Gas was cheap, and we didn’t yet know that we should feel guilty for burning it. Teenagers actually got their drivers licenses back then; they don’t anymore. Teenagers actually had sex back then; I didn’t, not until the last months of the decade, but my peers did, and they used those licenses to drive out to secluded places and hook up in their cars. Teens today don’t have sex, or so the sociologists tell us, none of the sweet fumbling apologetic teenager sex that you look back on with such fondness. People read the newspaper. I used to read Entertainment Weekly religiously because that’s how you knew what movies and albums and even books were coming out. I had an ancient TV in my room with fake wood paneling and I’d watch Mystery Science Theater 3000 every Sunday morning. You saw previews for movies once or twice, before other movies, and then you saw the movie that had been previewed in the theater, and the week after that you went to the movies again. And the best teen movies ever made came out in the 90s.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.