1999
Party like it’s 1999. When gas prices were manageable and rent was somewhat affordable. When dreams felt attainable even as voices screamed “The world is terrible!” When Mom Jeans were so normalized that even men wore them.
It was a time of innocence in that everyone thought they were so jaded that nothing could effect them.
Missing children were assumed dead. Strangers were dangerous. Latchkey kids had grown up to be latchkey teenagers. And “Highlander” reruns were still on TV.
Moon pies and Twinkies. Licorice whips and candy necklaces. Roller rinks and community swimming pools.
There was no satellite radio. People walked around unmoored and unanchored and cellular phones were so expensive they could only be dreamed about. Electric cars were an idea of the future and solar panels weren’t even owned by the rich.
People carelessly used baby powder and the story of someone suing McDonalds because of a hot cup of coffee seemed ridiculous rather than horrifying. People trusted the big brands that had raised them and nobody worried that they someday wouldn’t be able to afford a cup of drinkable water.
It was a time of change, when modern social consciousness was just beginning and hadn’t yet been slandered by questionable sources. When the Internet was young and search engines were just beginning to find their way and hadn’t yet been corrupted by manipulated algorithms. When kids hung out in the woods to smoke weed and skate parks were just becoming popular and hadn’t yet been destroyed along with nearly every other teen friendly activity by stealth-hater “mom groups.”
Cars were loud. Fast food was delicious. And people could enter airports without having to remove their shoes.
1999 was a time before HTML 5. It was a world of Geocities and AOL. People would Ask Jeeves and peruse Alta Vista to find movie reviews for “American Beauty” and “Fight Club” while “The Matrix” made them question their very reality.
People felt young and free or old and weary as they welcomed in the 2000’s for the very first time. Some laughed and some cried and some stockpiled supplies in fear of Y2K.
People partied in hope and in despair and in desperation for a future they couldn’t envision.
It felt like the future was happening “right now.” Anything was possible, from the glorious to the grim. Nothing was out of bounds. It felt as thought no limits had been set.
The world was open and new. Murders and conflicts were happening in countries far away. People wanted to “Believe” that “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay” to “Slide” into the “Heartbreak Hotel.”
Summer was hot, winter was cold, but weather seemed more normal and less lethal back then. It was a year of change without being a year of tragedy. Fear and paranoia was in its beginning stages and survivalism hadn’t yet becoming a popular lifestyle choice.
1999 was a time of innocence because people hadn’t yet realized how bad things were going to get. The Doomsday Clock was 9 minutes to midnight and it felt further away than the moon.
There was a sense that forever was yet to come.
And that’s why he chose to set his time machine to the spring of 1999. It was at the limit of how far the machine could go back, but he refused to go to anywhen closer in time.
The machine could only make one trip. He only had one chance to bring the Doomsday Clock closer to morning.
So he was going to party like it was 1999.
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