June 15, 2022 • 46 mins
Commanders Gem and Em time-travel to the year 2000, where ring pops, Nokia phones, and slow jams fall from the sky. We’re talking the 90’s baby sweet spot, spilling the beans on the famed Nickelodeon slime, and the days of illegal music downloads. Join us for the ultimate throwback.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Yeah, yeah, Well, hello there, earthenings. Welcome back to the
(00:34):
magical space and time that we call in our own world. Welcome. Lately,
I don't know what it is. I don't know if
it's that I am enjoying the last few years of
my twenties and feeling particularly nostalgic. But I've been thinking
a lot about the environment that I grew up in
(00:54):
and what things were like back then, and how lucky
I feel to have been a nineties baby. And m
and I were talking and we thought, why not talk
about it, because we've been to the year two thousand
and if you know what that references, then you're in
the right place. And if not, then buckling because you're
gonna learn something today. Not only babe, is nostalgia, you know,
(01:16):
a part of our day to day lives as we
get older as human beings. But because of the culture
of the Internet and everything right now, it's so prevalent
on social media and on TV. You know, we're bringing back,
you know, toys and songs and trends that were from
back then, because there's nothing wrong with deep diving into
the things that brought you joy in a simpler time
(01:37):
when you had no responsibilities or taxes. No, But you know,
I think it goes a little bit beyond that. All
generations go through a period of time where they're transitioning
into adulthood, and you know, we'll always have that in common.
But I think that nineties babies in particular had a
different transition than the other generations because we were the
childhood that saw the rise of the internet it and
(02:01):
that changed the world entirely. What we lived through was
the split of two worlds. We were the kids who
rode a bike in our neighborhood still but also played
video games and downloaded music from lime wire. You know,
we were the no music from lime wire. That was
(02:23):
the end of the music industry, and that's a whole
other episode. We were also the generation who had to
speak to our friends parents when we would call the
house phone something yeah, you know, gen Z doesn't know
what that is. You would have to talk to somebody
else's mom and be like, yeah, school is great, my
mom was great, my sisters are great, and have this
entire conversation with this adult. But we were also the
(02:46):
generation who lived through the rise of cell phones and
that side of things. So I think it's different I
think nineties babies have it different. WHOA, that is a
grand place to start. Gemini and Geminu, you said, unting
that it really struck a chord. You're like, oh, yeah,
video games were a part of our life. I think
that it was an activity of our life. But what
(03:07):
has changed so much that has been so difficult is
that most of our life is now overrun by technology.
I saw a video on Instagram from someone that I
follow who was raised, you know, in the late nineties
and two thousands, and it was like a joke, but
it's scary and true because she's like, how we used
to hang out, you know, in the two thousands or
(03:29):
in the nineties, and it was you call someone on
your house phone, like you said, you make a plan,
or you knock on their front door, or you knock
on their front Just fathom that for a second, Like
I think of people that you and I have are
related to, Like, you know, my sister's a gen Z
or agen Z or do I sound old saying that
I feel old? My sister my sisters from the gen
(03:49):
Z generation, and she I don't think she's ever knocked
on somebody's front door herself. Still to this day to
be like hey can Sally can play? Yeah, things are
super different. It was like, oh, you play video games,
you listen to music on your walkman, and like share
one earphone, you know what I mean, like you go
outside and well that was even later. But like I,
(04:12):
for example, I didn't have a phone until I was
like sixteen or seventeen. I had The first thing I
had was a firefly, which those of you who don't
know what it was out there is like this phone
esque thing that I guess I had like five or something.
It was like five pre program numbers that your parents
would input on the phone, and it was like the
only people you could call. And that's it, you know.
(04:34):
I remember minutes. Yeah, kids these days don't know what
minutes are. They don't know what call you back after nine.
I mean I'm out of data. Oh my gosh, I know,
I know. I mean data at all on your phone
was like a novel concept. You were lucky if your
phone had a game on it. I mean remember Snake.
Oh remember? Oh my god? Square one Nokias are kid?
(04:58):
You not? There are two things to serve that could
survive the apocalypse, right. One of them is roaches. One
of them are Nokia phones. Those things. People would beat them,
I swear beam them and they were fine, perfectly fine,
completely fine. But you know the phone I miss How
did you know? Because what we're talking about today, and
that was an icon of that movement. Remember the Juicy
(05:20):
Could Tour limited edition side kid. It started being cool like, oh,
she has a sidekick, or the charms that you would like, dude,
or personalized the color of the little rollerball, dude. Oh
another one. The razor. Oh and the pebble, the razor
and the pebble, the phone. You mean the motor roller,
the motor razor. Yeah, it was the round one. No, no, no,
(05:42):
no, no no, it's razors all day over here. Razors. My
mom went through a razor phase. I just want to
publicly apologize to any of you who are growing up
now and have never had the joyous experience of slapping
your phone hang up on somebody. It was. It was
(06:03):
so it was so rewarding, and we're really young, you know,
like that was still so little ago. But once that
ship took off, it was zero to you want to
feel really old? No, So nineties babies have lived through
the nineties, the thousands, the two thousand tens and now
(06:25):
the two thousand twenties, we've seen four decades. That's pretty awesome.
You know what will make you feel old? What if
you ask someone a little younger? You know how you
have like signs for stuff, Like if you can't talk
and you're like, I'm on the phone, what would you do?
You would usually put your pinky finger and your index
finger out and some in your and your pinky whatever,
(06:46):
and you would put it to your ear, like if
it's a classic phone off the receiver. Do you know
what kids do now, Gemeny know what? They put their
hand flat like a palm and put it up to
their ears. What the iPhone? Just ah my god, oh
my god, oh my god. I phone. Okay, So another
(07:07):
thing we grew up when cannon cameras had made kind
of and Sony had made those like small square cameras,
and like, I swear to god, you were cool if
you had one. Now that they were tiny, they were
like the size of the deck of cars are a
little larger that they were like square and like and
they were they looked so chea And remember what it
(07:30):
was to have a camera. Now you just you just
have your well, your phone is it's so powerful these days.
The iPhone kind of took like all the technology from
that time and like condensed it into one place. You
have games, you have an amazing camera, you have the Internet,
and again, I mean, that's pretty remarkable, but I think
there are I mean, I don't know. I really feel
(07:53):
like there's a downside to it, because when I think
of how I grew up and I see how my
nephew and my cousins growing up, it scares me. It
makes me sad because I think so too. I think
that the biggest thing that we've sacrificed, and it's It's
interesting because the point of the Internet was to connect
people across the world, and it does serve that purpose.
(08:18):
But what you pay for that kind of connection is
human connection. I see kids now that don't know how
to carry a conversation, are not capable of sitting down
at dinner with their parents without having some kind of
technological device. They don't know how to order their own food.
And this is not to shoot on the next generation.
It is not their fault. It's not there at ault.
(08:41):
But they're they're great texters there. But you know that
I've seen two year olds open YouTube. Do you know
how scary that they are actually hold on, this is real.
There's scientific evidence to back this up. They are actually
lacking a motor functions because kids aren't crawling anymore to
(09:04):
their iPads. Yeah, I mean, or just you know, well, yeah,
when people say screen time, screen time, screen time, Like
even people in my family would be like, you don't
have a kid, you don't know what it's like. I'm like, no,
I was a kid, and I know what it was.
I remember, and I remember what it was like not
having access to that, and you know what I had
to do as a result, figure it out, play an instrument,
draw outside. Okay, cartoons. Cartoons were a big part of
(09:27):
our childhood because we still had like TV, you know,
like those big back TVs or speaking of Apple and Mac,
like those macs with the clear backs. Always wanted those,
but I didn't have one. Oh my god, so sick.
My family will pull that. I'm sure a lot of
people didn't. Luckily, Thank God, you know, I was blessed
and was able to have one. But you know, it
was just that time and there was barely anything you
(09:49):
could do on the computer, but it was awesome. You're
not going to sit at the computer for like twenty
plus hours. That's the thing about now that you get
sucked in you're on YouTube for you know. But see,
that's the thing. I was that person also growing up,
Like I was the person who was on the street
briding bike around my neighborhood having lemonade stands. But I
was also the person downloading musical ely for eight hours
(10:10):
a day. No, girl and I are going to fight tonight. Um,
I was eleven. You're gonna have to forgive me, all right. Yeah,
that's another thing. Hello, you don't understand what you're doing
on the space. You don't understand my space r P
to the top eight. I wish I could top eight.
I never had in my space. There you go. That's
how all I am. I'd never even like, no, but
(10:31):
I had my Space and all my friends had in
my space. Right. But okay, So to put it to
you this way, now, if you don't have an Instagram,
people will be like, oh, you're not online, or you
don't have a TikTok. I think for the next generation,
it's TikTok's going to do with it whatever. Okay, TikTok. See,
there you go. I don't know. But oh, you don't
have a TikTok what Back in the day, it wasn't
like that, like, oh you have a my Space. Cool
(10:52):
you don't, That's fine, I'll talk to you tomorrow on
the phone or in person. I was an impressive htm
out in quarter. Oh you were coding your mind. I
had personalized profiles that I would and I would change
something like all the time music playing when you arrive work,
like like you know, updating my status is daily. It
was an experience there you go well, luckily or unluckily,
(11:14):
I guess, depending on how you look at it. And
never I never dipped into MySpace. But anyway, my whole
point of this rent is that I think there's a value.
Like I was saying, I would go to watch cartoons,
and I remember this really stuck out to me. There
was a day every year, maybe like a couple of
times a year, would happen on Nickelodeon that was my
(11:36):
my favorite. And you would turn on the TV to
watch cartoons and it would literally be like kids in
slow motion, just like doing cartwheels and big on the screen.
It would say International Worldwide Day of Play, Go outside,
no cartoons and and that would just be like all right,
and like yeah, it sucked on one of my cartoons,
but also all right, we're gonna go outside now now
(11:57):
with you know how quickly people will just put their
kid in front of a screen because I get it,
it's entertaining, you know, there there are things that are
helpful for educational purposes or whatnot, but no, we need
to be able to have the skills to do multiple things.
And you know, dip in technology, yes, because it's amazing
(12:20):
and we continue to evolve it just like everything. However,
realized that the more primitive things that we stray from,
like you said, that's gonna hurt us and devolve us
as a species because we are not meant to be
connected in that way. We're meant to be skin to skin,
voice to voice, traveling, you know, not sedentary robotic creatures.
(12:42):
And then on text messages, I worry too because, like
think about dating, how easy is it to say something
behind the phone and click send and hide under your
cover instead of having to look you in the eye.
I've noticed so many people now they don't look you
in the eye, can't if they don't have that social skill.
That's what that is what are turning in is the
social skills. We don't have them online. It's like, it's
(13:06):
really funny. It's like that have you ever caught yourself
or caught somebody that's sending a text message, They're like
l m al exactly. They're sending the message and their
face could not be more dead, just more dead and
an over expression of emotion. But this is what I feel.
I feel like these this next generation is really proficient
(13:27):
a communicating online. But when you're I've met people that
I'm like, when I saw you online, you were this dynamic,
like expressive person, and then I met you in front
of me and you're like, where'd you go? And it's
not that I don't think that they really are that person,
it's just that they don't know how to be that
person in front of others, because really the internet experience
(13:52):
is an isolated one. You're just scrolling on TikTok or
Instagram or filming yourself, usually alone or sitting in a
group of people and everyone is on their phone. Oh no,
but that's yeah, that's just like a whole other thing,
you know, it's painful. We went to the Texas airport
and there was a dining hall that must have been
like two hundred people seating of these beautiful big tables,
(14:12):
and in between the tables were two sets of iPads
not only covering the other person's face, but right in
between them. So you didn't even have an option of
having a conversation if you wanted to. I know, I
don't understand that, but you can't talk without playing a game.
And you know what I have to, you know, call
a spade a spade here, because I also noticed that
(14:33):
it's what we give ourselves in our life. Like in
that time when we were growing up, you know, we
had no choice but to be stimulated by so many
other things, but we didn't. We still had the older things,
you know, like you're talking to the person who put
probably over four hours on animal crossing during the pandemic.
Shout out to animal crossing. But I'm not verify that
I'm not ashamed of that. I mean, I am a
(14:54):
little ashamed of it, but not completely ashamed of it.
But I also can carry a converse san you know,
like I didn't have to lose the social skills that
the generations before us developed to have access or to
enjoy what the internet has to offer, for sure, but
you and I would both be lying if we wouldn't
(15:15):
say that in certain moments we are slaves to our phone.
Oh we are so back to our beautiful nineties and
two thousand's. I wish I could go back now. And
(15:37):
I'm so sorry to all of you alive right now.
I think those were the best decades to Okay, the fashion, well, okay,
the fashion first of all, thank god it's coming back. Oh,
I know, Iconic, the little Clips, the Juico who are
of lower tracks suits, which, by the way, I heard
they're remaking them. But I don't think the c is
the same, like I think the O g s were
(15:59):
just different. No, that's not your that's not your vibe.
You know what else? I think about a lot because now, yeah,
they're like toys and whatever, but there there's so much
on the like iPhone part, we had like viral toys.
Do you remember that, like the Furbye Furbies, Bay Blades,
magic Beans Uh no, no, no, not magic beans. Yes,
(16:22):
the magic Beans. There might be God Mighty, I had
the red case. I'm pretty sure it's still I'm gonna
go look because I'm pretty sure it's still in my closet.
In my parents house, I had like the Collector's edition
Mighty Beans, Thanks, and then later Silly Bands. But Silly
Bans was already kind of like a little bit after
(16:42):
us um tomagotchi oh tomatch. So again I keep seeing
these things pop up. Now they're like kitchy. It's because
we've become adults and now we're trying to sell it
to other people. Well we're smart to do that. Oh
my god, Toma Gotchi's. I would like again, think about
it a pixelated little like animal and you feed it. Okay,
(17:04):
but hold on. So speaking of toys, toys are rush.
These poor kids don't know what it's like to enter
into a hole, massive store of toys and all they
have is the target toys giraffe and the germs. The
germs are free him and the all the toys you
(17:24):
could sample. I just toys or russe was like heaven.
And then you would you would have to like start
to negotiate. That's when you learned to be a lawyer.
Like all right, so I'm not going to get this,
but what if I get this? I know, I know
you can get one thing, and I'm like, how can
you make me chew these stores that are gone. This
is probably literally like thirty percent of my childhood. It's
a Friday night, my friends are allowed to sleep over,
(17:48):
and our big outing of the evening is to go
to Blockbuster Video on Alton Roads. To go be there
and not only get snacks and candies, but to serve
for the movies. We wanted to get your Blockbuster. I
think there's one living Blockbuster, and it's literally like a joke.
It's like a museum that like you go in for fun.
(18:10):
Blockbuster was a big part of my huge part of
my childhood renting a movie. They had that that it
was like you can get two candies and Anesota, two
movies and a popcorn or something like that. And my
mom would be like, okay, Jim, you choose one movie
and I'll choose one movie. The smell of candy. I
even had a card and then Blockbuster. Funnily enough, like
(18:31):
what the early beginnings of Netflix. I remember this too.
I was already older, but it was the you would
rent the c D slips and you would have to
give them back. Can I tell you something that was
the end of Blockbuster at the beginning of Netflix, the
beginning of the end. I remember all this ship. Okay,
let's take it back to the time when you see
(18:52):
the preview for a movie on the goddamn television. Oh
my gosh, you're going to watch something. Okay, you see
the preview for the movie there not only that, then
you got to either drag your ass to the theater
in the time that it's out, or wait until it's
on DVD, and then you go and buy the DVD
and you're gonna put in whatever DVD player you want,
(19:13):
just like I had my CD player in my car.
I still have a CD player. Hello, you, I know
that's your car now in the car? What about VHSH
Do you know that this generation has never had to
rewind and wait to watch I feel the pain of
ruining a v the tape come and then you try
(19:36):
to like your fer like I love this sea that
I've watched a thousand tells. Hello, you know how many
CDs I bought more than once? Like because I spun
them out they broke. I'm gonna okay, this is this
is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do this. I'm
going to post a video because I still have an
extensive VHS collection, which you guys can tell me when
(19:58):
you not only is it I conic, most of it
is like classic Disney, and they've remade all of those
and with like the tattered because you know, they had
like the paper VHS covers and then they had the
plastic ones. You know. Yeah, something about that tactile experience.
Even like the video Now, which was I guess like
(20:19):
it was the oh my gosh video Now. It was
just screen literally the size of Like that was the
time when Hilary Duff owned the world. That was when
she was like everyone was just dude, Lindsay Lohan, Oh
my god, Paris Hilton. Kim Kardashian was like just starting,
oh my gosh. Wow. I feel bad for the people
(20:42):
who didn't get to see Lindsay Lohan Paris Hilton situation. Well,
they can always look back. It's not the same. Speaking
of VHS, we had the best TV shows, dude, Rugrats, Okay,
rug Rats, and then they just one up, doesn't We're
(21:03):
we're all grown up. I was like, oh my god,
they're so there's some rocket power. Rocket We've talked about
this before. Rocket power is like three percent of why
I'm gay. That's really funny. That's hold, hey, Arnold. We
we've talked about this before. We've talked about how you
(21:25):
would really grow up watching the Disney Channel, which I
think is super weird. It wasn't weird enough. It's it's
not that it wasn't it was. I watched all of it.
See I saw Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel. But that's
how you're telling me you missed out on. That's so raven.
You missed out one, you missed out up even Steven.
Okay again again, you got to understand and you know
me by now. Okay again. I clearly, as a kid,
(21:50):
knew that I was going to be deranged and a queer.
Though you are lying to me, listen to me. You
missed to listen to me. No, I watched proforms. You
would be lying if you didn't tell me right now
that if you watch old school Cartoon Network, old school Nickelodeon,
(22:12):
they were on some good shrooms. They were on some
good as weed. They had some great sit over there.
Because that ship is trippy, dude. I had a living
fear of courage. The coward, Oh my god, was terrified
of that. Edde and Eddie Yo so good, red and
(22:33):
stimpy Stimpy Dexter's lap, d Texter, get out of my lap,
Power Girl Jo like freaking brain. I'm just I don't know, man,
that it was. They don't do that. Even I watched
SpongeBob Now, Hello SpongeBob, Tom, SpongeBob defined our generation. Yes,
(22:59):
spell lies Jay Balvan is doing stuff for SpongeBob. But
you watch it now and you're like, something's off. They're
not doing shrooms anymore. They had some let me tell you,
you've had some good one. And now you look back
and you're like, hmmm. That was clearly for adults. Yes,
I actually watched watched an amazing documentary on Nickelodeon the
(23:21):
other day and like that time about like Nickelodeon, it's
called the Orange Years something like that, and it's about
how in that time, also as an entertainer or as
a toymaker, or as whatever it is that you were doing,
you always had your own space to compete. So if
you were in TV, you're in the TV world now,
(23:41):
which is what's changed a lot to the market has
conglomerated into one place, so so many different people who
are making amazing art have just gotten kind of like
snuffed out by viral trends or what's in or whatever.
But anyway, so yeah, Nickelodeon, remember the slime Factory, slime Time,
slime Time, I got slimed something it closed. There used
(24:03):
to be at with showing up there and getting slime.
I never got slimes. I'll slime you, baby. I know
the secret. By the way, what do you mean? What
do you mean the secret? So wait a minute, what secret? Okay,
so all the slime used the Nickelodeon, I got the
inside scoop. They're probably gonna assume me. Wait, this is
(24:27):
so juicy. How well, we did a like a tour
of the slime thing or whatever, and I asked all
these people that are getting slimed, like gets in their
mouth and gets in their eyes, like, what is it?
It's apple sauce, dog, It's green apple sauce, really really
(24:51):
really pure, and you can literally eat the slime. It's
apple sauce. That's what it is. Yep. Wow, did that
ruin your tr or not? But do you remember man Man,
Man Man, it's my name of Andy Millnocket. No, that
was a whole other Okay, what about mad TV TV
(25:15):
shirt that is some of the greatest years can I
have your number. I have your number? Can I hello
Lorraine to get the stirrups Stewart Stewart bond QUICKI I
still know the rap? Are we gonna get some of it?
(25:35):
Or I'm the is a queen? So listen to me.
Say he wants a number three supersides and you rang
he could come at the house with no inco Brason
umbuddy got two strikes, so it'll get it wrong. He
knows I'm really cute and was nothing you could say.
So if you get with me, we could do it
your way. Hey, it's security girl, I will cut you
(25:58):
go drop baby. Oh. I missed those days so much
and like the Amanda Show and that stuff. It was
like probably kids shouldn't have been watching it, but we
were definitely watching it and it was like our little
it was it was our SNI was just so much more.
When we were at school, there was a rumor and
I never found out the truth as an adult, I
still don't know the person who did can I have
(26:19):
your number? Was that a female or a male? Remember
there was like this thing. I think I think it's
a girl. Is it? I don't know now that i'm
thinking about. I just remembered right now, we gotta we'll
figure it out. We'll see. Oh my gosh, I loved
mad TV, Mad TV, Amanda Show cartoons. What else would
(26:42):
we watch? Oh my god? Whose line is it? Anyway?
Oh my god? After the ABC Family movie, ABC America's
Funniest Home Videos, America's Funniest Home Videos, Full House, Dude,
full You know they're gonna do a uh, they're gonna
do a a tribute to Bob Saget. Oh, yeah, rest
(27:04):
in peace. He was awesome. But yeah, I mean like, also, again,
you caught it when you caught it. We also had
days that you would like plan if you were going
to watch a show. It's not like, oh, I'm gonna
turn on Netflix. It's like, all right, it's Thursday. This
show is on today, Like we gotta be in front
of the TV at a certain time, or like eating dinner.
It was kind of you had to wait a week
to watch the next episode. But I feel like it
(27:24):
was like a thing like you would watch it with
some and then while you're watching it, guess what you
don't have in your hand your cell phone? You definitely
did not you were just watching I don't know, it
was just so much more connection. You know, we still
we still can keep that alive in our own way
because we had an event at our house and Jem
literally bought I encourage you all to do. It was
a brilliant idea, Babe. She bought a um it was
(27:46):
a shoe organizer that you hang off the door, and
as everybody walked in, she made them put their cell
phones in the shoe organizer and leave them there for
the duration of the night. And honestly, Jim, to this day,
I still have people telling me, Wow, we haven't had
that kind of a time or that good of a
time and so long, because that's it's a big pressure
(28:08):
that's on us that when it's removed, it really allows
you to connect, really allows you to connect in ways
that we haven't in a long time, and that makes
us feel joy as human beings. So I get a
phone divider. Why don't you have like we should start
like once a month to have a dinner at the
house where that's the rule. We invite like ten people.
You put your phones away. You could take notes if
(28:30):
you want on paper. Man. Well, we've talked a lot
about shows, okay, what about movies? Okay, So if you
(28:50):
didn't watch Disney Channel shows? Did you watch Disney Channel
movies like z Oh? Okay, so Halloween That? Okay, Halloween Town?
Are you kidding me? Funnily enough, not until a little later.
I have to have a confession to make what I
might be canceled after this? Is this something I know?
(29:13):
Oh you know what? Please say it because I think
that I hope that there's a mob that comes after
you for this. It's unforgivable. Jem was the first person
to show me the Cheetah Girls. I knew they existed.
I never saw it. And I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry.
Go watch cheat. I can't believe you. I'm sorry. But
(29:35):
that's it. It's over it. Tour. Oh man. You know
what else I remember, which I don't know why it
was such a core memory for me. Do you remember
when colorful Ketchup was the thing? What colorful Ketchup? They
would literally have a restaurant and stuff. It was like
green Ketchup, Blue Ketchup, purple catch up. It was like
a phase for a second. You don't remember that, No,
(29:57):
I don't remember that at all. Catch Ship Yeah, oh
my god? And wrong, Okay, Emily, No, that's not. That's
definitely still very much a thing. You know what was
a thing that is no longer a thing? Before they
adulterated the Scooby snacks. They had the blue Scooby SNACKI
(30:18):
was the best Scooby snack in the world. I don't
know who told them to change the recipe. I swear
to you. I spent birthdays getting boxes of Scooby snacks.
Scooby snacks are flames, so flames. What about baby bottle pop?
Baby bottle pop? Those were so gross? They were they
(30:39):
were good about like about how grows? But like ring pops? No,
ring pops are still a film. Baby pottle pops are
so good? If so good? Okay, baby? You know in school,
because I'm sure that school is really different now. I
mean I haven't been in a long time, but believe
it or not. Okay, When I was in college, I
went to Berkeley and I got really werewhelmed by my
(31:00):
cell phone. And I was very stimulated by like all
the connection and music and everything, and I got really
overwhelmed by my phone. So I tried to switch to
a flip phone. Do you remember those little tiny micron nokias.
They were literally like the size of half the palmer
and silver was yes, I had it. I had that
phone and so I switched from my iPhone to that
phone for like three days, and my mom thought I
(31:23):
was dead. I missed a final because everything was on email,
like everyone was trying to text me. And remember what
texting was, like you have to like press three letters.
You had to press the number three times. I'm still
good at th thing. It took like ten minutes to send, Hey,
I'm good, see you later, like for a I am,
oh my god, but oh my god, hey I am
a weight message. Oh my god, you want to aim tonight.
(31:46):
I've had some pretty nar aime screen names. I guess
we're gonna have to write on that one get some receipts.
But anyway, so yeah, I'm assuming that school is different
because I feel like we also used to like come
in jomienda in school, like to try to pass the
time and ship. Like I'm sure that now we used
to write notes to each other, Okay, notes paid, don't
(32:06):
rires drawings. Remember the thing, oh the paper thing? What's
that called? Oh my gosh, it's like you want it's
like the four four categories, right, and like it's like
an opening or what's the one that had like numbers,
would open one and they would have like a your fortune.
It was like a fortune teller. Yes, but then there
was another game that was like a sheet of paper nash,
(32:28):
you know, figure out your future. Oh my god, Mash.
I feel like they're taking out their iPhones now and
like texting or like playing cod or something. They are. Okay,
So one of the things that I would love to
do was to take my pencil case, you know, like
those pencil cases that had like the rectangle in the
middle of the plastic ones. Yes, and I would put
(32:49):
glue and make bookmarks. Okay, wait did you know that
I thought that was just in my school. No, wait,
did you know that if you color your pencilvan it
would transfer the whole business I was making. You were saying,
rainbow ones. We figured out that you could do a
whole bunch of stuff with that. What I actually did,
(33:10):
Remember I told you I actually had a business repurpose. Yeah,
well I didn't use them at all. They were brand new.
These are really like that. We would come blue all
over our hands just because just to like make up
or one time, like you know, you see what would
take the shape of the glue and dry and this
or that? Oh my god, before the cinnamon challenge where
(33:31):
there was the sharpie challenge or that? Did you ever
do the alphabet challenge? What's that where you would grab
it a racer on your hand and no, okay, yeah,
never mind weirdos? Oh my gosh, there was. I don't know. Yeah,
I mean kids are always going to be inventive in
fun and thank God, like you know, we're always going
to play on the playground and stuff. Hello, or we
(33:52):
would we would doodle, of course they must do it.
I mean Sasha doodles, and he's an amazing doodler. He's weird,
you know, he's freakid No, no, no, okay? So oh
did you ever get the gum that came into tube?
The gum that I love from that period was the chicklists.
But they came in like the like in the packet
(34:13):
in the envelope, and it was tiny chicklists. They were
colorful and you would pour like the whole thing in
your mouth like I was a thousand percent bazuka or
hubba bubba. Oh. I would write notes on the bazooka
things too, But it was like wax paper, So it
always like that's why because you would read it once
and then you could rub it off. Everything was just
(34:35):
so different. Did you ever have those kids in school
that were like, you could eat gum with a wrapper on? Yes,
And I stupidly listened to them, it's made out of
rice paper, And I don't know if they were right.
I did it a few times and then I was like,
this is dumb. One of them was yesterday. Well, I
remember when dride gum we came out. What about commercials
(34:59):
in our time? Commercials and our time where quality? You
know what's funny? Like now they're they're forcing us to
watch commercials on YouTube on this or that. Why don't
they make them like they used to? You don't remember
the bear is a creame, bear is a cream a
little better than creame. We just had like the weirdest
commercials that would have no choice but to suck you
(35:19):
in because it was part of what you're watching. You
had no choice. People made jingles anymore. What was your
favorite jingle from a commercial? No, My favorite commercials were
the ones where they would try to sell the kids
the toys and then they would be like, make sure
that you ask an adults so they can call like,
do you remember that thing that was like? And why
(35:43):
did we want this? It was like bubbles, like you
would blow a bubble through a tube, but then it
was like a Google bubble. Oh those tiny little tool.
I don't think it ever worked once. Oh my gosh,
what about sea monkeys that are just bri I've probably
(36:06):
killed an entire population. We all have. We are so guilty.
They were so cute though, they were so cute. All right,
So we've talked about games, We've talked about movies, you know,
except the Spice Girls, which are also we need to
we need to do. We need to go down to things.
Let's start with musick to this day, and I recommended
(36:29):
to all of you Pandora dot com Peaches and Cream
radio station, not one twelve radio station, Peaches and Cream
radio station all the time. It is the best throwback
radio channel algorithm. I don't know what it is. It
is so good pictures. And if you're like then and
you grew up to slow jams, then that is the
(36:52):
station for you. I give it to you with a
lot of joy. You got genuine you have everything. Yo.
The beginning of Usher's career, Usher Confessions, Part two. Confession, Yo,
I remember having to take my parental guardian whoever it was,
to buy me whatever CD that had a bad word
(37:15):
because I had morning and you would have to get
somebody to get you the explicit c D and oh
my god, American idiot Green Day, Oh my gosh. Well
we grew up. We grew up with the age of
alternative rock, which is now that it's back. Olivia Rodrigo
is basically yes, sorry, no, and on your career. But
(37:39):
she has let me tell you driver's license. I love that.
It's a great song, but what she's doing is derivative,
point blank. Yes she can sing, she absolutely, which I understand. Nostalgic,
Oh so nostalgic. Yeah, these kids, thank they're inventing. You
think you'll figure this out. We did it before you,
and you know what's funny, somebody before us probably did it.
(38:01):
Then when we ripped it off from then, we're just
claiming it. I don't know. I think paramore is like
a unique sound. No, yeah, that, oh god, um, so
I really wanted to be I got as far as
the different fans and then where was your cat cut?
It was deep from sunrise to sunset, where was your part?
(38:23):
It was like three o'clock baby, it was this um yeah,
I had the choppy haircut, the black nails, the black eyeliner.
It was a thing. It was a thing. This weekend
death Cab for Cutie is still one of my favorite
Emily death Cabrea. But you know, come on, what I love.
(38:47):
I love not going at a death cap show. I
was no. I wasn't saying washing. I'm saying I grew
up listening to death Cab, all of that alternative rock.
It was a thing. Man music. Oh my god, panic
gets yes, my chemical romance, chemical romance. That was the thing.
Hot topic, Oh my god, hot hot topics still the thing.
(39:09):
Did it turn into spensers, Oh my god, don't tell
me how topic has gone. Dude, But fashion in general
were growing up, it was, dude. The layers do you
remember when you went the Hollister layers were the thing.
Oh that was like my look like the button up
shirt with the polo. Oh no, well for me, it
(39:31):
was like layers. And then you would put a belt
over it. You put a belt over it, and you
wear this like skirt that didn't match. Then it looked
like I might be a belly Dancer by Night and
the Chinese mesh sandals as your shoes. Do you know
what are you following me picturing it? The block sunglasses,
I can see it now, the dangling chandelier earring. It
(39:53):
was like the simple Life. Look, the only eyeshadow color
I wore was white. Oh it was, it was, it was,
it was, it was a very it was. Yeah, a
simple life. That's hot. Oh fashion? Yeah, well, hey you
know graphic teas. Oh I'm still on that grind dude forever.
(40:16):
But like, why do they have to be cut like that?
Because why they didn't look good on anybody because the
neck was too hot and the sleeves were too short.
It didn't suit anybody, not even the not even the
celebrities that would wear them with the red carpet, which like,
also why you know fashion? Wow? I mean fashion always
ebbs and flows and stuff. But something about music as
(40:39):
an art form that has changed that I do not
like whether you liked it or not. Baby, you are
listening to that album, even if there are tracks on
the album that you're going to skip and that don't
become your favorite. If you're supporting an artist, you're buying
the damn record. You're doing the thing, You're putting it
in the car, you're seeing what you like, but you're
sampling it. And that's how comps. It's used to be chosen.
(41:01):
Concert us to be chosen when they when artists would
mark their tours, they would go based off of CD sales,
and at that time, because you were publishing full albums,
artists and this is a you know, double edged artists
were also focusing on putting out a full product. An
album wasn't experience and it wasn't just a bunch of
(41:21):
songs thrown in together and given a title, and it
was conceptual and it was turned into a show, and
the shows were called oh that, And sometimes people do
that now, but I just I missed that whole. Oh
we're going to get to know this record and support
this artist now, like music falls in our lap or
it's forced in our face on TikTok or whatever. There
are songs that I'm telling you, I don't even know
(41:42):
what the name of the songs are, but I know
the whole song because they play in so many places.
So that's one thing if we could take away anything
from this. And I've I love doing this nostalgic deep
dive because it makes me connect with the stuff more.
There's nothing, there's nothing better than I could do without
the Victoria's Secret Pink Body Spray can smell it. It's
(42:04):
like it's like deep ax body sprayed to our high
school smells are when you think of high school, it
smells like ax body spray and Vanessa Way Princess, whoa,
I did it just hit you? And and puberty. Puberty. Yeah. Oh.
(42:30):
There's people online who are like our age, who have
entire channels dedicating to like reviewing easy bake ovens, Easy
bake Ovens, where the best, and like old school toys
and Barbies in the Barbies dream House, I mean the
Barbie's Dream but Polly Pocket, Hello me, Betty Spaghetti Betty
speaks out there, but he's Spaghetti love Betty Spagetting. But
(42:51):
so yeah, I think there's a beauty to the nostalgia.
But there's also a lot to learn. We may progress
in the future and evolve, and technology and all our
blah blah blah may change, but there's always value in
going back and seeing the things that did work. If
they broke, don't fix it, baby. There was a lot
of great shit about a lot of great about our time.
I honestly think I'm telling you, I think that we
(43:12):
no offense to every other generation, but I think that
we lived the best one. We had the best of
both worlds. And that's that's just it. Because we've been
through the year two thousands. Oh my gosh, yeah we have.
We were there. We were there before Google monopolize the
(43:33):
industry and you had to ask you all who and
asked jeeves um. And it was a good time. It
was a great time. What a time to be alive. Yeah,
it really was. Well that was a fun ride, babe.
That really put me in a good mood and also
made me a little bit sad. I don't know why.
(43:54):
I guess that's what nostalgia is, happiness burrowed in sadness.
It is. But you know what I do feel now,
I do feel good. I feel good. I just feel
like my kids are definitely going to watch the shows
that I watched. Oh well, hello, that's why I like,
you know, thank God that my nephew knows the stuff
that he knows. Because also it's just about what you
expose your kids too. And if you don't think they're
(44:17):
going to be watching Cat Dog and suffering the same
trauma that I did by seeing a cat merge with
a dog for no reason at all. And you're wrong,
You're absolutely wrong. They will be just as weird and
messed up as I am, and they will watch all
of the Fountain Plantasia movies, whether they like it or not. Alright, guys, well,
(44:38):
there's only one way that would be appropriate to say
goodbye to you on this ness shout sick journey, and
it goes like this, so so welcome to you, my friends.
(44:58):
Good that phone, now until we meet again. I sit
so long, farewell to you, my friends. Goodbye phone now
until we meet again. It's been great just play and
sand together in the box, but now it's time to
(45:20):
say goodbye. So long, farewell to you, my friends. Goodbye
now until we meet up. Get We'll see you next
(45:43):
week on in Our Own World. This is a Moonflower
production in partnership with I Hearts Michael Doda podcast Network.
For more podcast visit the I Heart Radio app or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Yeah, yeah, Well, hello there, earthenings. Welcome back to the
(00:34):
magical space and time that we call in our own world. Welcome. Lately,
I don't know what it is. I don't know if
it's that I am enjoying the last few years of
my twenties and feeling particularly nostalgic. But I've been thinking
a lot about the environment that I grew up in
(00:54):
and what things were like back then, and how lucky
I feel to have been a nineties baby. And m
and I were talking and we thought, why not talk
about it, because we've been to the year two thousand
and if you know what that references, then you're in
the right place. And if not, then buckling because you're
gonna learn something today. Not only babe, is nostalgia, you know,
(01:16):
a part of our day to day lives as we
get older as human beings. But because of the culture
of the Internet and everything right now, it's so prevalent
on social media and on TV. You know, we're bringing back,
you know, toys and songs and trends that were from
back then, because there's nothing wrong with deep diving into
the things that brought you joy in a simpler time
(01:37):
when you had no responsibilities or taxes. No, But you know,
I think it goes a little bit beyond that. All
generations go through a period of time where they're transitioning
into adulthood, and you know, we'll always have that in common.
But I think that nineties babies in particular had a
different transition than the other generations because we were the
childhood that saw the rise of the internet it and
(02:01):
that changed the world entirely. What we lived through was
the split of two worlds. We were the kids who
rode a bike in our neighborhood still but also played
video games and downloaded music from lime wire. You know,
we were the no music from lime wire. That was
(02:23):
the end of the music industry, and that's a whole
other episode. We were also the generation who had to
speak to our friends parents when we would call the
house phone something yeah, you know, gen Z doesn't know
what that is. You would have to talk to somebody
else's mom and be like, yeah, school is great, my
mom was great, my sisters are great, and have this
entire conversation with this adult. But we were also the
(02:46):
generation who lived through the rise of cell phones and
that side of things. So I think it's different I
think nineties babies have it different. WHOA, that is a
grand place to start. Gemini and Geminu, you said, unting
that it really struck a chord. You're like, oh, yeah,
video games were a part of our life. I think
that it was an activity of our life. But what
(03:07):
has changed so much that has been so difficult is
that most of our life is now overrun by technology.
I saw a video on Instagram from someone that I
follow who was raised, you know, in the late nineties
and two thousands, and it was like a joke, but
it's scary and true because she's like, how we used
to hang out, you know, in the two thousands or
(03:29):
in the nineties, and it was you call someone on
your house phone, like you said, you make a plan,
or you knock on their front door, or you knock
on their front Just fathom that for a second, Like
I think of people that you and I have are
related to, Like, you know, my sister's a gen Z
or agen Z or do I sound old saying that
I feel old? My sister my sisters from the gen
(03:49):
Z generation, and she I don't think she's ever knocked
on somebody's front door herself. Still to this day to
be like hey can Sally can play? Yeah, things are
super different. It was like, oh, you play video games,
you listen to music on your walkman, and like share
one earphone, you know what I mean, like you go
outside and well that was even later. But like I,
(04:12):
for example, I didn't have a phone until I was
like sixteen or seventeen. I had The first thing I
had was a firefly, which those of you who don't
know what it was out there is like this phone
esque thing that I guess I had like five or something.
It was like five pre program numbers that your parents
would input on the phone, and it was like the
only people you could call. And that's it, you know.
(04:34):
I remember minutes. Yeah, kids these days don't know what
minutes are. They don't know what call you back after nine.
I mean I'm out of data. Oh my gosh, I know,
I know. I mean data at all on your phone
was like a novel concept. You were lucky if your
phone had a game on it. I mean remember Snake.
Oh remember? Oh my god? Square one Nokias are kid?
(04:58):
You not? There are two things to serve that could
survive the apocalypse, right. One of them is roaches. One
of them are Nokia phones. Those things. People would beat them,
I swear beam them and they were fine, perfectly fine,
completely fine. But you know the phone I miss How
did you know? Because what we're talking about today, and
that was an icon of that movement. Remember the Juicy
(05:20):
Could Tour limited edition side kid. It started being cool like, oh,
she has a sidekick, or the charms that you would like, dude,
or personalized the color of the little rollerball, dude. Oh
another one. The razor. Oh and the pebble, the razor
and the pebble, the phone. You mean the motor roller,
the motor razor. Yeah, it was the round one. No, no, no,
(05:42):
no, no no, it's razors all day over here. Razors. My
mom went through a razor phase. I just want to
publicly apologize to any of you who are growing up
now and have never had the joyous experience of slapping
your phone hang up on somebody. It was. It was
(06:03):
so it was so rewarding, and we're really young, you know,
like that was still so little ago. But once that
ship took off, it was zero to you want to
feel really old? No, So nineties babies have lived through
the nineties, the thousands, the two thousand tens and now
(06:25):
the two thousand twenties, we've seen four decades. That's pretty awesome.
You know what will make you feel old? What if
you ask someone a little younger? You know how you
have like signs for stuff, Like if you can't talk
and you're like, I'm on the phone, what would you do?
You would usually put your pinky finger and your index
finger out and some in your and your pinky whatever,
(06:46):
and you would put it to your ear, like if
it's a classic phone off the receiver. Do you know
what kids do now, Gemeny know what? They put their
hand flat like a palm and put it up to
their ears. What the iPhone? Just ah my god, oh
my god, oh my god. I phone. Okay, So another
(07:07):
thing we grew up when cannon cameras had made kind
of and Sony had made those like small square cameras,
and like, I swear to god, you were cool if
you had one. Now that they were tiny, they were
like the size of the deck of cars are a
little larger that they were like square and like and
they were they looked so chea And remember what it
(07:30):
was to have a camera. Now you just you just
have your well, your phone is it's so powerful these days.
The iPhone kind of took like all the technology from
that time and like condensed it into one place. You
have games, you have an amazing camera, you have the Internet,
and again, I mean, that's pretty remarkable, but I think
there are I mean, I don't know. I really feel
(07:53):
like there's a downside to it, because when I think
of how I grew up and I see how my
nephew and my cousins growing up, it scares me. It
makes me sad because I think so too. I think
that the biggest thing that we've sacrificed, and it's It's
interesting because the point of the Internet was to connect
people across the world, and it does serve that purpose.
(08:18):
But what you pay for that kind of connection is
human connection. I see kids now that don't know how
to carry a conversation, are not capable of sitting down
at dinner with their parents without having some kind of
technological device. They don't know how to order their own food.
And this is not to shoot on the next generation.
It is not their fault. It's not there at ault.
(08:41):
But they're they're great texters there. But you know that
I've seen two year olds open YouTube. Do you know
how scary that they are actually hold on, this is real.
There's scientific evidence to back this up. They are actually
lacking a motor functions because kids aren't crawling anymore to
(09:04):
their iPads. Yeah, I mean, or just you know, well, yeah,
when people say screen time, screen time, screen time, Like
even people in my family would be like, you don't
have a kid, you don't know what it's like. I'm like, no,
I was a kid, and I know what it was.
I remember, and I remember what it was like not
having access to that, and you know what I had
to do as a result, figure it out, play an instrument,
draw outside. Okay, cartoons. Cartoons were a big part of
(09:27):
our childhood because we still had like TV, you know,
like those big back TVs or speaking of Apple and Mac,
like those macs with the clear backs. Always wanted those,
but I didn't have one. Oh my god, so sick.
My family will pull that. I'm sure a lot of
people didn't. Luckily, Thank God, you know, I was blessed
and was able to have one. But you know, it
was just that time and there was barely anything you
(09:49):
could do on the computer, but it was awesome. You're
not going to sit at the computer for like twenty
plus hours. That's the thing about now that you get
sucked in you're on YouTube for you know. But see,
that's the thing. I was that person also growing up,
Like I was the person who was on the street
briding bike around my neighborhood having lemonade stands. But I
was also the person downloading musical ely for eight hours
(10:10):
a day. No, girl and I are going to fight tonight. Um,
I was eleven. You're gonna have to forgive me, all right. Yeah,
that's another thing. Hello, you don't understand what you're doing
on the space. You don't understand my space r P
to the top eight. I wish I could top eight.
I never had in my space. There you go. That's
how all I am. I'd never even like, no, but
(10:31):
I had my Space and all my friends had in
my space. Right. But okay, So to put it to
you this way, now, if you don't have an Instagram,
people will be like, oh, you're not online, or you
don't have a TikTok. I think for the next generation,
it's TikTok's going to do with it whatever. Okay, TikTok. See,
there you go. I don't know. But oh, you don't
have a TikTok what Back in the day, it wasn't
like that, like, oh you have a my Space. Cool
(10:52):
you don't, That's fine, I'll talk to you tomorrow on
the phone or in person. I was an impressive htm
out in quarter. Oh you were coding your mind. I
had personalized profiles that I would and I would change
something like all the time music playing when you arrive work,
like like you know, updating my status is daily. It
was an experience there you go well, luckily or unluckily,
(11:14):
I guess, depending on how you look at it. And
never I never dipped into MySpace. But anyway, my whole
point of this rent is that I think there's a value.
Like I was saying, I would go to watch cartoons,
and I remember this really stuck out to me. There
was a day every year, maybe like a couple of
times a year, would happen on Nickelodeon that was my
(11:36):
my favorite. And you would turn on the TV to
watch cartoons and it would literally be like kids in
slow motion, just like doing cartwheels and big on the screen.
It would say International Worldwide Day of Play, Go outside,
no cartoons and and that would just be like all right,
and like yeah, it sucked on one of my cartoons,
but also all right, we're gonna go outside now now
(11:57):
with you know how quickly people will just put their
kid in front of a screen because I get it,
it's entertaining, you know, there there are things that are
helpful for educational purposes or whatnot, but no, we need
to be able to have the skills to do multiple things.
And you know, dip in technology, yes, because it's amazing
(12:20):
and we continue to evolve it just like everything. However,
realized that the more primitive things that we stray from,
like you said, that's gonna hurt us and devolve us
as a species because we are not meant to be
connected in that way. We're meant to be skin to skin,
voice to voice, traveling, you know, not sedentary robotic creatures.
(12:42):
And then on text messages, I worry too because, like
think about dating, how easy is it to say something
behind the phone and click send and hide under your
cover instead of having to look you in the eye.
I've noticed so many people now they don't look you
in the eye, can't if they don't have that social skill.
That's what that is what are turning in is the
social skills. We don't have them online. It's like, it's
(13:06):
really funny. It's like that have you ever caught yourself
or caught somebody that's sending a text message, They're like
l m al exactly. They're sending the message and their
face could not be more dead, just more dead and
an over expression of emotion. But this is what I feel.
I feel like these this next generation is really proficient
(13:27):
a communicating online. But when you're I've met people that
I'm like, when I saw you online, you were this dynamic,
like expressive person, and then I met you in front
of me and you're like, where'd you go? And it's
not that I don't think that they really are that person,
it's just that they don't know how to be that
person in front of others, because really the internet experience
(13:52):
is an isolated one. You're just scrolling on TikTok or
Instagram or filming yourself, usually alone or sitting in a
group of people and everyone is on their phone. Oh no,
but that's yeah, that's just like a whole other thing,
you know, it's painful. We went to the Texas airport
and there was a dining hall that must have been
like two hundred people seating of these beautiful big tables,
(14:12):
and in between the tables were two sets of iPads
not only covering the other person's face, but right in
between them. So you didn't even have an option of
having a conversation if you wanted to. I know, I
don't understand that, but you can't talk without playing a game.
And you know what I have to, you know, call
a spade a spade here, because I also noticed that
(14:33):
it's what we give ourselves in our life. Like in
that time when we were growing up, you know, we
had no choice but to be stimulated by so many
other things, but we didn't. We still had the older things,
you know, like you're talking to the person who put
probably over four hours on animal crossing during the pandemic.
Shout out to animal crossing. But I'm not verify that
I'm not ashamed of that. I mean, I am a
(14:54):
little ashamed of it, but not completely ashamed of it.
But I also can carry a converse san you know,
like I didn't have to lose the social skills that
the generations before us developed to have access or to
enjoy what the internet has to offer, for sure, but
you and I would both be lying if we wouldn't
(15:15):
say that in certain moments we are slaves to our phone.
Oh we are so back to our beautiful nineties and
two thousand's. I wish I could go back now. And
(15:37):
I'm so sorry to all of you alive right now.
I think those were the best decades to Okay, the fashion, well, okay,
the fashion first of all, thank god it's coming back. Oh,
I know, Iconic, the little Clips, the Juico who are
of lower tracks suits, which, by the way, I heard
they're remaking them. But I don't think the c is
the same, like I think the O g s were
(15:59):
just different. No, that's not your that's not your vibe.
You know what else? I think about a lot because now, yeah,
they're like toys and whatever, but there there's so much
on the like iPhone part, we had like viral toys.
Do you remember that, like the Furbye Furbies, Bay Blades,
magic Beans Uh no, no, no, not magic beans. Yes,
(16:22):
the magic Beans. There might be God Mighty, I had
the red case. I'm pretty sure it's still I'm gonna
go look because I'm pretty sure it's still in my closet.
In my parents house, I had like the Collector's edition
Mighty Beans, Thanks, and then later Silly Bands. But Silly
Bans was already kind of like a little bit after
(16:42):
us um tomagotchi oh tomatch. So again I keep seeing
these things pop up. Now they're like kitchy. It's because
we've become adults and now we're trying to sell it
to other people. Well we're smart to do that. Oh
my god, Toma Gotchi's. I would like again, think about
it a pixelated little like animal and you feed it. Okay,
(17:04):
but hold on. So speaking of toys, toys are rush.
These poor kids don't know what it's like to enter
into a hole, massive store of toys and all they
have is the target toys giraffe and the germs. The
germs are free him and the all the toys you
(17:24):
could sample. I just toys or russe was like heaven.
And then you would you would have to like start
to negotiate. That's when you learned to be a lawyer.
Like all right, so I'm not going to get this,
but what if I get this? I know, I know
you can get one thing, and I'm like, how can
you make me chew these stores that are gone. This
is probably literally like thirty percent of my childhood. It's
a Friday night, my friends are allowed to sleep over,
(17:48):
and our big outing of the evening is to go
to Blockbuster Video on Alton Roads. To go be there
and not only get snacks and candies, but to serve
for the movies. We wanted to get your Blockbuster. I
think there's one living Blockbuster, and it's literally like a joke.
It's like a museum that like you go in for fun.
(18:10):
Blockbuster was a big part of my huge part of
my childhood renting a movie. They had that that it
was like you can get two candies and Anesota, two
movies and a popcorn or something like that. And my
mom would be like, okay, Jim, you choose one movie
and I'll choose one movie. The smell of candy. I
even had a card and then Blockbuster. Funnily enough, like
(18:31):
what the early beginnings of Netflix. I remember this too.
I was already older, but it was the you would
rent the c D slips and you would have to
give them back. Can I tell you something that was
the end of Blockbuster at the beginning of Netflix, the
beginning of the end. I remember all this ship. Okay,
let's take it back to the time when you see
(18:52):
the preview for a movie on the goddamn television. Oh
my gosh, you're going to watch something. Okay, you see
the preview for the movie there not only that, then
you got to either drag your ass to the theater
in the time that it's out, or wait until it's
on DVD, and then you go and buy the DVD
and you're gonna put in whatever DVD player you want,
(19:13):
just like I had my CD player in my car.
I still have a CD player. Hello, you, I know
that's your car now in the car? What about VHSH
Do you know that this generation has never had to
rewind and wait to watch I feel the pain of
ruining a v the tape come and then you try
(19:36):
to like your fer like I love this sea that
I've watched a thousand tells. Hello, you know how many
CDs I bought more than once? Like because I spun
them out they broke. I'm gonna okay, this is this
is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do this. I'm
going to post a video because I still have an
extensive VHS collection, which you guys can tell me when
(19:58):
you not only is it I conic, most of it
is like classic Disney, and they've remade all of those
and with like the tattered because you know, they had
like the paper VHS covers and then they had the
plastic ones. You know. Yeah, something about that tactile experience.
Even like the video Now, which was I guess like
(20:19):
it was the oh my gosh video Now. It was
just screen literally the size of Like that was the
time when Hilary Duff owned the world. That was when
she was like everyone was just dude, Lindsay Lohan, Oh
my god, Paris Hilton. Kim Kardashian was like just starting,
oh my gosh. Wow. I feel bad for the people
(20:42):
who didn't get to see Lindsay Lohan Paris Hilton situation. Well,
they can always look back. It's not the same. Speaking
of VHS, we had the best TV shows, dude, Rugrats, Okay,
rug Rats, and then they just one up, doesn't We're
(21:03):
we're all grown up. I was like, oh my god,
they're so there's some rocket power. Rocket We've talked about
this before. Rocket power is like three percent of why
I'm gay. That's really funny. That's hold, hey, Arnold. We
we've talked about this before. We've talked about how you
(21:25):
would really grow up watching the Disney Channel, which I
think is super weird. It wasn't weird enough. It's it's
not that it wasn't it was. I watched all of it.
See I saw Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel. But that's
how you're telling me you missed out on. That's so raven.
You missed out one, you missed out up even Steven.
Okay again again, you got to understand and you know
me by now. Okay again. I clearly, as a kid,
(21:50):
knew that I was going to be deranged and a queer.
Though you are lying to me, listen to me. You
missed to listen to me. No, I watched proforms. You
would be lying if you didn't tell me right now
that if you watch old school Cartoon Network, old school Nickelodeon,
(22:12):
they were on some good shrooms. They were on some
good as weed. They had some great sit over there.
Because that ship is trippy, dude. I had a living
fear of courage. The coward, Oh my god, was terrified
of that. Edde and Eddie Yo so good, red and
(22:33):
stimpy Stimpy Dexter's lap, d Texter, get out of my lap,
Power Girl Jo like freaking brain. I'm just I don't know, man,
that it was. They don't do that. Even I watched
SpongeBob Now, Hello SpongeBob, Tom, SpongeBob defined our generation. Yes,
(22:59):
spell lies Jay Balvan is doing stuff for SpongeBob. But
you watch it now and you're like, something's off. They're
not doing shrooms anymore. They had some let me tell you,
you've had some good one. And now you look back
and you're like, hmmm. That was clearly for adults. Yes,
I actually watched watched an amazing documentary on Nickelodeon the
(23:21):
other day and like that time about like Nickelodeon, it's
called the Orange Years something like that, and it's about
how in that time, also as an entertainer or as
a toymaker, or as whatever it is that you were doing,
you always had your own space to compete. So if
you were in TV, you're in the TV world now,
(23:41):
which is what's changed a lot to the market has
conglomerated into one place, so so many different people who
are making amazing art have just gotten kind of like
snuffed out by viral trends or what's in or whatever.
But anyway, so yeah, Nickelodeon, remember the slime Factory, slime Time,
slime Time, I got slimed something it closed. There used
(24:03):
to be at with showing up there and getting slime.
I never got slimes. I'll slime you, baby. I know
the secret. By the way, what do you mean? What
do you mean the secret? So wait a minute, what secret? Okay,
so all the slime used the Nickelodeon, I got the
inside scoop. They're probably gonna assume me. Wait, this is
(24:27):
so juicy. How well, we did a like a tour
of the slime thing or whatever, and I asked all
these people that are getting slimed, like gets in their
mouth and gets in their eyes, like, what is it?
It's apple sauce, dog, It's green apple sauce, really really
(24:51):
really pure, and you can literally eat the slime. It's
apple sauce. That's what it is. Yep. Wow, did that
ruin your tr or not? But do you remember man Man,
Man Man, it's my name of Andy Millnocket. No, that
was a whole other Okay, what about mad TV TV
(25:15):
shirt that is some of the greatest years can I
have your number. I have your number? Can I hello
Lorraine to get the stirrups Stewart Stewart bond QUICKI I
still know the rap? Are we gonna get some of it?
(25:35):
Or I'm the is a queen? So listen to me.
Say he wants a number three supersides and you rang
he could come at the house with no inco Brason
umbuddy got two strikes, so it'll get it wrong. He
knows I'm really cute and was nothing you could say.
So if you get with me, we could do it
your way. Hey, it's security girl, I will cut you
(25:58):
go drop baby. Oh. I missed those days so much
and like the Amanda Show and that stuff. It was
like probably kids shouldn't have been watching it, but we
were definitely watching it and it was like our little
it was it was our SNI was just so much more.
When we were at school, there was a rumor and
I never found out the truth as an adult, I
still don't know the person who did can I have
(26:19):
your number? Was that a female or a male? Remember
there was like this thing. I think I think it's
a girl. Is it? I don't know now that i'm
thinking about. I just remembered right now, we gotta we'll
figure it out. We'll see. Oh my gosh, I loved
mad TV, Mad TV, Amanda Show cartoons. What else would
(26:42):
we watch? Oh my god? Whose line is it? Anyway?
Oh my god? After the ABC Family movie, ABC America's
Funniest Home Videos, America's Funniest Home Videos, Full House, Dude,
full You know they're gonna do a uh, they're gonna
do a a tribute to Bob Saget. Oh, yeah, rest
(27:04):
in peace. He was awesome. But yeah, I mean like, also, again,
you caught it when you caught it. We also had
days that you would like plan if you were going
to watch a show. It's not like, oh, I'm gonna
turn on Netflix. It's like, all right, it's Thursday. This
show is on today, Like we gotta be in front
of the TV at a certain time, or like eating dinner.
It was kind of you had to wait a week
to watch the next episode. But I feel like it
(27:24):
was like a thing like you would watch it with
some and then while you're watching it, guess what you
don't have in your hand your cell phone? You definitely
did not you were just watching I don't know, it
was just so much more connection. You know, we still
we still can keep that alive in our own way
because we had an event at our house and Jem
literally bought I encourage you all to do. It was
a brilliant idea, Babe. She bought a um it was
(27:46):
a shoe organizer that you hang off the door, and
as everybody walked in, she made them put their cell
phones in the shoe organizer and leave them there for
the duration of the night. And honestly, Jim, to this day,
I still have people telling me, Wow, we haven't had
that kind of a time or that good of a
time and so long, because that's it's a big pressure
(28:08):
that's on us that when it's removed, it really allows
you to connect, really allows you to connect in ways
that we haven't in a long time, and that makes
us feel joy as human beings. So I get a
phone divider. Why don't you have like we should start
like once a month to have a dinner at the
house where that's the rule. We invite like ten people.
You put your phones away. You could take notes if
(28:30):
you want on paper. Man. Well, we've talked a lot
about shows, okay, what about movies? Okay, So if you
(28:50):
didn't watch Disney Channel shows? Did you watch Disney Channel
movies like z Oh? Okay, so Halloween That? Okay, Halloween Town?
Are you kidding me? Funnily enough, not until a little later.
I have to have a confession to make what I
might be canceled after this? Is this something I know?
(29:13):
Oh you know what? Please say it because I think
that I hope that there's a mob that comes after
you for this. It's unforgivable. Jem was the first person
to show me the Cheetah Girls. I knew they existed.
I never saw it. And I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry.
Go watch cheat. I can't believe you. I'm sorry. But
(29:35):
that's it. It's over it. Tour. Oh man. You know
what else I remember, which I don't know why it
was such a core memory for me. Do you remember
when colorful Ketchup was the thing? What colorful Ketchup? They
would literally have a restaurant and stuff. It was like
green Ketchup, Blue Ketchup, purple catch up. It was like
a phase for a second. You don't remember that, No,
(29:57):
I don't remember that at all. Catch Ship Yeah, oh
my god? And wrong, Okay, Emily, No, that's not. That's
definitely still very much a thing. You know what was
a thing that is no longer a thing? Before they
adulterated the Scooby snacks. They had the blue Scooby SNACKI
(30:18):
was the best Scooby snack in the world. I don't
know who told them to change the recipe. I swear
to you. I spent birthdays getting boxes of Scooby snacks.
Scooby snacks are flames, so flames. What about baby bottle pop?
Baby bottle pop? Those were so gross? They were they
(30:39):
were good about like about how grows? But like ring pops? No,
ring pops are still a film. Baby pottle pops are
so good? If so good? Okay, baby? You know in school,
because I'm sure that school is really different now. I
mean I haven't been in a long time, but believe
it or not. Okay, When I was in college, I
went to Berkeley and I got really werewhelmed by my
(31:00):
cell phone. And I was very stimulated by like all
the connection and music and everything, and I got really
overwhelmed by my phone. So I tried to switch to
a flip phone. Do you remember those little tiny micron nokias.
They were literally like the size of half the palmer
and silver was yes, I had it. I had that
phone and so I switched from my iPhone to that
phone for like three days, and my mom thought I
(31:23):
was dead. I missed a final because everything was on email,
like everyone was trying to text me. And remember what
texting was, like you have to like press three letters.
You had to press the number three times. I'm still
good at th thing. It took like ten minutes to send, Hey,
I'm good, see you later, like for a I am,
oh my god, but oh my god, hey I am
a weight message. Oh my god, you want to aim tonight.
(31:46):
I've had some pretty nar aime screen names. I guess
we're gonna have to write on that one get some receipts.
But anyway, so yeah, I'm assuming that school is different
because I feel like we also used to like come
in jomienda in school, like to try to pass the
time and ship. Like I'm sure that now we used
to write notes to each other, Okay, notes paid, don't
(32:06):
rires drawings. Remember the thing, oh the paper thing? What's
that called? Oh my gosh, it's like you want it's
like the four four categories, right, and like it's like
an opening or what's the one that had like numbers,
would open one and they would have like a your fortune.
It was like a fortune teller. Yes, but then there
was another game that was like a sheet of paper nash,
(32:28):
you know, figure out your future. Oh my god, Mash.
I feel like they're taking out their iPhones now and
like texting or like playing cod or something. They are. Okay,
So one of the things that I would love to
do was to take my pencil case, you know, like
those pencil cases that had like the rectangle in the
middle of the plastic ones. Yes, and I would put
(32:49):
glue and make bookmarks. Okay, wait did you know that
I thought that was just in my school. No, wait,
did you know that if you color your pencilvan it
would transfer the whole business I was making. You were saying,
rainbow ones. We figured out that you could do a
whole bunch of stuff with that. What I actually did,
(33:10):
Remember I told you I actually had a business repurpose. Yeah,
well I didn't use them at all. They were brand new.
These are really like that. We would come blue all
over our hands just because just to like make up
or one time, like you know, you see what would
take the shape of the glue and dry and this
or that? Oh my god, before the cinnamon challenge where
(33:31):
there was the sharpie challenge or that? Did you ever
do the alphabet challenge? What's that where you would grab
it a racer on your hand and no, okay, yeah,
never mind weirdos? Oh my gosh, there was. I don't know. Yeah,
I mean kids are always going to be inventive in
fun and thank God, like you know, we're always going
to play on the playground and stuff. Hello, or we
(33:52):
would we would doodle, of course they must do it.
I mean Sasha doodles, and he's an amazing doodler. He's weird,
you know, he's freakid No, no, no, okay? So oh
did you ever get the gum that came into tube?
The gum that I love from that period was the chicklists.
But they came in like the like in the packet
(34:13):
in the envelope, and it was tiny chicklists. They were
colorful and you would pour like the whole thing in
your mouth like I was a thousand percent bazuka or
hubba bubba. Oh. I would write notes on the bazooka
things too, But it was like wax paper, So it
always like that's why because you would read it once
and then you could rub it off. Everything was just
(34:35):
so different. Did you ever have those kids in school
that were like, you could eat gum with a wrapper on? Yes,
And I stupidly listened to them, it's made out of
rice paper, And I don't know if they were right.
I did it a few times and then I was like,
this is dumb. One of them was yesterday. Well, I
remember when dride gum we came out. What about commercials
(34:59):
in our time? Commercials and our time where quality? You
know what's funny? Like now they're they're forcing us to
watch commercials on YouTube on this or that. Why don't
they make them like they used to? You don't remember
the bear is a creame, bear is a cream a
little better than creame. We just had like the weirdest
commercials that would have no choice but to suck you
(35:19):
in because it was part of what you're watching. You
had no choice. People made jingles anymore. What was your
favorite jingle from a commercial? No, My favorite commercials were
the ones where they would try to sell the kids
the toys and then they would be like, make sure
that you ask an adults so they can call like,
do you remember that thing that was like? And why
(35:43):
did we want this? It was like bubbles, like you
would blow a bubble through a tube, but then it
was like a Google bubble. Oh those tiny little tool.
I don't think it ever worked once. Oh my gosh,
what about sea monkeys that are just bri I've probably
(36:06):
killed an entire population. We all have. We are so guilty.
They were so cute though, they were so cute. All right,
So we've talked about games, We've talked about movies, you know,
except the Spice Girls, which are also we need to
we need to do. We need to go down to things.
Let's start with musick to this day, and I recommended
(36:29):
to all of you Pandora dot com Peaches and Cream
radio station, not one twelve radio station, Peaches and Cream
radio station all the time. It is the best throwback
radio channel algorithm. I don't know what it is. It
is so good pictures. And if you're like then and
you grew up to slow jams, then that is the
(36:52):
station for you. I give it to you with a
lot of joy. You got genuine you have everything. Yo.
The beginning of Usher's career, Usher Confessions, Part two. Confession, Yo,
I remember having to take my parental guardian whoever it was,
to buy me whatever CD that had a bad word
(37:15):
because I had morning and you would have to get
somebody to get you the explicit c D and oh
my god, American idiot Green Day, Oh my gosh. Well
we grew up. We grew up with the age of
alternative rock, which is now that it's back. Olivia Rodrigo
is basically yes, sorry, no, and on your career. But
(37:39):
she has let me tell you driver's license. I love that.
It's a great song, but what she's doing is derivative,
point blank. Yes she can sing, she absolutely, which I understand. Nostalgic,
Oh so nostalgic. Yeah, these kids, thank they're inventing. You
think you'll figure this out. We did it before you,
and you know what's funny, somebody before us probably did it.
(38:01):
Then when we ripped it off from then, we're just
claiming it. I don't know. I think paramore is like
a unique sound. No, yeah, that, oh god, um, so
I really wanted to be I got as far as
the different fans and then where was your cat cut?
It was deep from sunrise to sunset, where was your part?
(38:23):
It was like three o'clock baby, it was this um yeah,
I had the choppy haircut, the black nails, the black eyeliner.
It was a thing. It was a thing. This weekend
death Cab for Cutie is still one of my favorite
Emily death Cabrea. But you know, come on, what I love.
(38:47):
I love not going at a death cap show. I
was no. I wasn't saying washing. I'm saying I grew
up listening to death Cab, all of that alternative rock.
It was a thing. Man music. Oh my god, panic
gets yes, my chemical romance, chemical romance. That was the thing.
Hot topic, Oh my god, hot hot topics still the thing.
(39:09):
Did it turn into spensers, Oh my god, don't tell
me how topic has gone. Dude, But fashion in general
were growing up, it was, dude. The layers do you
remember when you went the Hollister layers were the thing.
Oh that was like my look like the button up
shirt with the polo. Oh no, well for me, it
(39:31):
was like layers. And then you would put a belt
over it. You put a belt over it, and you
wear this like skirt that didn't match. Then it looked
like I might be a belly Dancer by Night and
the Chinese mesh sandals as your shoes. Do you know
what are you following me picturing it? The block sunglasses,
I can see it now, the dangling chandelier earring. It
(39:53):
was like the simple Life. Look, the only eyeshadow color
I wore was white. Oh it was, it was, it was,
it was, it was a very it was. Yeah, a
simple life. That's hot. Oh fashion? Yeah, well, hey you
know graphic teas. Oh I'm still on that grind dude forever.
(40:16):
But like, why do they have to be cut like that?
Because why they didn't look good on anybody because the
neck was too hot and the sleeves were too short.
It didn't suit anybody, not even the not even the
celebrities that would wear them with the red carpet, which like,
also why you know fashion? Wow? I mean fashion always
ebbs and flows and stuff. But something about music as
(40:39):
an art form that has changed that I do not
like whether you liked it or not. Baby, you are
listening to that album, even if there are tracks on
the album that you're going to skip and that don't
become your favorite. If you're supporting an artist, you're buying
the damn record. You're doing the thing, You're putting it
in the car, you're seeing what you like, but you're
sampling it. And that's how comps. It's used to be chosen.
(41:01):
Concert us to be chosen when they when artists would
mark their tours, they would go based off of CD sales,
and at that time, because you were publishing full albums,
artists and this is a you know, double edged artists
were also focusing on putting out a full product. An
album wasn't experience and it wasn't just a bunch of
(41:21):
songs thrown in together and given a title, and it
was conceptual and it was turned into a show, and
the shows were called oh that, And sometimes people do
that now, but I just I missed that whole. Oh
we're going to get to know this record and support
this artist now, like music falls in our lap or
it's forced in our face on TikTok or whatever. There
are songs that I'm telling you, I don't even know
(41:42):
what the name of the songs are, but I know
the whole song because they play in so many places.
So that's one thing if we could take away anything
from this. And I've I love doing this nostalgic deep
dive because it makes me connect with the stuff more.
There's nothing, there's nothing better than I could do without
the Victoria's Secret Pink Body Spray can smell it. It's
(42:04):
like it's like deep ax body sprayed to our high
school smells are when you think of high school, it
smells like ax body spray and Vanessa Way Princess, whoa,
I did it just hit you? And and puberty. Puberty. Yeah. Oh.
(42:30):
There's people online who are like our age, who have
entire channels dedicating to like reviewing easy bake ovens, Easy
bake Ovens, where the best, and like old school toys
and Barbies in the Barbies dream House, I mean the
Barbie's Dream but Polly Pocket, Hello me, Betty Spaghetti Betty
speaks out there, but he's Spaghetti love Betty Spagetting. But
(42:51):
so yeah, I think there's a beauty to the nostalgia.
But there's also a lot to learn. We may progress
in the future and evolve, and technology and all our
blah blah blah may change, but there's always value in
going back and seeing the things that did work. If
they broke, don't fix it, baby. There was a lot
of great shit about a lot of great about our time.
I honestly think I'm telling you, I think that we
(43:12):
no offense to every other generation, but I think that
we lived the best one. We had the best of
both worlds. And that's that's just it. Because we've been
through the year two thousands. Oh my gosh, yeah we have.
We were there. We were there before Google monopolize the
(43:33):
industry and you had to ask you all who and
asked jeeves um. And it was a good time. It
was a great time. What a time to be alive. Yeah,
it really was. Well that was a fun ride, babe.
That really put me in a good mood and also
made me a little bit sad. I don't know why.
(43:54):
I guess that's what nostalgia is, happiness burrowed in sadness.
It is. But you know what I do feel now,
I do feel good. I feel good. I just feel
like my kids are definitely going to watch the shows
that I watched. Oh well, hello, that's why I like,
you know, thank God that my nephew knows the stuff
that he knows. Because also it's just about what you
expose your kids too. And if you don't think they're
(44:17):
going to be watching Cat Dog and suffering the same
trauma that I did by seeing a cat merge with
a dog for no reason at all. And you're wrong,
You're absolutely wrong. They will be just as weird and
messed up as I am, and they will watch all
of the Fountain Plantasia movies, whether they like it or not. Alright, guys, well,
(44:38):
there's only one way that would be appropriate to say
goodbye to you on this ness shout sick journey, and
it goes like this, so so welcome to you, my friends.
(44:58):
Good that phone, now until we meet again. I sit
so long, farewell to you, my friends. Goodbye phone now
until we meet again. It's been great just play and
sand together in the box, but now it's time to
(45:20):
say goodbye. So long, farewell to you, my friends. Goodbye
now until we meet up. Get We'll see you next
(45:43):
week on in Our Own World. This is a Moonflower
production in partnership with I Hearts Michael Doda podcast Network.
For more podcast visit the I Heart Radio app or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Gemeny Hernandez
Emily Estefan
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