If You Were Born After the 90s, You Won't Recognize These Things

R.I.P Blockbuster, you're gone but never forgotten.

Lauren Porter Nov, 03, 2016

Every now and then, children birthed in the greatest era—the 90s (duh!)—are struck in their little nostalgic hearts as they take a stroll down memory lane.

We hit up our group chats to launch into another segment of the lifelong debate over Nickelodeon vs. Disney Channel and recall all the times our young, sweet souls were truly happiest.

But in the midst of all of the reminiscing, at some point we realize one thing: our kids will never ever know some of the greatest things to come out of the 90s.

Here are all the things we were blessed to have known even though our children never will.

Purple Ketchup

That one time Heinz tried to get a little experimental and had us all begging our mamas to buy us purple goop to squirt all over our french fries.

Sprite Remix

Coca Cola was bugging with this one! We all know nothing beats that classic lemon lime taste that comes in the green bottle.

Blockbuster

Before the days of “Netflix and Chill,” there was the honor and privilege to walk the aisles of the greatest video store in the world to pick out your favorite rental flicks for the weekend. If you still carry around your membership card in your wallet for old times sake, we salute you.

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Razor Scooter Injuries

There is no real accurate description of the near death feeling of hitting your achilles heel with a Razor scooter. The second that metal tapped your ankle, you were sure your foot was gonna fall off. Fortunately it didn’t; congratulations to all the true survivors out there.

VHS tapes and VCRs

I don’t know about you but I still have all my VHS tapes boxed up in my parent’s basement. When my children are old enough, I will bring out all the classics and they will stare at them like they’re accent artifacts. I’ll surely be insulted that they’ll never know about the volume disparity between the ads and the actual movie sound. I’ll definitely be peeved that they won’t know what a VCR is either but it’ll warm my heart that my VHS collection was still the best on the block.

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Floppy disks

The savior of school projects of elementary school, there is a graveyard in computer heaven special for the black and white disks that housed some of the greatest intellectual properties of all time.

AOL 60-day subscriptions

Getting that disk in the mail was like waking up to a presents on Christmas morning. I don’t know if anyone ever actually used them but knowing you had them was like having a free pass to freedom.

Dial Up

Sometimes if I close my eyes tight enough, I can still hear that ratchet sound of the internet “warming up” and praying my mother wouldn’t have to make a phone call–long distance or around the corner–so I could log on to the web.

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Friday Night TV on ABC
That 8 p.m. block on tv at the end of a long and tough week on the playground was paradise! Step by Step, anyone.

Limited Too

Middle school fashion statements were defined by embroidered jeans, glitter tops, two piece “silk” pajama sets and velour track suits. If your wardrobe wasn’t from the only store in the mall that inflatable chairs with cupholders and amazing clothes at the same time, were you even real? Even with it’s comeback in 2016, it’s still not the same.

Dunkaroos

Dinosaur cookies and confetti icing? Sign us up for this sugar rush anytime.

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Discman

This ain’t no iPod–this is true dedication to listening to music! Just know the sadness when listening on the school bus and going over a speed bump causing your CD to skip, jump and earn a permanent scratch was the realist feeling ever.

Furby

I’m glad my children will never know about this uber creepy toy that blinked, made weird noises and definitely haunted me in my dreams.

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Chiapets

I’m still waiting on the Scooby Doo chiapet that I asked Santa to bring me. Just saying.

Skip-It

This playground necessity is peak amusement because who wouldn’t want to jump around with all the friends with the threat of whacking them in the shins.

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Beanie Baby’s

No debate, Beanie Baby’s were the greatest collector’s item of all time. From the small kid’s meal collectables to the special edition items you swore to never destroy, selling these things better help us pay off these massive student loans.

MASH

Sitting in a desk square of four with your middle school squad and playing this game was really the only way to determine your future. Honestly, truly.

Pay Phones

When carrying nickels, dimes and quarters were a necessity because making a phone call in public was impossible without them.

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Hand operated pencil sharpers

The greatest arm work out you would ever get comes from trying to get the perfect point on your pencil before a test.

The best of Disney Channel original movies

They don’t make them like they used to. So long to the days of Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, Johnny Tsunami, Smart House, The Color of Friendship, Halloweentown, Wish Upon A Star, Jett Jackson: The Movie and so, so much more.

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Out of the Box

At some point, every child was disappointed when building a fort out of boxes in the middle of the living room didn’t transform into a super secret, super dope playhouse.

Gullah Gullah Island

We’d sign up to visit Gullah Gullah Island to kick it with the family pet tadpole any day of the week.

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Bug Juice

The late night Disney Channel program was our first taste of reality television. It gave expectations for sleep away camps that never seemed to manifest but you always secretly hoped someone would bring the drama around the campfire.

Mr. Rogers

R.I.P. to the wisest neighbor we all wanted.

Chat rooms

Not MySpace or Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat, or even Black Planet (remember that!), this was the way to collect the first of many internet friends–even though we weren’t supposed to talk to strangers.

Lisa Frank

Coloring in that adorable little unicorn, buying those pens with the pomp pomps on the end and putting those stickers every where you could was true bliss.