I used to be onstage, the strain mounting.
Throughout from me, Melissa Joan Hart, star of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” glared, keen me to fail.
Lastly, I stated “scrunchies?”
The group burst into cheers.
This was not some fever dream introduced on by watching an excessive amount of Disney+. This was a part of my very actual expertise taking part in a trivia contest on the current ’90s Con in Hartford, Conn.
As one of many actors on the ABC sitcom “Boy Meets World” from 1993 to 2000, I used to be not there merely as a visitor, however to assist make the period come alive for everybody attending. Whereas I'm an object of ’90s nostalgia for some folks, my time on the present corresponded precisely with my teenage years, so I've my very own sentimentality concerning the decade. (My first live performance: Weezer; my pager code: 21.)
Based on its organizers, greater than 10,000 folks attended ’90s Con — there have been snap bracelets and Trapper Keepers in every single place. Due to the recurring playlist blasted over the audio system, I heard “Waterfalls” by TLC greater than two dozen instances, an expertise mitigated by getting to satisfy precise members of TLC in particular person.
However the extra time I spent there, the extra I questioned why the ’90s maintain a selected grip on us proper now.
I’d like to say reveals resembling mine, and different ’90s staples from music to vogue, endure or discover new recognition due to their intrinsic artistry. However I feel there’s an easier rationalization. The phrase I heard again and again on the conference was “consolation,” as in “consolation TV” and “consolation songs.” The ’90s are the “consolation decade” that individuals want proper now, whether or not they lived by way of it the primary time or not.
Attending this conference throughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a reminder that the ’90s have a significance past Tickle Me Elmo and JNCO denims. The interval between the autumn of the Berlin Wall on the finish of 1989 and the terrorist assaults of Sept. 11, 2001, was a time of principally war-free bliss for America. Domestically, our nation was reveling in tech optimism and financial enlargement. I bear in mind adults round me saying, “There’s no distinction between Republicans and Democrats” and which means it.
It was additionally the final gasp of a time once we all appeared to observe the identical reveals, take heed to similar music and see the identical folks in magazines. Whereas breaking apart the monoculture is for the very best — doing so makes room for extra voices, extra tastes and extra illustration — I admit that I miss the consolation within the connectivity it supplied. In immediately’s meme-a-minute world, it may be arduous to seek out generational touchstones, to construct a group past a distinct segment. I would bear in mind 2021 because the yr of “The Underground Railroad,” when you have been busy watching “Loki.” But when I say “yada yada,” virtually each American who had a tv in 1997 (and the thousands and thousands who caught “Seinfeld” in syndication within the years that adopted) will in all probability smile.
Sharing a previous, or celebrating points of an period you weren’t even a part of, connects folks. And whereas it’s important to confront the blind spots and pitfalls of the previous, it’s additionally worthwhile (and enjoyable) to forge communities. We don’t go to a Renaissance Faire to burn witches and reenact colonial invasions. We go to put on tunics, eat turkey legs and converse in unhealthy English accents. We go to relive the bizarre, great and frivolous elements of a bygone period.
Over my weekend at ’90s Con, the frivolous definitely reigned supreme. There have been lots of neon colours, Tamagotchis and makes an attempt to breed the precise sound of a dial-up modem. No person talked about the L.A. riots, Clinton scandals or Rwanda.
Lenin famously stated, “There are many years the place nothing occurs, and there are weeks the place many years occur.” In some ways, the ’90s appears like a decade the place nothing occurred. Or somewhat, a decade throughout which individuals my age, caught within the naïveté of youth and guarded by child boomer denial, might dwell as if nothing have been taking place. A critical reassessment of our optimism and delight for that interval is lengthy overdue … however not at ’90s Con.
As a substitute, it was a time to expertise the nice and cozy, irrelevant glow of escapist nostalgia. To “win” that trivia contest by declaring which Spice Woman I might be (Child, no matter meaning). It was banal, and banality was the purpose.
To paraphrase a smart tune from my youth: Generally you don’t wish to chase a waterfall, however somewhat, follow the rivers and the lakes that you just’re used to.
Rider Sturdy is a director and author. He co-hosts the podcast “Literary Disco.”
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