera!' Being recorded was not the norm. And shoot dude I'm in my late twenties still but June 2001 feels like yesterday to me time just f*cking moves on ya."

- LetMeGobbleUpYourA**

"I remember being in high school around 2003/2004 when some of my peers were just starting to get cellphones. My friends and I all laughed at the 'Spoiled rich kids' with their cellphones, all of us claiming we'd never be like that. A year or two later, we all had cell phones."

- ImaginaryRabbit80

"How old does it make me when I remember kids getting their first pagers? They had them clipped to the inside of their jeans so you could only see the back of the clip exposed. Pagers were the sh*t."

- Knife4rk3

Photographs weren't so easy to send.

Now we aren't even talking the 90s, this is just in the last 20 years.

"This is the example I use. When my son was born in 2007, I had a digital camera. I had to take the camera home that night, upload pictures to my PC, and email them out to people. When my daughter was born in 2011, I did all of that in the delivery room on my phone."

- Jealous-Network-8852

"I was in 5th grade in 2005 and was part of a photography club that year."

"Had a cheap digital camera that was my prized possession. It was a pain in the a** to plug that into the laptop and upload my photos using a dedicated software that I had to install from a disk that came with the CD. And the memory card limited me to like, 100 photos."

"Nowadays my phone has a substantially higher resolution and memory, by orders of magnitude. And I can just upload them to the cloud or social media in a minute."

- AdvocateSaint

There was a specific kind of movie.

"Movies. A lot my favorite movies are mid-sized thrillers from the 90's. A lot of big actors, but not huge spectacles.

"That segment is dying out. You have huge blockbusters for international markets, some prestige period pieces, comedies and indies. And then there are TV shows."

"But the sort of 'Harrison Ford's wife is missing, again' films are severely lacking theses days."

- Pontus_Pilates

"I sometimes ask myself if movies from the 90s were so great because they were just a part of my childhood, or they're actually special by objective standards."

"As you alluded to, I really do think there was a style of film they put out more in the 90s. I can't exactly put my finger on what that style is, though."

- quidprojoseph

"I feel like it was just a simpler style of storytelling. For me, watching a 90s movie feels like hearing a really engaging story from a good friend. Nothing flashy, nothing in 4 parts. There's some good music on in the background and I'm just enjoying something humans have enjoyed for eons."

- MiniRipperton

"Arcades. Big, noisy arcades, full of actual videogames, whose graphics were 20 times better than what you could get at home."

- AlterEdward

"And the machines took coins, not this bullsh*t refillable card system that is waaaay more of a blatant rip-off."

- Tazittel

"Oooh the cards are the worst. You have to buy one card per person or everyone has to stay together to use the card, and each card has an activation fee!"

- minneapple79

"Instead of inserting x amount of coins into an arcade machine to play, arcade chains found it better if people had to buy cards with credits in them, so you can buy credits with cash that are loaded onto the card instead of turning paper money into coins. That way, you can carry your card and bring it to multiple locations. If I had to guess why this happened, It's probably because arcades shifted to redemption games and prizes that are damn near impossible to get."

- AranaesReddit

"Also, people are acutely aware of what a game costs when you have to plug in five tokens. You can tell how much play time you're getting by how fast your pockets get empty. On a card, you never really know what the game costs and how much you have left. You go full tilt until it is gone."

"The other thing is a lot of us will add a dollar to two just to spend the entire card or people walk out with 50 or 75 cents on a card and never come back. That's real money when a thousand people or more a year do it."

- Sean_Ornery

"Arcades died specifically because home console graphics caught up to them. The PS1 and Saturn got close enough that the differences started feeling minor and then with the Dreamcast and PS2 (and the rise of online gaming) it was all over. It's not as though Dave and Busters and Round One are unpopular, but you go for experiences that don't translate as well to home, which means the few modern arcade games are either steering wheel racers, light gun games, or peripheral-based rhythm games."

- milespudgehalter

The 90s internet.

"Sometimes I miss the internet from the 90s. It was less stressful if that makes sense."

- Order_a_pizza

"It was far less commercial, people ran the internet, not companies."

- lambofgun

"I'm so glad that the dumba** sh*t I said as a teenager is hidden away on some defunct video game forums under a screen name that isn't even close to my real name. I feel for today's kids, who know that if they ever do anything noteworthy with their lives, someone will dig through their old tweets and be like 'Yeah but look at the sh*t this guy said as a freshman in high school.'"

- ElToberino

Trying to hang with friends.

"Walking 20 minutes to a mates house knocking his door then finding out he's not in. It was like rolling the dice."

"Various issues to 'just use the landline' - a lot of people didn't answer their phones anyway, some people left them off the hook sometime as they didn't want to be bothered. Some friends wouldn't hear the phone if they were in their room listening to music/playing SNES/Megadrive, some people had sisters who were always on the phone so calling just got engaged tone. That's just the issues I can think of right now."

- BigBlueMountainStar

"If I really wanted to hang out with a particular friend and they weren't home, that meant it was time to hop on the bike and ride by the next 4-5 most likely places he would be."

- InferiousX

"We did this all the time. Huge games of tag, capture the flag, or hide and seek at dusk/night time. Was some fun times back in the 90's."

- ilikeme1

"Or when you could hear kids playing and you'd just bolt out the door hoping it was so-and-so coming your way. No better feeling when your two best buds were coming down the road on their bikes."

- Taggy2087

Though it is so sad to see these things go, we can still carry those fond memories with us. Who knows, with the way trends work, maybe these once popular things will come back around again.

"Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here."

Small Upgrades That Actually Made A Huge Difference In People's Homes

Reddit user Super_dupa2 asked: 'What small upgrade made a huge difference at your house?'

Smartphone showing a lighting switch app
Moritz Kindler/Unsplash

Making yourself feel at home takes work but not as much as you think.

Homeowners, for example, are apprehensive about renovations because of how much costs.

Even tenants renting a home can feel like they're stuck in a situation where they don't feel comfortable because of minor inconveniences they think requires major solutions to fix.

Cut to this Reddit thread, where the ideas for affordable home improvement options were shared that may make you wonder, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Curious to hear some tips from strangers online, Redditor Super_dupa2 asked:

"What small upgrade made a huge difference at your house?"

We tend to overcomplicate things when solutions can be simplified.

Taking Charge

"Methodically buying phone chargers with long enough cables to not have to ever move one again."

– ihadtowalkhere

"I am a pretty mellow dad (benign neglect parenting style for 5 kids) but I have two rules. Nobody messes with my bedside charger and nobody steals my two pillows."

"So, as such, I make many, long chargers available for everybody. It costs me a fortune:)"

– nicktam2010

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

"Blackout curtains for sleeping. Such a game changer."

– blehbleh1122

"And they keeps my bedroom cooler."

– BunjaminFrnklin

"Insulated blackout curtains make a 10f difference in my living room on hot days."

– TryUsingScience

A Cool Idea

"Attic heat exhaust fan. Our attic used to get up to 140F on the hottest days, and on those days our ceilings were hot to the touch. The whole house was consequently uncomfortable. Now the attic fan is thermostatically controlled to 90 degrees, and the whole house is cooler."

– jermleeds

"I added a passive whirly bird that does the same thing. Heat rises and escapes before it can accumulate to those extreme levels. It also happens to be clear acrylic so now there's always light up there too which helps keep away any vermin.

– cantwejustplaynice

No major bathroom renovations are required to make tenants happy.

No More Slamming

"Soft close cabinets and toilet seats."

– AreWeCowabunga

"We have a soft close toilet seat at our home and every time I'm at a hotel, I completely forget that they aren't usually soft close and the slam startles me 😂"

– PinkHamster08

Nozzle Upgrades Can Do The Trick

"A better shower. If you can't redo the whole bathroom, just replace the head. This also works if you rent, just keep the old one in a box, so you can bring the nice one to your next house."

– maartenvanheek

"I'm a renter and I finally installed a better shower head this year, after just using the default head in all my apartments for almost 20 years. 10/10, highly recommend."

– Am_I_a_Guinea_Pig

Perfect Welcoming Gesture

"My wife and I own a smallish apartment complex . One of the things we do every time a new tenant arrives is replace the toilet seat. I learned that trick from my parents who had about a dozen single-family rentals. It's amazing the goodwill you receive from a tenant simplify giving them a new toilet seat. We actually put the box behind the toilet so they know it's new."

– YouInternational2152

It's electrifying!

Think Smart

"Smart outlets for Christmas lights, both inside and outside. I have them scheduled to turn on at sunset and turn off at midnight."

– Revolutionary-Try746

"Smart outlets are one of my favorite purchases. During Halloween and Christmas, we’re using multiple outlets for inflatables, house lights, and tree lights. The smart outlets allow you to have everything synced so they all turn in at the same time."

– cppadam

Things Are Looking Bright

"Replaced dated lighting fixtures - fixtures are now properly grounded, the interior looks more updated, and there is more/better light."

– SnooCauliflowers9981

Energy Conservation Option

"Motion activated light switch for the laundry room. Never have to worry about turning off the light when leaving with an arm full of clothing."

– AmazingAsian

Creating an environment can make a huge difference.

Source Lighting For The Win

"Lighting can absolutely make a huge difference in the way you feel in your room. Get some shoulder height (when you are sitting) lamps for your living room. You will notice a shift in how much more relaxed you feel when you use those instead of the overheads."

– ShoesAreTheWorst

Home Art Gallery

"Spending a day mounting my artwork. It felt so much more like my home after that."

– GinGimlet

"Every time I've moved, I put that off for way too long, then finally break down and do it and the house feels so much better to be in."

– Triolion

One major upgrade was our VE hybrid tech water boiler and warmer we got from Japan.

The Zojirushi kitchen appliance uses VE, or vacuum electric, technology for very minimal electricity to maintain the water temperature at a constant 195° so we always have hot water at the touch of a button.

There's no more time wasted boiling hot water over the stove every time we want tea or the occasional instant cup noodles.

Game changer.

man with girl on his shoulders

Brittani Burns on Unsplash

"Daddy's Girl, Daddy's Girl, I'm the center of Daddy's world..." ~ "Daddy's Girl" by Red Sovine

A lot has been written about the bond between fathers and daughters.

But there's always room for improvement, right?

And who better to offer constructive criticism than daughters?

Keep reading...Show less
woman making the shushing gesture

Bjorn Pierre on Unsplash

Full disclosure at all times with your significant other, right?

Yeah, good luck with that.

Let's get real—there are things we don't tell our partners for a lot of reasons.

Sometimes you just don't feel like having to explain something that doesn't really affect them.

Sometimes you're protecting them from something that will have a devastating effect on them.

These are probably going to be more that second one...

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We all have that moment where someone we know says something so completely absurd, the only response we think of is 'WTF is wrong with you?'

Sometimes, it's something woefully inaccurate that you can't wrap your head around the fact that someone believes that.

Othertimes, it's something completely offensive and you regret your association with that person.

My college roommate was a girl I knew from my high school. I didn't know her too well, but we had some big things in common, so I figured it'd be fun to live with her.

This girl was half-Korean and talked a lot about racist people. At first, I let her rant, figuring maybe she or someone in her family faced some racism. I faced some myself, and I agreed with most of the things she said about racists. Eventually, however, I realized she was equating the word 'racist' with the word 'white.'

I spoke to her once, telling her she can't use 'racist' and 'white' interchangeably. She agreed to stop doing that, but within a few days, she started doing it again. She was a very bright girl, so I was a little concerned about this, especially since her own dad was white and was possibly the nicest man in the world. Not to mention, this made her and her siblings half-white too. Did that mean they were all half-racist?

I stuck by her for a while, but when she started saying things about what she wanted to do to racist people (once again using the word 'white' instead of 'racist'), I realized I couldn't be around her anymore. She couldn't talk about anything else after a while, and every time she spoke, I wanted to say, 'WTF is wrong with you?'

We did not room together the next year.

Redditors have stories similar to mine (and some even crazier), and they are eager to share.

It all started when a Redditorasked:

"What did the person do/say that made you go "what the f**k is wrong with you?"

How To End A Friendship

"In college I used to kill time between classes hanging out with a guy who was from the same redneck county as myself. We didn’t really have much else in common, but he was nice enough and seemed eager to socialize so I figured why not. I wasn’t overly social myself and didn’t know a whole lot of people."

"One day we decided to go somewhere off-campus, and he drove us. While driving, on an interstate mind you, he proceeds to show me his handgun that he kept in his truck - not in a menacing way, but in a “Ain’t that cool?” way."

"I was not immediately frightened, but I respect firearms enough to recognize we are going like 60-70mph on an interstate in daylight, and nothing good can happen in this scenario. I calmly asked him to put it away because I was not comfortable in this situation at all. He then tells me “Oh it’s not loaded” and presses the gun to his head before pulling the trigger."

"Thank f**k he was right, but still it was a wild and frightening display of reckless disregard for his own life and mine for that matter in the event that he’d accidentally killed himself while driving us. I didn’t hang out with him much after that, certainly didn’t get in a car with him."

– omjf23

"“It’s not loaded” famous last words of many an idiot."

– GloInTheDarkUnicorn

The Worst Kind Of People

"When my dad was in the nursing home, they weren't running certain expenses, like ambulance rides, through his insurance. When I took over his financials, he was tens of thousands in medical debt that shouldn't have ever been charged to him in the first place. He was in numerous collections, and his credit score was tanked."

"When I complained to the nursing home director, he said, "Well, it's not like he's going to be buying a house or a car!" Then he laughed."

"My dad was paralyzed from the waist down and needed lifelong care, so he was never going to leave the nursing home. Even though he was technically correct, I gave him the "WTF is wrong with you look." Then I complained to HIS boss and he got canned a couple a weeks later. My dad's insurance was fixed pretty quick, too."

– MNWNM

"“Sorry, what was funny about that? Could you please explain.”"

– v3n0mat3

...Seriously?

"MIL told my wife she should divorce me bc I googled whether a lasagna should be covered with foil while cooking."

– Struggle-Silent

"This is my first laugh of the thread lmao wtf."

– koreantrvp

"It actually ruined this entire trip. It was at my BIL’s wedding, which was only close family (siblings + parents) and they had the caterer make a lasagna for an evening dinner."

"Father of the bride was gonna pop it in the oven and asked if it should be covered. I googled lasagna cooking instructions and said yes it should be covered and cooked at this temp. MIL said absolutely not!"

"Me and the father of the bride kinda gave each other a look and he covered it. MIL was furious and texted my wife that I was an a hole and she should divorce me before we had kids."

– Struggle-Silent

Hostile Work Environment

"Boss at old job told the team we needed to ‘get used to a healthy level of conflict, fear and anxiety in the workplace.’ I dipped so fast after that."

– Prestigious-Energy69

"Similarly, a boss told me that I owed him my loyalty because he was paying me."

– Kylearean

How To End A Relationship

"A girl I was with while we were still together just looked at me while I was driving to her house and said.” You know I would get over you faster than you’d get over me” I was like …… Tf did you just say?"

– omega91301

"Huh. And just like that I'm over you."

– Pineapple_Spenstar

"Honestly, that would absolutely do it for me. When I was younger, I would be stupid and hurt and argue. I'm past 50 and I got no time for that nonsense."

– Terpsichorean_Wombat

There Are Other Ways To Stave Off Boredom

"I was DD for some buddies who wanted to go to a particular dance club in Baltimore. They're all hammered, it's too loud and we've been there for several hours. Casually an older woman next to me chats me up and notices my eyes are nearly crossing from boredom. I explained what I was doing there and casually (stupidly) mentioned I'm a bit bored. This psycho BITES ME on the chest! Afterward says "Well ya ain't bored now, are ya??""

– Mike7676

"Well, were you bored after that?"

– DontWannaSayMyName

"I must say, I was not!"

– Mike7676

That Goes Both Ways!

"I'm a man who works with kids, and when I started this job, I was talking to one of my old coworkers about how every once in a while I'll get weird looks for being a man working with kids and my coworker said I deserved it because some men can't be trusted with kids. I was shocked and she went on to say that I did it to myself and deserve to be questioned about it. I immediately stopped talking to her."

– Dolhedew

"What? What in the actual f**k? Doesn’t she know there are women who can’t be trusted with kids?"

– Anonymoosehead123

That Escalated Quickly

"The lady that accused my kids of cutting the line. (They hadn't, I was watching). When I went to ask her what was wrong, she told me to go back to my own country with that sh*t. (I was born in Massachusetts.)"

"The line was to pet dogs at a Renaissance Fair."

– pasafa

Everything All At Once

"While alone with a coworker, he told me that "women in the work place will lead to the decay of the fabric of society" to me. A woman. He also asked me out, got an attitude when I didn't say yes and continues to walk around with huge incel energy. He always complains that he has no one to go home to yet refuses to look at himself as a possible reason."

– Nopeferatu31

"Sounds like they should learn something from the phrase, "if you meet one a**hole, they're the a**hole. If everyone you meet is an a**hole, you're the a**hole.""

– tmpope123

Ouch!

"I told a coworker my wife had died."

"Her response: "You're one of those bald middle aged guys with a dead wife.""

"Me: "Yeah.""

– WalrusCello

"I want to think this was a wholesome thought that came out wrong. An awkward attempt at dark humor."

– ThisUsernameIsTook

*Cringing*

"Had an otherwise normal co-worker who was completely convinced windmills will cause the earth to stop spinning."

– Shadowmant

"WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY! GOOD NIGHT!"

– Torvaun

These are all crazy 'WTF is wrong with you' stories, but that last one blew my mind in 'how is it possible people think that could be true' sort of way!