Tag: back-then

A little bit of Nostalgia.

A little bit of Nostalgia.

Shel R.6 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What makes you feel nostalgic?
View all responses

Good morning!

As I sit here with my coffee, I had to answer today’s WP writing prompt because I just saw a video on TikTok that actually made me shed a few tears (literally) when I woke up.

I was still in bed, but I always check the news, the weather, my messages, missed calls, etc. and then – I’ll scroll the TOK for a bit if I have time or nothing to do. I don’t work today, so – as I was scrolling the TOK – the video I saw this morning had some sad music playing in the background and the video said:

“It’s almost 2026. That means that 1996 was 30 years ago! What was your life like back then?”.

Yes, I shed a few tears, because – what do you mean 1996 was 30 years ago?

The first thing I thought about when I saw that video – was “Damn, I graduated 8th grade in 1996 and started high school months later”.

I giggled as I thought back to 8th grade and especially – all the good times in high school.

One of my favorite memories has always been sitting in my English class when it started, and one of my good friends being late. She was trying to run into class before the teacher took attendance, and she ended up falling and sliding into the class – so her body was half in and half out of the door. We were both laughing and I yelled, “SAFE!!!! HOME RUN!!!!”. She got a detention for being late because the bell already rang, and when the teacher told me to come up and get my detention, I asked what for?!

“Screaming in my classroom for no good reason and disrupting the class”.

Me: THE CLASS IS LAUGHING, TOO!

I still got the detention. lol.

Memories like that – make me smile and make me feel NOSTALGIC.

In high school – there was a time where my best friends and I would cut classes once-in-a-while.

DO NOT RECOMMEND!

If you’re young, go to class and do well. I wish I could go back in time and do things over – the right way.

Anyway, there was a day when my best friend and I planned to cut the entire day of school and go to one of our favorite malls, but when we walked out the back door of the high school, her dad was parked right there. I guess he heard our phone conversation the night before and he was ready to take us right back into school – which he did. 🤣

I remember screaming on one side of the hall – to friends’ way on the other side of the hall – and everyone in between – laughing because we were loud. I remember driving our favorite teachers crazy, and everyone in my circle taking up three or four lunch tables because there were so many of us who got along and loved the hell out of each other. 💕

I miss high school if I’m being honest, and those were some of the best days of my life.

Those memories make me feel NOSTALGIC.

Seeing items from back then that I used or had – makes me feel Nostalgic.

Not just the memories of those happier times.

Do you remember the Tamagotchi era?

I had one of these and so did many of the kids in my high school.

I remember many of us trying to sneak and check on our pets during class. I remember getting in trouble over these in class when they made noises because our pets were thirsty, or hungry, or needed to use the bathroom. 😁 I had mine connected to my jeans or book bag and finally – classes started to ban them.

AND – THE DIAL UP CONNECTIONS BACK THEN – WERE WILD.

America Online was super popular back in 1996, and it took forever to get online.

It used the same line as our housephones, and if the phone rang – the connection to AOL was lost.

We’d have to start the long sign on process all over again.

If my parents needed to use the phone, I’d have to get offline, and tell friends I was chatting with, “BRB”.

(Be right back). ha.

Do you remember the awful sound it made while it was trying to connect? If not – or you’re too young to remember it – let me show you what I dealt with – what many kids dealt with – back in the 90s trying to get online. We didn’t have good WI-FI or any at all back then.

Try being a kid in the 90’s – knowing you’re supposed to be in bed – but wanting to chat with friends online and risking your parents hearing these sounds as you try to sneak chat late at night. 🤣

This makes me feel Nostalgic.

When the Chicago Bulls won the 1996 Championship – the world and Chicago of course – went absolutely wild!!!!

When people still talk about it today, it gives me a great sense of Nostalgia. 😁

I was at my best friend’s house spending the night when this took place.

Her, I, her brother and sister and the teens from next door to her house – were all outside and when they won. Cars were honking like crazy; people were yelling out of car windows, fireworks were going off all over, and people were celebrating that win.

A car past by her house, beeped and people were cheering, so her brother started screaming and cheering.

It was late at night, and her mother looked out of their 3rd floor window and called us inside. When we went upstairs and asked why, she told my best friend’s brother, “You’re making too much noise!”. He replied, “So is the rest of Chicago!”. My best friend and I couldn’t help but laugh, so her mother turned around, put her hands on her hips and told us, “Girls! Don’t encourage him!”.

This magazine back then was EVERYTHING and anytime a photo of it pops up somewhere online – or I hear someone talking about it now – it makes me giggle but makes me sad a little. Totally makes me feel Nostalgic. I used to get this magazine in the mail every month when I was a teenager and into my early 20s, and I’d always have to order something from it.

The fashion was definitely unique, and some of the ways those modeling the clothes took the photos – were hilarious. Who was subscribed to get this? DON’T LIE. haha.

It’s not around anymore. They created some knock-off version but it’s nothing like this one.

These magazines were favorites of mine – as well as many other teens back in the 90s:

Remember when Jonathan Taylor Thomas was all teen girls’ dream boy?

Then ………………..

Semi-Now……

(Photo taken from US Weekly. This was him back in 2023, so he has changed a bit once again).

Back to the magazines though –

I used to buy so many copies of different magazines back then, and they came with posters inside.

I miss those days, and again – they make me feel Nostalgic when I hear someone talking about them or see old copies of these magazines. I don’t think they’re around anymore, but I could be wrong. I don’t know what this new generation has now.

I remember one of mine and my best friend’s favorite teen rap groups back then – was KRIS KROSS.

I also remember when she got the very last magazine that had them in it. I was a little jealous, but she was nice enough to let me borrow it. lol.

I was so excited when I got the last copy of their cassette at Kmart when “Totally Krossed out” came out.

That’s what it looked like.

They started the trend back then of people wearing some of their clothes backwards.

Hell, a few months ago – I purchased a small stereo off Amazon with a CD and cassette player, pulled out a bag of Cassettes I still have – and that alone – made me feel Nostalgic.

I had some good times and I think – if I’m being honest – us 90s kids had it great.

My older son says the 90s looks like they were a lot of fun, and he wishes he was able to live through those years, but he was born in 2003. 😊 The 90s were the best, and when I think back to those times, those memories, everything great we had before WI-FI and social media, before smartphones, and all this other technology – life was good.

When we got to ride around and be kids all day.

When we knew it was time to go home – when the streetlights came on.

When we knew where all our friends were – by where all the bikes on the lawn were.

When a piece of gum costs .5-.25 cents for Bazooka – and they came with the comics inside.

When all our family members were still alive and well, and summer days were spent catching fireflies and playing RED ROVER, RED LIGHT – GREEN LIGHT, or WATERCOLORS on the steps of the elementary school by the house.

When we all ran to our houses to get money when we heard the ice cream truck coming and lived just a block or two away from each other.

All of this – makes me feel Nostalgic.

I miss it all and there’s so many other memories, items of Nostalgia – and places I could write about, but I just wanted to jot down a few that came to my mind this morning, as I answered the WP writing prompt, and after I saw that video on TIKTOK about how 1996 was 30 years ago, and it made me tear-up a bit.

It seems like just yesterday, but it’s so far gone, it’s sad.

We did have it good, and the 90s were amazing.

From me graduating 8th grade and starting high school – to all my memories back then, good times, and things I remember or had – it was the best.

One other memory that comes to mind and makes me laugh – is when my best friend slept over one day, and I had my bedroom on the 2nd floor – front of the house, so if I opened the three big windows I had in my bedroom – I could easily climb out onto the this little awning / almost like a roof on the house.

I would go out there and sit on summer nights and just look up at the sky while everyone else slept.

The night my best friend slept over back in high school – we were playing TRUTH OR DARE, and she dared me to go out into the roof and yell, “I LOVE YOU, JAKE!”. (Not his real name, but I’m totally not putting his real name here) – although – he’s deceased now sadly.

He was a teenage boy – a little older than us – who lived a few houses down from where I grew up, and I had the biggest crush on him. My best friend knew that.

Little did I know – that he and his friends were outside at 2 AM – when this dare took place, and I took it!

I climbed out on this little roof, and yelled “I LOVE YOU, JAKE!” – thinking there’s no way he’d hear it.

IMAGINE MY SHOCK – and embarrassment – when Jake yelled back, “I LOVE YOU, TOO!”.

🤣🤣🤣🤣❤️😶😶😶😶😶❤️🤣🤣🤣🤣

I have never climbed back in that window so fast….. !!!!

My best friend couldn’t stop laughing.

I think I avoided Jake after that night.

The reason I couldn’t see that he and his friends were outside – was because there was a huge pine tree right next to our house that blocked the view to his.

I think we were only 15 at that time.

NOSTALGIC memories are totally the best!!!!!

They make me feel like I’m young again, and they’re bitter-sweet.

Another thing that makes me feel Nostalgic – is the sound of a lawn mower running on a hot summer day.

My dad used to always cut the grass in front of our house and in back, and I love the smell of fresh cut grass.

So, when I hear a lawn mower and smell the grass – I think of my younger years.

Road trips – I remember road trips to Michigan to visit family, and Pennsylvania for Family reunions, so now – when my kids and I take road trips anywhere – I think of the crazy days when my mom had to make sure that we packed everything we needed, made sandwiches for the road, and spent hours trying to stop my brother and I from fighting in the car – as I do now sometimes – with my kids. 🤣 Only – I don’t make sandwiches to put in the cooler with pop, and snacks like my parents did.

We just stop and eat somewhere.

Still – road trips make me feel Nostalgic.

I miss that time in life.

When all was good and the weight of the world wasn’t on my shoulders.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to reading other people’s Nostalgic answers.

Have a beautiful day my loves.

AND – HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I know I said it already, but that’s okay.

❤️Shel❤️

Back in 1982 and the Pros and cons of work recently.

Back in 1982 and the Pros and cons of work recently.

Shel R.14 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Share what you know about the year you were born.
View all responses

I haven’t done one of these WP prompts for a while, so here we go.

I will honestly say I don’t know much about the year I was born – except that all of my family was all still alive, healthy and so close. That has since changed, many of have passed, and family no longer gets together like they used to.

So, I had to look up some fun facts, wild history events, etc. that happened in 1982 – (the year I was born), and found these interesting facts.

I had no idea Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne were born in the same year, but that was interesting to learn.

I listen to Nicki here and there, but I’m a huge fan of Lil Wayne and his songs. (Especially his song MIRROR).

Those popular songs from 1982 – are all still amazing today. Physical, Survivor, I love Rock ‘N Roll – they all still play on the radio, and my grandma Ann LOVED Katherine Hepburn, so it was nice reading all of this.

Reading what things costs back when I was born – had me shocked. Everything was so cheap.

I still owe $10,000 on my car, so to see that a car back then – fully cost $9,903 – makes me wonder what the hell happened that prices of new cars these days are $30,000 + if you want a BRAND new one in most places.

Mine was $30,000 – and I realize now that I could have gotten something bigger and a better, but I still love my car. It’s crazy expensive for no reason though. To think that I would have had it paid off by now if it were 1982 – blows my mind.

A house was $83,000 + ….and now, good houses are anywhere from $279,000 and up.

I’m just throwing average numbers out there, but houses are NOT cheap anymore.

Groceries have gone up like crazy since then.

Gas is up.

It’s sad to see how much times have changed. Even the music now – compared to 1982 – is sad.

I do giggle when I see that M*A*S*H. was one of the most popular T.V shows back then, because my mother hated that show, so whenever she watched her programs and that came on, we knew it was time to turn the T.V. off and do something else. My grandma watched that show and it was boring. However, my grandma LOVED the show DALLAS as well.

Michael Jackson released (Thriller), and E.T. became a popular movie.

I wanted to know more about what happened in 1982 because now I was curious, and I found this video.

That’s all I have.

There’s some history for you.

I could sit here and do more research, but I have to eventually get ready to take the kids to school and get to work. 😊

Today is the last day of school for the kids, and then Winter break starts.

I can’t believe we’re two days away from Christmas – which reminds me to order everything for Christmas dinner today.

I’m still shopping for gifts from “Santa” for the little guy, and stocking stuffers for the kids, and I’ll finally be finished. Of course, you know darn good and well that I plan to get myself a bottle of wine, and enjoy the last gift wrapped tomorrow night. I’m off work tomorrow and Christmas day, thankfully!

Yesterday, we took gifts to Elijah’s teachers, his Kindergarten teacher from many years ago, and his 2nd grade teacher. I mentioned that his 1st grade teacher moved out of state, but his past teachers loved his gifts, and they were so happy. Elijah was so happy to give gifts. He’s like me. He enjoys seeing people happy. ❤️

My car goes in for service today, and I’m praying it’s just a simple fix.

I think that’s all the life updates I have.

🙄

At work – we lost a woman I became close to. She was an alcoholic, and she knew her liver was failing, but she continued to drink. She was one of the tenants at the facility I work in.

I remember when I first met her. I’ll call her “Shannon”.

She was feisty. She was playful and fun, and she put her fists up acting like she was ready to fight.

We laughed about, and ever since that day a few months ago – I always called her “my homegirl”, or “my girl”. I’d tell her boyfriend – (who also lives in the facility) – not to come downstairs without my girl. So, he’d go back and get her. We used to make each other laugh and she was such a sweet firecracker. She didn’t take no shit.

We do portions at work – for some of the tenants – where we give small bits of alcohol, so they don’t deal with the withdrawals, and there was one time I had to deny her the portion she was supposed to get because when I breathalyzed her, she was over her limit. She made me giggle when she told me, “I don’t care! I got Vodka in my room”, and she strolled away, so me denying her – didn’t matter, but I knew at least – I was doing my job.

She was spunky, usually smiling or joking around, and happy.

I never expected that a few weeks ago, I’d be taking her to the hospital because she wasn’t doing well, and we’d have our very last conversation.

On the way to the hospital, we were talking and she said something about me having an accent.

I didn’t hear her, so I asked, “I have an accent?”. I knew she said something about one, but I didn’t know what. She yelled and replied with, “YOU DO! I SAID YOU DO HAVE AN ACCENT!”. And then – she apologized for yelling it and said she’s just in a lot of pain.

She ended up being released from the hospital and coming back to the facility about 2 weeks ago and she was so angry when she said her boyfriend offered her a drink. She denied it, because she didn’t want to die. She knew it was getting serious, and the next day after her release – she was right back in the hospital for the very last time.

Her boyfriend has been walking the halls in the facility, sitting at the front by the office, or coming down just to occupy his time, get his mind of her, and kept asking if she was going to be okay. Sunday, he came up to me and asked, “She’ll get better, right?”. I knew what I SHOULD have said, but my heart broke for him and I told him, “I’m not sure. All I can tell you is that she probably won’t be back here”. He said she has a lot of dreamcatchers, and he’d like his favorite one out of her room if that’s the case, so he could remember her. I asked our lead staff if we can do that for him, and I was given permission.

My son works with me on the weekends, so he went and made sure that on Sunday, her boyfriend was able to take his favorite dreamcatcher. I also asked our nurse if she could make him a copy of Shannon’s picture from her medication box, and the nurse was all for it. 💕🥺

Last night, one of my co-workers called me and said she’s helping our boss make phone calls.

I thought I was in trouble for something, but she told me she just wanted to let me know that “Shannon passed”.

I asked if her boyfriend knew yet, and she said after phone calls, she’ll be on her way to let him know.

We’ve been dragging it out for so long and not wanting to tell him the full extent of what we knew about her, and we tried to just ease his mind and tell him very little – but yesterday – we had to fully tell him like it is, and our nurse talked to him, told him the truth, and let him go to the hospital to say his goodbyes.

This shit is never easy, especially when you work in a facility or setting where you get to know everyone, get close to people, learn their stories, know they’ve had hard lives, and then see them go through things like this – or pass.

Last night when I found out, I sat in my bedroom and shed a few tears, and then whispered, “Fly high my girl!”.

I laugh – imagining her meeting God the same way she was the day I first met her – with her fists up, pretending to want to fight and saying, “Let’s go!”. lol. Just a little humor in this dark world – where we’ll all have our day eventually.

I pray for her family. I pray for her boyfriend who has been so lost without her. I pray for my co-workers who knew her much longer than I have, and for all those who loved her.

*****

Work is so rewarding, and I love my job, but it can also be stressful and sad at times.

Saturday, my son told me one of our other tenants was on the phone and she was in tears.

I found out one of her family members passed.

As she made arrangements to go with family for a few days, she sat and waited for hours for them to come and get her and her anxiety was through the roof. When she was leaving, I opened my arms to give her a big hug. She laughed when she said she smelled like shit because she hasn’t showered yet. I told her in a funny way, “I don’t give a damn! Come give me a hug Stinky butt!”. We hugged so tight and I asked her to please take care of herself and be good while she’s gone.

I know it’s so easy for these amazing men and women to relapse when times are tough like this, or to do something stupid they may regret because they’re not fully thinking, and I hate the times I have to watch them go through things that life throws at them – when they’re already dealing with the choices they’ve made and the positions they’re in now. 💔

On the plus side – when I can make them smile, laugh, or feel like someone cares – that makes me feel good, and I love doing what I can for them.

One of the women there told me that her cat was out of food, and I know she didn’t want to tell anyone or burden anyone with it, so she kept coming to the office to get some of our Chicken packs. I went and got her cat some treats and food, and we both laughed so much when she said treats are like a drug to that cat and I asked if this means I’m her cats “drug dealer now”.

Another woman I’ve gotten close to – keeps asking for this one Maroon Puma hoodie I have because she loves it so much. I joke with her and tell her she’s not getting my hoodie, and I love it, too! Yesterday at work, I had a piece of paper that fell into my sleeve, so I took my arm out of the sleeve to shake it out and she was standing by me. She got happy and thought I was going to take the hoodie off and give it to her. 🤣 This is the second time I’ve worn it there and she tried to get it.

I love the hoodie, but today – when I go in – I am going to hand it over to her.

It’s the little things, and if I can put a smile on their faces, I’ll do what I can. If it makes their day a little brighter, I’m all for it.

I’m going to miss that hoodie! 😶 Still, her happiness will be worth it.

This is why I say Kindness is so important.

I’d love to sit here and write more, but it’s time to make sure the kids are ready for school and for me to get ready for work.

Pray that my car issues is a simple fix – as my son will be dropping me off at work and taking my car in, and that Christmas hurries up because I’m almost ready to get it over with. ha.

Love ya!

💕Shel💕