Things from the 90s/00s you don’t see anymore?

[Firebird83]

What are some things you remember from the 90s or early 2000s that don’t exist anymore?

I remember old ladies used to wear headscarves or those plastic rain bonnets

Lucky heather sellers in town centres

In my gran’s rural village she used to get a mobile library van and also a man selling soft drinks in glass bottles

Any more?

Of course a lot of these things existed before that era too, I just don’t remember seeing them anymore after the early 2000s.

I used to stick these on every weekend with hairspray 🤣

I was so on brand for the 90’s!

Transgender men Transvestites only in clubs & theatres, & never in women's toilets.

Teletext

Listening to your siblings conversations on the upstairs phone - had to time it right so it wouldn’t make a sound

Mini TV with the video in the bottom of it

My bedroom was the dark blue with the gold moon and stars (with it all matching) and I felt like an absolute queen

Before my Nokia. I had a pager 😅

Watching Paris and Nicole / Americas Next Model

Hanging round town on a Saturday waiting to bump into the boy you liked not even knowing if he was there

Photo booths

Camera Shops / developing film and having to wait and then hide most of them 😂

I LOVED growing up in this era

Just letting lose on a dance floor and letting go - never worrying about being filmed or being made fun of. I had a ball. I look at my DD and they go to a brunch or dinner for birthdays - they’re 18-19 and I’m like JESUS….find a club and kick shit up!

I think the anticipation, of never really knowing who was going to be somewhere, what would happen, what it’ll be like when you got somewhere is so missed now. Everywhere I go it’s because I’ve seen it online and I already have expectations or knowledge of what it’ll be like.

I miss this time a lot x

I miss the interior design styles of the 90s... florals and sofa/bed ruffles... wooden kitchen cabinets.... it was so much more homey than the minimalistic everything there seems to be now

FRUIT POLOS. Yes. Also those mini polos which came in one giant plastic polo. Also those Pringle portion pot things.

The Internet being a magical place full of joy, knowledge and fun, instead of the seventh circle of hell.

Bath pearls

I think Tony Blair was one of the architects of the change out of “normality”, although it wasn’t immediately obvious. Under him we saw the rise of the nanny state, and health and safety being more important than anything else. He said “I want every household to have the internet” - he wasn’t being altruistic. He also normalised politicians being slick and “call me Tony, I’m middle class like you”, while robbing everyone blind.

It was also at the end of the 90s there was always some annual disaster round the corner, usually with some health and safety moral, and with the rise of online news, the messages would be rammed down our throats:
1999: don’t burn your eyes out looking at the eclipse, and don’t get caught up in the millions flocking to see it. (Remember “flocking” in 2020?)
2000: millennium bug.
2001: 9/11, foot and mouth, mobile phones are frying your brain.
2002: weapons of mass destruction.
etc.

This has brought back memories of buying milk in cardboard boxes with a straw (!) and warm shortbread biscuits (I think they were 5p or something!) at school break times . Completely forgot about this!!

Also turkey twizzlers for school dinners followed by warm puddings with hot custard/chocolate sauce!

Pagers. I had one when I was 16. Got my first mobile phone in 1997, when I was 19. It was a hefty brick that could be used as a weapon. 🤣
Mousse for your hair.
Past Times: I loved that shop! The Pier, too.
Our Price/Virgin Records/Tower Records.
CD Walkmans (there’s default music flavour here)

Snapbands
garbage patch cards - always with a stick of gum
rubber collecting
trolls everywhere
wallabe shoes
benneton bags
bus Fare 25p
frosties bike pokes
random crying children paintings in houses
spira chocolate bars
decorating school books with posters from smash hits
so perfume or white musk from body shop
naff naff and the one with the spliff

Telephone boxes. Used to see them all over but mobile phones have made them pretty much obsolete.

Visible thongs poking out from low slung bootcut jeans

People without tattoos. I remember when it was only old guys who’d been in the navy, now everyone seems to be covered in them.

Oooo La Sensa underwear shop did these so nice - and they had the diamonte details on the back T for the ultimate classy look. All wrapped in tissue paper and those smelly beads

Those mags have been entirely replaced with insta and tiktok

Going to a motorway service area and grabbing a tray, then wandering around all the different food stations - one area for soup, one for cold stuff, the hot counter which would always have a steak pie available and the bit where the coffee was (always a cafetière, and the coffee was really good).

None of this Costa / Greggs nonsense

Men in caps
Sanitary towel belts
Having teachers who fought in the war
Bombsites
Being called 'twinkle' or 'treacle'
Cream soda
Woolworths
Fray Bentos tinned pies
Afros
Cheesecloth shirts
Smoking in offices, on trains and buses. My mum smoked on labour ward.
Greasy spoons
A nice perm
Ric rac braiding

@Ketzele a lot of your list predates the 90’s

Thankfully ! They ABSOUTLEY stunk of piss and cigarettes, can you imagine how much bacteria would have been nesting in the actual phone as well ?

This might be straying more into late 80's maybe but underskirts. I remember I wore one under my gymslip at school as did many of my friends. Think I stopped when I was about 8 so around 1990 ish.

@LorelaiGilmorepoodles123 I miss the big squishy comfy sofas. There's no comfort in these hard pointy bastards they have these days.

Chipper Vans.Scotland
Chip shop vans everywhere else.

This is why I don’t like tattoos. Grizzy old seamen in pissed in pubs is my immediate association.

In Scotland, we had people come round houses and sell sweets (tablet, fudge, macaroons). Tasted great too.