1995.
There is this dark, depressed, cynical corner of my spirit that wants to tell you that these are the last of the good years. That the post 9/11 world is really the dumps, and the world never really recovered. There was a darkness that covered the land after that event, and it hasn't got any better. It's just, maybe, our eyes have adjusted.
1995 isn't only pre-9/11, it's pre Internet Revolution. Or, at least, ground zero. Microsoft released Windows 95, which revolutionized personal computing with its user-friendly interface. Netscape Navigator became the leading web browser, popularizing the Internet for mainstream users. Online retail began to take off, eBay was founded that year, and the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) format was introduced, promising higher quality video and storage capabilities, eventually replacing VHS tapes.
It will still be many years away that we lose ourselves in our phones.
1995 is, really, at it's heart, the last of the "before" times.
Obviously, it was not a perfect world we lived in then, the Oklahoma City Bombing targeted the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds. That was the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, and was also just the most recent link in a chain that went back to Waco, and Ruby Ridge before that.
The Bosnian War, the first Gulf War, the Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack, hell, the OJ Trial were all part of the 1990s landscape. But, still.
At least we had the X-files, ER, Friends, Seinfeld and Twin Peaks.
How does that song go?
"Rose tint my world,
Keeps me safe from my trouble and pain."
Thanks for doing the Time Warp with me. Again.
