Mem'ries

On my way to work yesterday, I listened to Primus' "Tales From the Punchbowl" and I recalled 1995 feeling nostalgic in a bittersweet way. I presented that issue to the WWB and got a few good answers. Here are a few reflections:

Me: I sported long hair with a shaved underneath....I call it a pantera haircut....what are those actually called? and what where y'all doing in 1995?

Jake: Ahhhh 1995... let's see... I had just gotten over a year of heavy hair-dying… ridiculously large pants were still the style, as were chain wallets…KMFDM was in my brand-new CD player and I was on my way to several unfulfilling high-school love affairs...Later, I would purchase my first piece-of-shit car.

Me: I was already 16, so the year was spent driving friends around. Some girl wanted me because I occasionally drove my parent's benz around town...then we went on a date and I picked her up in the family van..to which the rumors say she was pissed about that....then I cracked a joke about it to her in 2000 at a party and she got pretty pissed at me. Killer instinct was a rage at the arcade's and the SNES version came out later that summer (but it just wasn't the same). I played volleyball at the Y three times a week and listened to Primus all the time. I was the consummate band nerd, NHS (dead last ranking member, too), Key club, class vice president senior year, hated my class with a passion...but hung out with mostly burn-outs from a neighboring suburban school....the key for me in high school was to not hang out with anyone at the school, but be in good terms with everybody...somehow you're not an outcast because no one knows who you hang out with (and they didn't seem to care anyway).

TJ: For most of 1995 I was catching rides from everyone else as I was the very last person to get my license. I took lots of "walks through the forest" and listened to all manner of 60's and 70's stoner-rock. I also eventually got my first car in 1995 (the very end of 95) which was a beautiful mustard/gold Chevrolet Celebrity with a Rock The Vote sticker in the back window.

Sleeve: 1995: Sounds like I had the same haircut as Ed. I got my drivers' license after three attempts. I had recently discovered [*] and got drunk for the very first time ... off Zima. While drunk, I told everyone in the room another funny story from that same year: a cop busted me doin' it in a car at a "scenic overpass." This same cop would later be a regular customer at the gas station I worked at. I "lettered" in cross country, track, math team and academics. Actually, a lot of people were on the math team, as it scored you extra credit points in math class. Still: nerd-o-riffic. I was also in the NHS, which was a total joke at my high school. The manager at the gas station wrote my recommendation, and I think that's about all the work I did to get in.

Nat: i was part of the nerd herd. i did go to that great america thing (that was in spring of '96 tho) too; discovered ska, which i will not talk about further; got license and car ('89 ford tempo) also. this is also probably my most nihilistic period. Also, i played tennis and badminton. yes. and i was on the scholastic bowl team and constitution team (which was really just a free trip to D.C. for a week). nerdier than all of you.

Simpson: Aw Shit, 1995. I got my license and rolled around town in the Cox's Truck. (FYI, There's been only a total of a year and a half of my driving life that I wasn't driving a vehicle with Cox's plastered on the side.) I also had a English class in one of the Home Ed classes because the high school addition wasn't complete and Will Adams used to steal the filters out of the sinks. I included many things on my college application that I actually didn't do a lot of participating. These included German Club, The Incressent, as the only other things I did was DECA and Soccer. This is was because I was too dumb to be in National Honor Society, and too unpopular to be in Student Senate

Matty: I was busy making my way out of "the cool group" as I was clearly a nerd and thought I should get out before someone found out about me. So I spent a lot of the year playing tennis, playing video games and being a part of DECA. Boy, that was dumb. Oh, and I was just becoming a hippie. My hippie phase lasted a couple years after this, but I was probably most hippie in 1995.

Kara: And my rights of passage went 1, 3, 2, like the majority of my high school - seemingly prude substance abusers that got excellent grades. Unlike our rival high school where there was a lot more of 1, 2 and 3 going on, but much lower grades. Which leads to the obvious conclusion that having sex makes you dumb. (Adolescent rights of passage being: 1=booze 2=sex 3=drugs)

Charles: In 95 I was playing vampire with some people and wearing a lot of black. I did a lot of theater and was in Choir. I also discovered John Spencer that summer and I became a music devotee ever after. I also recall listening to Sonic Youth and PJ Harvey but now that I think about it my younger brother Gilles stole those from me and sold them to get some money for cigarettes. I felt like a complete outsider who always got strange looks for having different tastes and not being all jocked out. At the same time I had some good friends who felt the same way but overall it sucked ass and there is no way that I would ever think of it as a great time of life. It was a good experience to go through in hindsight but I would never do it again if I had the chance.

JP: I didn't get my license until the summer, and it was only because my mom made me. I rolled through two stop signs during my test, and the dude still let me drive. I was still playing basketball and running cross country, and losing badly. I'm a 1-3-2, thus proving that drugs and alcohol do lead to sex. I was kicked out of NHS for a prank gone bad.

Soup: Have to admit I was also 1-3-2.... actually it was more like 11131111111133311111111...(he goes on with a bunch of 1's and 3's and an occasional 2) Which is why I've historically done nearly anything to get laid, beginning to feel old age set in though, were I'd much rather sleep than drink, drug or sex. Sad really. So this proves, well I'm not sure what it proves except that I was a drunken drug addict that never got laid. Ed: picture this, me with purple hair. Yeah, you should have seen me show up in the weight room for hockey practice with purple hair, got some heads shaken in my direction and some people asking what the hell I was thinking, but whereas I was harassed for many things while I played hockey, the purple hair was the least of them. The best was showing up to pick up my homecoming date with purple hair, she loved it her parents did not, (bet that makes funny stories in their family photo album) I know for a fact that I looked stupid. I also used Manic Panic (man that was all the rage then). If I had to sum up high school I would say this: I could have dated anyone I wanted to; I should have worked less and played more; I was not as fat as I thought I was.

Medman: I too was not as fat as I thought I was in high school, and my self-opinion caused me to be a lot more inhibited than I should've been. I think it still does. 1995 was arguably my dumbest year ever. I was spending most of my time grounded or getting grounded. Being kept home a lot meant that I'd climb trees or drink before high school more often than not, and that I experimented with psychedelics in my parents’ house while they were home. No wonder I was in trouble all the time. I sported long hair (un-dyed) and corduroy overalls. I thought about very little besides Phish, drugs, and Relativity and since my friends only wanted to discuss the first two they got far more attention. 1995 was also the year that, after our yearbook signing/pick-up party at NNHS my friends and I (ex-Freshman) were picked up by a group of female Seniors-to-be gotten drunk on Zima, and I then lost my virginity to one of them. Had I not been a teenage guy whose friends convinced him that this was just what he wanted it probably could've been called rape. I did go to parties at houses of the cool kids, and was welcome because of my rock band Buddy Nuisance who played a lot of Police and Yes covers. However, while at these parties my friends and I mostly made fun of the jocks (including NFL Titans' wide receiver Justin MacCarens) and stole their beer. We thought we were better than them, but in retrospect our pretension wasn't any better than their elitism.

So, there seem to be a few common themes here: We were all nerds, always different, none of us liked high school, music was a big part of our lives, and booze and drugs lead to sex. At the same time, its funny that a bunch of us are good friends and have shared pretty much the same experiences in our respective high schools...but what else do you expect out of a bunch of people who use the internet to keep in touch?

ahh....1995...what a time to be alive.

. . [~] . 0 (Grumble) Grumbles .