T H E - 1 9 9 0’s

^{Free image from pixabay.com}

If you know @geneeverett, you know this man LOVES the 1990’s. He loves them so much he has been rallying “the troops” to start a #ninetiesfriday posting initiative. There might be some kind of prize involved. There might not. However, I am totally on board for celebrating the decade. (PS - Gene is defining the 1990’s as the span of time from January 1, 1990 to January 1, 2001.) #genemath

For me the 1990’s perfectly encompassed the time of absolute freedom between childhood and adulthood.

Through the decade I graduated from high school, started college (university), got “it” on for the first time, became intoxicated for the first time, met most of my life’s closest friends, got my first job (and many other jobs), spent many nights socializing at bars and clubs, tried pot (just once), moved away from home, TRAVELED, danced, flirted, dated, and in 1999 met the man who would become my husband. So the 1990’s were a pivotal time in setting the course of my life.

The High School Years

1990 -1992

I kicked off the decade (1990) by turning 16. In the US, the “Sweet 16 birthday” is sort of the unofficial start of one’s womanhood. More importantly, turning 16 meant I could get my drivers license! Having a license meant freedom. Freedom from my parents, freedom to adventure, and being independent enough to take myself where I needed to go.

^{My first car. 1973 Pontiac Bonneville. Some classmate sitting on my car.}

^{Ha, ha, ha… this song by Digital Underground was HUGE in 1990.}

Big things that happened in the 90’s years of my high school tenure:

I broke up with my first boyfriend after 2 years together. His family got some French exchange student (female), and I had a crush on a basketball player in my driver’s ed class. We couldn’t survive those sorts of obstacles! 😂
I auditioned for and was selected to be my school’s mascot. The school was Roosevelt High, named in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt. Our mascot was a teddy bear. So I dressed as a bear and performed at all of my school’s different athletics games.
My friends and I started playing an assassination game where we would go around and shoot fellow classmates with a suction dart gun (like in the movie Gotcha. ) (Ah the good old days when a fake gun at school wasn’t a cause for calling the police). We left a sticker of Shamu the orca whale with each of our victims.
A group of us went to Maui for two weeks one summer (1991) to attend a Coral Reef Ecology and Marine Biology Camp. This was my first vacation without parents and it was awesome!
Senior year, I wrote for the school newspaper and was also the paper’s advertising and business manager.
We had all the classic American high school events like Homecoming and Prom that one sees in the movies.
And since I grew up in Seattle, of course our senior year dances featured Nirvana music and mosh pits. Flannel wasn’t grunge here… it’s just what we always wore.

^{Alice in Chains, “Man in the Box”. The MOST Seattley of Seattle songs.}

^{Goodtimes in high school.}

The College Years

1992-1996

^{College football!}

Straight after high school I was off to college at the University of Washington. The school was only a couple miles from my house, but I moved away from home and into a sorority. Being an only child it was kind of overwhelming at first to live in a house with 100 other girls. We had rooms we shared with 3-5 other girls where we had desks and kept our stuff. However, we all slept in a giant room called a “sleeping porch” filled with bunk beds!

^{Halloween at the Sorority.}

Defining items of my 1990’s college years:

I majored in Political Science and Anthropology.
A group of us drove from Seattle to Los Angeles (non-stop) to watch the University of Washington football team play in the Rose Bowl. We also went to Disneyland for New Year’s Eve.
I had season tickets to the football games all four years of university, so attended every home game (and a few away games too!)
We had tons of dances and these parties called “exchanges” with different fraternities. Often they had themes so you would wear costumes. Plus, there was always a professional cameraman there to take photos since there was no such thing as cell phones!
Email came to exist sometime in the middle of college. But we didn’t have internet at home or the sorority, so I would walk to the library with my friends just so I could send these same friends emails!
Connected to this, no one had computers either, so I was typing my reports for school on an electric typewriter.
For some reason I enrolled in a lot of geology classes. It was really cool though because we took all kinds of field trips to the mountains and islands around Seattle.
When any of us turned 21, we would have a “21 Run”. This was a BIG night of drinking where you would try to drink 21 alcoholic beverages. (Hello death wish…). I puked at 6 drinks. 🤣
My friends and I were always into weird adventures like - Murder Mystery events, scavenger hunts, raiding fraternities and spraying all the unsuspecting fellows inside with water guns.
I went to my first concert! UB40 with the Gin Blossoms.
I met Trey Cool (the drummer from Green Day) in my hotel room when we went to Lollapalooza (festival) in 1994. He was trying to hit on my friend’s underaged little sister!
I went to Nirvana’s last show in Seattle, just one month before Kurt Cobain committed suicide.
For awhile I took up snowboarding.
I started my first job, at Blockbuster Video!
My last roommates in the sorority were both named Melissa. So we bought a goldfish and named it after me. The three of us held weekly trivia contests with questions about ourselves and gave out prizes. When the goldfish sadly died (RIP) we buried her in the courtyard of the sorority and held a funeral.

^{Good times in college.}

^{Beastie Boys are one of my all time favorite bands. Best live shows I ever got see were theirs. This song (and whole album) was BIG during the college years.}

^{The Gin Blossoms, the band I saw at my first concert.}

The Argosy Years

1997-1998

After college I did not want a “real” job. (Real in my mind being a 9-5 office job). Instead I started working at a local tour boat company called Argosy Cruises. It was super fun.

Every day we were out on the water showing tourists the sights of the city. I would deckhand, narrate tours and bartend. We also hosted private parties like weddings, corporate events and overnight grad parties. Plus, each year the company would host the “Christmas Ship Festival” with boats decked out in holiday decorations with carolers and a Santa on board. Over my time with the company I worked on five different boats, had a stint as a wedding coordinator and had earned enough sea time that I could have applied for a captain’s license.

Highlights of the 1990’s Argosy years:

“Deadhead” cruises where we would move the boats to different locations without any passengers on board.
Seeing seals and orca whales semi regularly.
The annual work ski trip to Steven’s Pass.
Days with rough seas! I loved the days where water would be crashing over the deck. Once the seas were so rough a cake and all of the liquor bottles fell from the bar and broke everywhere. The chaos was exhilarating.
One year I worked on my birthday for a private charter of Dixieland Jazz enthusiasts. It was all oldies, there was a band and we danced. It didn’t even feel like work.
Swing dancing became a HUGE thing in the late 1990’s. The movement started in LA, but then went national with the release of the movie “Swingers”. We used to go swing dancing one or two times every week. The night would start with a lesson. It was a great way to meet people and so very social.
I used an ATM for the first time! Before I had a debit card I used to just write checks and would go to the bank to get cash or to deposit my pay checks. 😂🤣

^{Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, “Zoot Suit Riot”. Aside from this being a hit at swing nights, we also saw them play live one night.}

^{Adventures on the boats and with the crew.}

^{1997 & 1998 shenanigans.}

The Contiki Years!

1998-2000

^{Modeling one of the Contiki buses.}

After two years on the boats I knew i didn’t want to become a captain. So, I decided it was time for new adventures. For me this meant quitting my job and going by myself to Europe!

I wasn’t totally alone. I booked a 39 day bus tour with a company called Contiki Holidays. Contiki passengers were all 18-35 years old (I was 24, and the age range on my trip was 18-30). My 50 person tour was filled with Australians, Canadians, South Africans, some Americans, New Zealanders and one girl from Mexico.

We had THE BEST time. I am still in touch with about 25 people from the trip. I think being brought together in those circumstances, where you spend 24/7 with one another. It forges a bond. So while we’ve only seen each other on rare occasions over the years, will still know one another’s core selves deeply.

^{Third Eye Blind, “I Want You” was one of my favorite songs from this era.}

^{Good times on my European Contiki Tour}

After the trip ended (late 1998), I didn’t want the fun times to end. So, I applied for a job with the company and was hired to lead trips across the United States, Canada and a touch of Mexico. I was hired in February. I flew to California in March to start training. (All of the new hires took a 6 week training trip together across the country where we visited each tour destination and learned all the things about every stop.) By April I was leading tours.

^{Our training trip across the USA}

^{Our training trip morning song. My boss played this first thing every morning when we got on the bus for the entire 6 weeks of training! Mighty Mighty Bosstones, “Impression that I Get.}

I spent two years “on the road”. During that time I led close to 20 trips. Each trip ranged in length from 10 to 24 days.

The shortest tour I led, ”Canada and the Rockies” was 10 days long, started in Seattle and visited places like Banff, Whistler, Calgary and Jasper. My mid-length trip was the 14 day “Wild Western”. This trip visited places like San Diego, Tijuana, Phoenix, Vegas, San Francisco and both Yosemite and Grand Canyon National Parks. My longest tour (and favorite) was the 24 day “Grand Southern”. It made its way across the southern US from California to Florida, then would head up the east coast to New York.

^{Leading those tours.}

^{Sprung Monkey “Get em Outta Here” takes me back to those drives through California on my tour bus.}

During this time also met the fellow who I eventually married. He was on one of my Grand Southern tours. We met in New York, then made our way back to the west coast. After the tour I had a week off between trips so the two of us explored the sights of Southern California together. Then it was time for me to get back on the bus, and he flew home to Australia. This was in August 1999. In December 1999 I flew to Australia and spent 3 months traveling the country with him. We welcomed the year 2000 together watching the fireworks over Sydney Harbour. Ha ha! And we survived Y2K! 🤪

^{Australian adventures.}

Highlights of the Contiki 1990’s

Making friends from all over the world.
Seeing the Eiffel Tower in person for the first time. (Completely breathtaking!)
Stumbling upon a German rave at breakfast time on a ferry to Mykonos.
Getting to learn so much about my home country and sharing that knowledge with visitors.
Hot air ballooning over the Arizona Desert.
Spending July 4 in Washington DC where I met one of the Greensboro 4. He was so lovely. I was looking at a display at the Smithsonian about them, and the man next to points to the display and says, “That’s me”.
Seeing a space shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral.
Meeting a voodoo priest and his boa constrictor in New Orleans.
Seeing moose, black bears and one grizzly bear while traveling though the Canadian Rockies.
Meeting my husband.
Spending my first Christmas away from home with the people who would later become my in-laws.
New Year’s Eve 1999 along Sydney Harbor.
Driving Australia’s Great Ocean Road.
Holding a koala.
Being visited by a dingo while eating popsicles at a picnic table on Fraser Island.
Riding camels on an Australian beach.