I'm a child of the 90s,
And you don't know what that means
But I've gotta make impression
Before I get into my teens
The music flowed out of the small radio/alarm clock Otera used most often, with the clicks and crinkles that would confuse her younger sister, the second one. Otera understood the song on a level her little sister never would be able to. Otera was a child of the 90s, but her younger sister wasn’t. The thudding of little elephant steps on the stairs up to Otera’s room warned Otera of her younger sister’s oh-so-stealthy approach, so she hit the stop button on the clock-radio, turning off the music. Tigre, Otera’s sister, came you with a small scowl because the computer wasn’t working, one that almost made Otera laugh, as the computer was: a) turned off, b) unplugged, and c) disconnected from the internet. “Otera, the computer won’t work! I can’t play!” Tigre complained. Otera frowned, what was the world coming to?
“You know, Tigre,” Otera said, knowing she was going to regret what she was about to say, “When I was your age, I didn’t need to go on the computer all the time. When I had friends over, I played with them, outside most of the time, not with a box. We’d us our imaginations, you do know what that means, right?” Otera felt far older than her 16 years as she spoke to her little sister.
Tigre seemed the most confused by Otera’s comment on playing “Outside” and the comment about “imagination”. “What?” Tigre asked snarkily, utterly confused but utterly rude.
“It means that I’m not going to deal with the comp, chica! You need to learn what it means to be a kid, you and the Little Dude both! You only know what that Box provides for you, not what you should experience! I’m not that much older than you, but I’m out of your world, and it’s a good thing, Tigre! I don’t want to be a part of the world that churns out impatient, rude people who are dependent upon a computer! My childhood was one that was spent outdoors on sunny days, and indoors only when it was rainy or dark! We would chase fireflies through the night, not pretend to be virtual penguins! Tigre, you have to live your life, not a virtual one!” Otera raved. Before Otera could finish her rant, Tigre darted out of the room.
Otera rolled her eyes at her sisters retreating back and switched the cassette tape back on so that the music would come back, perfect with all its imperfections. She thought back to what she had when she was Tigre’s age.... Otera had watched Wishbone, Clarissa Explains it All, Where in the World is Carmen San Diego, and once Are You Afraid of the Dark, but it had terrified her and she had not been able to watch it ever again. She remembered when the Spice Girls were popular and when she couldn’t get enough of Hanson of the Backstreet Boys. She smiled slightly. She was a child of the 90s, no matter how much time passed. She would always be a child of the 90s, and only other children of the 90s could understand that. The song ended and Otera hit the stop button again, shunning her CD player, she grabbed her iPod Shuffle and decided to go for a walk. Outside. After all, it was spring, the weather was warm, and she was a child of the 90s, someone who was equally comfortable in the out of doors as the virtual world, a generation that adopted quickly and were more techno-savvy than other generations before them, but without the perpetual impatience and virtual mindedness of the children of the new millennium. Otera allowed a smile to plant itself on her face and grow. She was a child of the 90s, and only she could decide what that meant. She knew she had made an impression, and she was still in her teens.














Comments
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*Micky 'n Ricky*
...And I thought I was tough...
FREE COMMISSIONS! ANYTHING YOU WANT, FOR ANYONE!
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"Forget science and politics and religion. Hope comes from one place, and that's the human heart when it shares with other hearts its dreams and its pain and its refusal to give up."
-Bedlam: A Year if the Life of a Mental Hospital
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"CHOCOLATE in heaven is hearing MY CHILDREN'S LAUGHTER" ~ Robin Metzger 1965- July 6, 2006
"If I ever see anyone half so endearing as you are, I will have to discount it as blasphemy" ~ My darling boyfriend
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"Forget science and politics and religion. Hope comes from one place, and that's the human heart when it shares with other hearts its dreams and its pain and its refusal to give up."
-Bedlam: A Year if the Life of a Mental Hospital
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Remy: "I can't help myself....I like good food, Okay!? ...And good food....Is hard for a rat to find.
Django: "It wouldn't be so hard to find, If you weren't so Picky!"
Remy: "I don't want to eat garbage Dad!!!"
I remember when it was getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
I LOVE OREGON TRAIL!!!!!!!! I used a plastic cartoon lunch box at school. Fights were settled with rock paper scissors or bubble gum bubble gum in a dish (heck, we still do that!)
Good old hide and seek...we played Hide and go seek until our legs grew numb (and we used to obey our parents). Once, I listened to the radio all day long just to record your FAVORITE song of ALL time, and my dad came in and sang along. I was so mad. I watched The Magic School Bus, Wishbone, and Reading Rainbow on PBS. I always wished I could do yo-yo tricks. I collected Where's Waldo books. Aladdin was pretty much my favorite movie (and I still love "Brand New World", but that's another story...). My mom never let me have Ring Pops (though I begged), but I did get Tang.
I remember when every thing was "da BOMB!"
I ate the new lunchables so that you could make pizza AND tacos.
I had both: a boom boxes and then a cd player.
I was so popular whenever I made those little paper fortune cookie things, and then predicted people's lives for them (but no, I didn't kiss Joe in 2 days). All my school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.
I have 130 Beanie Babies. I just couldn't ever get rid of them.
Carebears...don't get me started!
I had an original walkman! I know the Macarena by heart. "Talk to the hand" . . . enough said, and I always said, "Then why don't you marry it!" I went to McDonald's to play in the playplace. I remember playing on merry go rounds at the playground. All my friends loved Backstreet Boys (but I like country).
I always wanted light up sneakers. I remember when we rented VHS tapes, not DVDs, when gas was $0.95 a gallon & Caller ID was a new thing, when we recorded stuff on VCRs.
We called our friends, we didn't post messages on their MySpace or Facebook...we told them they were our friends, we didn't "friend" them...
I checked out so many drawing books and checking out that one book about the rainbow fish from the library was THE cool thing to do.
I had slap braclets!
I never knew I missed the 90's so much...
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If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.
-Juan Ramon Ramirez
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It's you and me against the world
We attack at dawn!
...on the playground is where I spend most of my days...
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Milk + Eggs + Blender = Woman
I am Tobin Bell in dA's Celebrities Crew!
*REPO-Army
~Bloody-Sanctuary
God knows I'm sixteen and have had that same conversation with kids. Priceless when they can't grasp that there was a time when we weren't all instantly connected.
(And don't forget Popular Mechanics for Kids! That show kicked ass: educational TV that wasn't patronizing)
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