’90s nostalgia is fun, but reminds of a dark history too
As soon as they spotted the “Simpsons” living room, my twin sons bolted for the couch. Giggling, Gege sat on a stuffed animal version of Santa’s Little Helper — the cartoon family’s pet — before putting it into his lap and posing for a picture with his brother.
That primarily seemed the point of “The 90s Experience” in Jack London Square, with its stage sets themed around pop culture from that decade, including the prow of a ship from the blockbuster “Titanic,” warp pipes from “Super Mario Bros.” video games, a neon basketball hoop inspired by the film “Space Jam” and a rave’s rainbow chill room.
In those years, my husband and I were graduating from high school, then college, and starting our careers — a formative time for us both, though we wouldn’t meet until the turn of the new millennium. As I browsed the exhibits, I felt the shock of nostalgia when I encountered items I hadn’t thought of in a long, long time — including the Davidoff Cool Water cologne displayed in a locker. The fragrance, with notes of jasmine and sandalwood, launched in 1988.
Though our boys weren’t born until 2011, the exhibits entertained them all the same. It wasn’t an in-depth look at the decade; it didn’t get into the darker news events of those years such as the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing or the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
Likewise, the VH1 television documentary series, “I Love the ’90s” — which aired in 2004, a scant five years after the decade ended — largely focused on pop culture (albeit with an occasional news reference on the Waco siege and the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal.)
To be sure, bright and light pop culture is a form of escape. And nothing — not an immersive experience, not a book, not a television show or movie — can be all things to all people. No one wants to pose on a set referencing a tragedy. But I also hope that these trips down memory lane remind people to consider the context, to remember what else was happening in those years.
Each time the ’90s have been revived, I’ve wondered about the target audience: those who lived through the decade and want to reminisce, or those who came of age long after but are fans nonetheless. See: the popularity of the “Friends” television show among Gen Z.
I also pondered Billy Joel’s 1989 hit, “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” which he wrote after a young man bemoaned the state of the world and told the musician, “You were a kid in the ’50s. And everybody knows that nothing happened in the ’50s.”
The frenetic, ear-catching song spans 118 events and people, from 1949 to 1989. If written today, the list would begin in 1982, including part of the same decade that Joel covered in his song, through today. As we strolled along the waterfront afterward, I asked the boys what they might include.
“I really started only remembering from five years ago,” Didi replied, when he was in kindergarten and the first grade; now they’re about to finish elementary school.
“How about BLM?” I asked. “Anti-Asian hate?”
They nodded. “Do you remember Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery?” I added.
They shook their heads, even though we had discussed their killings and who they were at length in the summer of 2020. During the pandemic, time warped: Days felt like weeks, weeks like months, years like decades.
In recent months, the pace of turmoil has seemingly sped up, with the war in Ukraine and the imminent toppling of Roe v. Wade.
Last week, three Korean women in Dallas were injured, in a string of shootings aimed at Asian-owned businesses. In a politically motivated hate crime, a shooter against Taiwanese independence killed one man and injured five people at a Taiwanese church in Southern California. In Buffalo, a white supremacist gunman killed 10 people on May 14, targeting a Black neighborhood — a hate that persists, that threads through our country’s history, then and now.
I also hope that these trips down memory lane remind people to consider the context, to remember what else was happening in those years.