A Man of the 1990s

     I remember the year 1996 like it was yesterday. We had just renovated the kitchen in the house where my wife and I lived for 20 years, where our children had been born and where, in 1996, they were in middle school. It was the year I had lyme disease. The year my company had a big layoff. I was offered a voluntary retirement package at work. I turned it down, and ended up getting a promotion because so many other people left the company.

     For the rest of the 1990s I had a pretty good run at work . . . until 2002 when I was handed an involuntary retirement package. And thus began the next phase of my life, including my years of  semi-retirement (which are still going on). At the same time my wife and I were getting divorced, and soon after that I met B, and began a new life in another way as well. All that just does not seem very long ago.

      Yes, to me, the 1990s seem like yesterday. My kids were in school. I'd go to Little League games; and I'd watch them play tennis and go to swim meets. My parents were still alive, and we'd go visit Nana and Grandpa for the holidays.

     Last night I happened to notice a photograph of my mom and dad that sits on the bookshelf in our living room. I guess it's one of those things that's so familiar, I never really see it. But I saw it yesterday. In a way, my mom and dad still seem like they're here. Like we should start planning to go visit them for the holidays.

     The 1990s have not faded away. I watch Seinfeld reruns on TV. And sometimes Friends as well. The other day I saw that the original Jurassic Park (1993) was on AMC. This summer the latest in the series,  Jurassic World, was in the movie theaters. Plenty of other films from the 1990s come around all the time: Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump and Shawshank Redemption, all from 1994; Fargo from 1996 (there's now a TV series Fargo on the FX Network); Saving Private Ryan from 1998, and  lots of others -- and all of them seem fresh and modern, at least to me.

     On my Sirius XM radio I have one of my preset buttons on the station playing hits from the 1960s. They sound old and shopworn to me. The 1960s were so long ago, they appear like a dream. But the station featuring music from the 1990s -- those songs are new! Nirvana, REM, U2, Pearl Jam, Radiohead. Aren't they the bands that the kids listen to?

     And, of course, the most powerful political figures of the 1990s are still around. Which begs the question: What about the Clintons?

     I would agree with most experts who rate Bill Clinton a pretty good president, despite his personal flaws. Would I vote for another Clinton in the White House? Maybe. Hillary Clinton may not be as honest as the Pope. But what president is? Certainly, nobody is more "ready" to be president, and I agree with her on a lot of issues -- for example, just last week she came out with some ideas on how to rein in the ridiculous increases in drug prices. She's talking about health care today, just like she was in the 1990s!

     But, actually . . . in the political context, the 1990s do seem kind of long ago and far away. Remember "Don't ask, don't tell"? Would anyone believe, "I feel your pain" anymore? Why can't we find a newer, younger, fresher face?

     Well, you always have doubts. So I don't know what your favorite decade is. But, like I said, I'm a man of the 1990s, which, as far as the past goes, were just around the corner.