If you could would you go back to the 90’s?

[Beaniebeemer]

The more I think about it the more I would love to go back to that time. I was too young to appreciate it fully (born 83).

I think it was a great time to be a kid and I’d imagine it would have been great to be an adult too. I really hate the world my children are growing up in

Definitely! I was born in 84 and I wish I was 10 years older so I could have gone to the festivals and experienced clubbing then.
I completely understand ppl when they say how nostalgic they feel for the 90s.
I was into rock and metal and I remember thinking I looked great with my flared cords, Coal Chamber hoodie, DMs and arms full of shag bands.
Such a wonderfully carefree time!

I turned 30 in 1993; don't remember the 90s as a particularly golden or carefree time- except that it is better than the current shitstorm, but that equally applies to any other decade I have been alive.

@corythatwas

I turned 30 in 1993; don't remember the 90s as a particularly golden or carefree time- except that it is better than the current shitstorm, but that equally applies to any other decade I have been alive.

Possibly proving everyone looks back on their childhood teen years as being the best years ever because we had no responsibilities then rather than they were particularly good years for everyone!

I was born in early 80s and I'd go back there without a doubt! Everything seemed much simpler, feel so nostalgic!

Maybe a bit rose-tinted because it was the decade of my twenties, but the 90s does seem to have been a time of positivity and relative peace. The cold war was ended and all that When the Wind Blows anxiety had retreated, and looking back it was an interlude before 9/11 and the downward slide into hostility, divisiveness and general depressing hatefulness the whole world seems to find itself in these days. As a bonus there was Cool Brittania and Euro 96. And Friends.

Oh yes. In the mid 90s i was very happy, i was young, slim and attractive, and happily married with 2 small children. It was the best period of my life really. I wish i could go back and do it again, and really make the most of it.

I was born in 1978 so turned 13 in 1991. The 90’s were bloody amazing!

I didn’t have a mobile phone until 1998 when I was 20, teenage years were brilliant, didn’t know any different and no social media to contend with.

I did Camp America in 1998 and fully intended to go back the year after but met a man who I fell in love with and stayed home. We ended up buying a house, having a son and splitting up 7 years later but no regrets.

It was my favourite time.

@wombledown

Prime example is *@wheresmymojo* listing the bad things of the decade & putting the "IRA bombings". That's pretty English centric when 125 people in England died out of 3.5k & of course republican groups were responsible for the majority of the deaths but loyalists still killed more than 1k. Obviously 1 death by terrorism is 1 too many but the below from Wiki shows the difference in scale.

"In The Politics of Antagonism: Understanding Northern Ireland, Brendan O'Leary and John McGarry point out that "nearly two per cent of the population of Northern Ireland have been killed or injured through political violence [...] If the equivalent ratio of victims to population had been produced in Great Britain in the same period some 100,000 people would have died,"

English centric?

Why?

Later on I mention that it included Omagh for example and the number of bombings I mention (60+) include NI bombings.

@isabellerossignol

I must admit I do find it strange when people in England say they were scared of the IRA. If that's the case I think they'd have been totally terrified if they'd visited old style Belfast.

Well...yes.

But that's like saying it's weird that British people are scared of terrorist attacks now because they would be terrified if they lived in the Middle East.

It's all relative isn't it?

I don't think it's particularly weird that after Warrington those of us in towns in that area were quite nervous for a while. That doesn't mean that we think we had it anywhere near as bad as NI and it doesn't detract from what people in NI went through.

I suppose the English centric comment related to picking out Warrington as being a particularly deadly attack, when in terms of actual numbers of casualties there were much bigger ones in N Ireland even in the same year as Warrington. 1993 was a brutal year in N Ireland, the worst since the early 70s.

But I get that the numbers are a shock factor and if your family has been a victim it doesn't matter if someone is the only casualty or one of hundreds, the pain is the same.

@TheKarenWhoKnocks

Lol there's been clashes in Brixton pretty recently too. The riots that people there commemorate are the ones from the 80s because they were the massive ones that were actually pretty pivotal. Interest rates were at their height in the 70s - that's when we had stagflation etc. And I don't remember any bomb drills at all although like *@isabellerossignol* we did get out of buildings/tubes etc when there was an actual bomb or a scare. And none, not a one of them, was on a scale even remotely like the 7/7 bombings. We hadn't seen the twin towers come down and felt the massive repercussions of all that. There was a recession in the early part of the 90s and a minority of home owners went into negative equity (although any I knew who did and had to sell got it written off) but again nothing like entire industries being demolished and coppers charging striking workers as in the 80s, or people queuing at Northern Rock 12 years ago.

Yes no decade is ever perfect but out of the five I've lived through the 90s was relatively peaceful and relatively prosperous in England, especially in the last few years of it.

Actually where I lived entire industries did die in the 1990's as our main industry was outsourced to China. Plus 30,000 miners lost their jobs in the 90's from the remaining pits that were still open. The 90s were a time of massive unemployment and deterioration where I lived.

It's nice that you had a nice time but it wasn't like that for everyone.

I'm not suggesting other decades didn't have problems. Simply that the idea that the 1990s was some period of carefree times is because most of us were young at that time, not because the 90s were any better than other decades and it's exactly the same as grumpy old blokes who think the 50s & 60s were the best decades.

@isabellerossignol

I suppose the English centric comment related to picking out Warrington as being a particularly deadly attack, when in terms of actual numbers of casualties there were much bigger ones in N Ireland even in the same year as Warrington. 1993 was a brutal year in N Ireland, the worst since the early 70s.

But I get that the numbers are a shock factor and if your family has been a victim it doesn't matter if someone is the only casualty or one of hundreds, the pain is the same.

It's possible that it's because I focused on bombings during the Troubles in the 90s and I focused on civilian casualties.

According to the list of bombings and mortar attacks there were 60+ (not just in England) and Warrington and Omagh stand out as the worst couple because of the death of 2 children on a packed Sat afternoon in town (Warrington) and the horrific number of deaths (Omagh, about 30 people from memory).

I've noticed though that I missed the Shankhill Bombing which killed 9 civilians.

I didn't look at shootings, etc or whether that contributed more deaths in NI.

If you look at the list of bombings in the 1990s it's pretty evenly split across England and NI/Ireland.

Out of 60ish bombs and mortar attacks there were about 23 in England in the 90s.

However obviously England is a much bigger place and in NI there was also all of the lower level (but still serious) violence and intimidation going on which would have made living in NI much more difficult.

@wheresmymojo I read it because you said IRA bombings whereas I would refer to it as the troubles as many groups were involved.

I have family in Belfast but was raised in London. I think a lot of people don't understand the troubles eg why it started, the BA collusion, Bloody Sunday, the loyalist terrorist groups etc, peace walls etc. There was a really good BBC programme about it recently.

In terms of civilian casualties

"48% were killed by loyalists, 39% were killed by republicans, and 10% were killed by the British security forces"

Off topic though.

I miss the 90s 😢, I wonder if it was because I was young & wise eyed?

Yes, just to visit. Wouldn't want to give up what I have now (except for all the weight).

I was born 85 and I loved the 90s! If I could go back Id love to experience being a teenager in the early 90s

Yes I would, i was in my mid teens, to my mid 20s. As long as I had the opportunity to tell myself not to move in with my bf/exh, not to get married and to go out with friends and do what other young adults do, and don't let him dictate what you do and who you can see.

No, I was mid 20s to mid 30s. I remember endless rounds of redundancies at work, my industry shrinking in the UK, friends struggling with huge amounts of negative equity in their houses etc. My social life was good but I suddenly turned middle aged in outlook and thought the music was shite compared to the 70s and 80s.

In a heartbeat. It was the best time of my life!

Like a shot. I would love to see my now dead relations and try and avoid some of the darker things that have happened in later life.

I would also like to return to polos being 80p but I think that was the 80s...

I enjoyed it at the time but have no wish to go back. The places (non-Covid 19) that I can now visit make up for it.

I was born 85 and I loved the 90s! If I could go back Id love to experience being a teenager in the early 90s

I was and it was great, although adult me would be horrified at what we got up to.

I don't think the adults had such a great time though, lots of divorces and redundancies, same as the 80s.