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1. Saturday Morning Cartoons (with Real Commercials!)
Remember waking up early on purpose?
You’d pour cereal into a bowl the size of your face and sit inches from the TV, waiting for your favorite characters to appear. No streaming. No skipping. If you missed an episode, you simply… missed it.
Freshness level back then: Peak joy.
2. Blowing Into Game Cartridges to “Fix” Them
The ritual was the recipe for gaming success:
Blow → Insert → Press hard → Pray.
3. Phones With Cords (and That One Phone in the Kitchen)
It stretched across the entire room while you whispered secrets to your best friend, twisting that cord until it looked like curly fries. Bonus points if someone yelled:
“Hang up! I need to use the internet!”
Dial-up really humbled us.
4. VHS Tapes You Had to Rewind
Blockbuster late fees were the jump-scare of the 90s.
And the ultimate disappointment?
Sliding a tape in and discovering the last person watched it to the end and never rewound it. Betrayal!
5. Snack Foods That No Longer Exist
3D Doritos.
Dunkaroos (original recipe).
Fruit pies from the gas station.
The crispy, sugary perfection of cereal before everything got “healthier.”
If you tasted these, your childhood was delicious.
6. Burning Your Own CDs
“Summer Mix 2003” probably had one song 3 times because it skipped but you didn’t care. Creating a mix CD wasn’t just an act—it was a love language.
7. Disposable Cameras and Waiting for Photos to “Develop”
You didn’t know if your finger was over the lens.
You didn’t know if someone blinked.
You didn’t know if the whole roll was ruined.
And yet… that mystery was part of the magic.
8. The Sound of Your Computer Booting Up
The hum.
The buzz.
The click.
The Windows startup song that let you know it was going to be a good day—or that Solitaire awaited you.
Kids today will never understand how exciting it was just to get the computer running.
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