How do you remember 1999?

[dahlfan]

I moved to the United States in December of '99- less than four weeks before the new millenium, am I qualified to write a story set in that year, in the US even though I didn't experience the bulk of '99 in America?Also, what do you remember from '99?I remember senseless Y2K hysteria, and culture shock mostly. How was it for you?

[Wayne K]

Unless you're writing a memoir and are claiming to have lived there when you didn't I say sure. Research it and write it well and the reader wont even think about it.

[mscelina]

I was on a regional tour that year, so I remember lots of hotel rooms, hotel bars and packed theaters.

In other words, I don't remember much. I was either drunk or onstage.

[Rowan]

I was in Academy that year and we were sent home for a long holiday break as they feared the computer systems would go belly-up, etc. (usual Y2K hysteria). :) I think you're qualified as the entire year seemed to be hype about Y2K (from what my muddled brain can recall).

[maestrowork]

Two weeks before the New Year I was in Paris, then London, then just a few days before 2000 I came back to New York and counted down to 2000 in Time Square (after waiting in the cold for 14 hours). A few days later I was in Vegas.

Good times.

[Parametric]

I remember watching Manchester United win the Treble, and the fireworks on New Year's Eve. Must have been my first year of secondary school, but happily I've forgotten that.

[Wayne K]

I was on a regional tour that year, so I remember lots of hotel rooms, hotel bars and packed theaters.

In other words, I don't remember much. I was either drunk or onstage.
Will you be in the northeast anytime soon :D

[Cranky]

I was pregnant and newly married for most of 1999. It was a pretty darn good year for me, personally, and so I was pretty selfish and not paying much attention to the outside world, heh.

[Smish]

I graduated from high school and started college in 1999. It was a year of change for me, and a very happy time in my life.

:)Smish

[Stew21]

New years eve 99 I was in a new town, alone, didn't know anyone and fell asleep on the couch (with a party raging at the bar across the street), with my dog at the foot of the couch.

That year was a new beginning for me. I remember 99 vividly. :)

[aadams73]

1999 was the year I also moved to the US. Less than a week before the Columbine shootings, actually. That year was a blur of moving countries, moving cities, buying/selling a house, and all the fun things that accompany all those events. At times, I remember thinking I'd moved to a different planet, so yeah, the culture shock thing was pretty huge for me, too. The Y2K thing wasn't even a blip on my radar; I knew it would never amount to anything.

[Akuma]

The perfection of marketing techniques (commercials), consumerism, and paranoia.

[ellisnation]

1999... I was 18. Clinton/Monica jokes were still fresh. I rolled my eyes at the Y2K thing.

Go to BBC and look at their years in review. 1999 - JFK jr died. The purple TeleTubby was labeled as homosexual.

[RedScylla]

I was living in Tampa, FL, working for a small non-profit agency. My boss was a hysterical nutjob who apparently thought that "Y2K" would cause all of our electronics to rise up and kill us. Maybe she thought Terminator was a documentary or something. At any rate, she made us turn off and unplug everything when we left for the holiday. Everything. Including our server and the microwave. So, when we got back to work the next week, of course, nothing worked.

Oh and New Year's was a crazy riot of drunks in Ybor City, singing along to Prince's 1999. So crazed and drunk that nobody even realized the moment at which midnight struck.

[Wayne K]

I remember Y2K, but this was one of the drinking years I'm afraid.

[Xelebes]

I remember by filing away bits of information that happened to me and attempt to recall them on certain occasions. The less I am able to recall, the less I am able to remember. The original process of filing leaves me with an incomplete picture before I even start but that's ok. Not everyone is going to recall the same picture as everyone else. Together, a complete picture is made.

1999 was no different for me than, say, 2000. I have fond memories and I have not so fond memories. MY ability to recall is patchy but I can muster a picture together which is always good.

[Katie Alender]

1999 was the year of the dot-com blowup. I remember being young and poor and doing all of my Christmas shopping online using massive coupons and freebies from all the big sites. Well, big back then--eToys, that type of thing. (It didn't surprise me that they all went out of business... they were basically giving everything away!)

It was before reality TV hit, but "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" brought game shows back.

Computers were dirt cheap and basically disposable. A lot of them were practically free, if you signed a contract for three years of dial-up internet service.

And you could still walk people to the gate at airports.

[panda]

I remember partying like it was 1999...don't remember too much after that. :D

Actually, I remember beanie babies...lots and lots of beanie babies.

[colealpaugh]

I remember watching Manchester United win the Treble, and the fireworks on New Year's Eve. Must have been my first year of secondary school, but happily I've forgotten that.

Something else happened in '99?
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/04_04/ManUtdCup_468x312.jpg


I've never been to East Pukapuka, but it's not stopping me from writing all about it...

[dahlfan]

Maybe she thought Terminator was a documentary or something. Hah, I died.

[mscelina]

Will you be in the northeast anytime soon :D

I usually take a couple of trips to NYC every year. I totally dig the whole, "Can you believe she gave up theater for writing?" conversations that generally occur when I show up.

Mostly because after a few drinks, I don't know why I did it either. ;)

[Cella]

I was still in high school and worked at the GAP. I think I remember more about folding sweaters than what I learned in school....(j/k) ;)

[aadams73]

Actually, I remember beanie babies...lots and lots of beanie babies.

Oh my God...

I parked at the supermarket a couple of weeks back, and the car nose-to-nose to me had a dash covered in beanie babies. They were stacked two high and three deep. I have no idea how the driver managed to see over the top, or how they did fly everywhere when turning a corner or stopping in a hurry.

[dahlfan]

In '99, I didn't know what Nickelodean was, and I wasn't familiar with a lot of the slang that kids were useing. Someone said to me once, "your outfit is the bomb," and I asked her what she meant because, even if she was speaking figuretively, I couldn't wrap my head around my Tommy Hilfiger get-up being potentially explosive.

[Regan Leigh]

I graduated from high school and started college in 1999. It was a year of change for me, and a very happy time in my life.

:)Smish


Same here! :)

I spent NY on a lake. My friend lived in a neighborhood of houses that circled a lake. Four of us went out in his canoe and parked in the center of the lake with champagne. We waited to see how ridiculous the y2k thing had been blown up. We also toasted to one thing we loved the most about the other people. It was great. :)

[Linda Adams]

Lots of talk about what turning 2000 would do to computers, banks, any electronic equipment that used dates.

And my little dog had to be put to sleep on New Year's Eve. Her kidneys were failing, and my father didn't want her to die in the house.

[benbradley]

I remember 1999 well, I listened to Art Bell every weeknight that year, he was making available especially for his listeners those crank-powered (no pun intended) radios so you could know what was happening when the lights went out (from whatever radio station that had an emergency generator and wasn't dependent on computers to transmit over the air), and he always had the most interesting and knowledgeable guests back then.

Perhaps the most notable thing that happened in the whole decade of the 1990's was some reporter asking some geek/nerd/computer type what the biggest challenge of the New Millenium (which the geek surely knew started on January 1, 2001, not 2000 as so many people believed). He answered "We're going to run out of TLA's [Three-Letter Acronyms]."

So what I'm saying is I can be, and will be happy to be, Your Reliable Source Of Information on what happened in 1999. :)

I even edited my webpage after midnight on the first day of Y2K, as it shows here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010405042659/www.mindspring.com/~benbradley/

In 1999 people shopped and did banking electronically from home, just as it shows in this 1960's video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO58SGiYwwo

Oh, and there was a big resurgence of Prince's early 80's hit song "We're gonna party like it's Nineteen Ninety Nine. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFt8hMi32Jk)" (watch it quick, this video has only been up for days and as the comments indicate, Prince does NOT want his music online)

[cathyfreeze]

1999 wasn't the last year of the 20c, btw, tho everyone in the media said it was. The 21c starts in 2001.

But...like others have said, research is good, and so you can, of course, write an American 1999 story. I write lots of stories (most of them, actually) about people and places i've never been. ;)

I'm old, so your character prolly won't have my experiences. I was just heavily into courting my later-to-be 2nd hubby. No one around me considered seriously that y2k would be a scary time, but i was teaching English in a small TX town. :) I don't remember much of anything but work and my love life--those kinda took up all my energy and attention.

[RickN]

I moved to the United States in December of '99- less than four weeks before the new millenium, am I qualified to write a story set in that year, in the US even though I didn't experience the bulk of '99 in America?Also, what do you remember from '99?I remember senseless Y2K hysteria, and culture shock mostly. How was it for you?

In 19999, I managed thousands of work hours updating the company's software so that the non-IT employees could email each other about senseless Y2K hysteria on January 1.

And deposit correct paychecks, and file proper tax documents with the IRS, and send bills to customers, and email order forms to vendors, etc, etc.

That was one busy year.

[K. Taylor]

First year with my SO, as we decided to date on Dec. 28th 1998. '99 was not a good year for me for at least the first half of it. Started watching BTVS and "Angel" in the fall and my boyfriend wore his "Got Blood?" t-shirt on Tuesdays.

[brokenfingers]

I don't remember 1999.

[Wayne K]

I partied like it was 1999 in the 80s sometime. Alas, those were drinking years too, so I'm still a little fuzzy.

[Wayne K]

According to my work record I was working at the Jacob Javits convention center in 1999. No wonder I can't remember it. I had read that Leaving Las Vegas was really a 300 page suicide note, so I got to it. I came close a few times, but only succeeded in giving myself a stroke. I carried two six packs of beer home from the hospital though I could only move two fingers and one leg.

There's a happy ending sometime later, but thanks for reminding me where I came from.

[benbradley]

I used to say "If Ronald Reagan were your President, you'd drink too."

[dahlfan]

I used to say If Ronald Reagan were your President, you'd drink too.Why?

[Pat~]

I remember 1999 vividly. But nothing you'd want to put in your novel. I can't even get myself to write about it.

[Priene]

I saw in New Year on Princes Street in Edinburgh. The crush was frightening. Somebody threw beer in my face and then I watched a gang fight on North Bridge. Happy days.

[backslashbaby]

It was just a regular year to me. I was bummed that in the end we didn't party like it was 1999 on the New Year because it seemed like it would be too crazy out, and not a good idea.

I ate take-out Indian food with my now-Ex, and we watched TV :)

[jodiodi]

My mother died in January 1999. I spent most of the year mourning her and two cousins who also died that year. I lost a lot of weight, spent a lot of time working and the rest of the time out dancing every Friday and Saturday night, acting very foolish and self-destructive. I met my husband and he proposed online. He'd been sent to Korea that year and asked me if I'd marry him when he came home. I said sure, not thinking he meant it. Then he sent me a ring for my birthday in October and I thought, Damn; I better plan a wedding. I spent a lot of the last half of the year sending him little gifts and care packages and planning a wedding for when he came home in March 2000. We were on the phone at midnight on NYE and didn't even notice the calendar change.

It was also the year my Daddy kept getting more and more frail and seemed to have lost his will to live after Mama's death.

I don't really have fond memories of 1999. Except for meeting my husband and planning our wedding, it was a very sad year for me and my family.

[Cliff Face]

I was still a year off legal drinking age at the end of '99, but I drank tequila and lemon from 2 2L bottles anyway, down at a beach that is pretty much THE New Year's spot for southern adelaide - also a dry zone, so we walked down the beach until we weren't near anybody anymore.

Don't remember the fireworks. All I remember is getting groped on a bus home, then getting off at the wrong stop and walking around lost somewhere in the suburbs for an hour before realising that if we had walked the exact opposite way after getting off the bus, then we'd have had a couple of streets to walk and that's it. Also thought I saw a ghost, which nobody believed me. :)

I was quietly hoping that Y2K would make things all screwy, because I still had a year of high school to complete that I wasn't looking forward to. :)

As for what else I remember of the year... school, I guess, and Buffy and David Letterman. Not sure what to think about that, though...

[fringle]

In 1999, my husband and I were living in Wash DC. He was finishing up his MBA at Georgetown and I was studying Russian Lit at GW. I remember that summer, my husband got an internship that paid well for an internship, but still not much. At the time, it was an amazing amount of money for us. I thought we were one step a way from being down right rich. Oy, I had low standards back then. It makes me wonder how we survived the year before that when we were living off of his grant money and the pittance I made from my fantastic job measuring boobs in Victoria's Secret.

[truelyana]

Same here! :)

I spent NY on a lake. My friend lived in a neighborhood of houses that circled a lake. Four of us went out in his canoe and parked in the center of the lake with champagne. We waited to see how ridiculous the y2k thing had been blown up. We also toasted to one thing we loved the most about the other people. It was great. :)

Triple here! Though I didn't graduate from High school, as the schooling system is somewhat different in the UK. It was however my first year of college in the same school, as they have a separate facility for it there and it was the beginning of my wild 3 years of mayhem and what not.

[seun]

In 19999, I managed thousands of work hours updating the company's software so that the non-IT employees could email each other about senseless Y2K hysteria on January 1.


:D

1999 was a good year. I'm not saying why. Just was.

[barbilarry]

My father died in January 17th in 1999. He was a mayor of a small town. I never knew how far reaching his friendships went. The city police department came to his wake in formal uniform and the state police did the same. We had to hold off his funeral so political persons could arrange their schedules to attend his funeral. The news channels in Cinn. OH. covered his funeral and did eulogies on him with personal remembrances of their experiences with him. The funeral procession was miles long to the cemetery.

For the whole of 1999, I received Cards and letters from people that had been helped by him, in their lifetime. To this day, I have a hard time wrapping my head around that because to me he was just my Dad.
Jane

[Charissa]

I remember all us kids making our sister cry 13 times on New Years Eve '99. The 13th time being 'pushing her into the pool' (She was already wearing her togs). After that we got in trouble. That' the unlucky 13.

I actually feel really bad about it.

[JulieHowe]

New Year's Eve 1999 was kind of a letdown. The world didn't end. I had a butane camping stove, a closet full of bottled water, staples and canned goods that lasted me for years.

When I was ten years old and heard Prince's song 1999 for the first time, I decided that I would spend New Year's Eve 1999 in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, by the time 12-31-1999 rolled around, my fear of large crowds, suicide bombers and the end of the world kept me home. Also, I couldn't find anyone else who wanted to go with me, and I didn't want to die alone on the Las Vegas Strip.

[Enzo]

Spent a short holiday in LA, mostly Santa Monica, attending a screenwriters seminar, partying at a couple of nightclubs.
On September 21, living through a terrible earthquake in Taiwan.
And yes, all the scare stories about Y2K which turned me off scare stories for the rest of my life. If there's a scary problem, someone is going to solve it.

[beezle]

Hrm, let's see, the year 1999 in Australia...

I was 18. That was the year my family was evicted because our chihuahua-cross found a way into the landlord's holiday place (ground floor of the house) and defecated in every room, over several months.

It was the year I was glued to the TV- the Kosovo war, the East Timor crisis, and Neon Genesis Evangelion on SBS.

I knew one guy who was worried about Y2k. Worried enough, at least, to buy 4 cans of beans.

[Kenzie]

I was in my final year of high school and enjoying it immensely. Lots of good parties, I was looking forward to starting uni, I was living with my grandmother while my parents moved to another city and being completely pampered by her. Our end of year performing arts show at school had a Millennium Bug theme. On NYE I went to a party where I installed myself on a friend's front lawn with a bottle of tequila and drank half of it by 10pm. Just before midnight someone physically carried me down to the beach to see the fireworks. The beach was full of people, it was hot and humid as hell, we all watched the fireworks and then, as one, turned to the skyscrapers and waited for lights to go out, planes to crash, etc. etc. Then we all kind of shrugged and stumbled back to the party (I assume, I don't actually remember much after that point).

[AnonymousWriter]

I was 6 years old. Can't remember much of it, to be honest. I probably fell several times in the playground. Oh, and I think this was the year I began to love books.

[shethinkstoomuch]

I was happily obsessed with Harry Potter (well, the two books that had been released) and made my first trip to the UK that I remember. I wrote a lot of silly short stories and read more than I should have. School bored me and I couldn't wait to move on.

[PoppysInARow]

In 1999 I was seven years old. :D So I don't remember much. I remember my mom giving me "champagne" on new year's that turned out to be sprite.

[DrZoidberg]

I was a programmer working with fixing the Y2K bug in insurance systems. The height of the IT bubble. Lots of work and lots of money that year. Good times.

I went to Spain to celebrate the new years. Picked up a chick at a bar and then later got chased out of the village by her brother because I had "dishonoured" him. Memorable because it was such a bad caricature of the Spanish crimes of passion. I could never add this to a story. Nobody would think it would be believable. Ended up travelling to Barcelona, finding some old friends (another set of friends) who were now (ie then) rock stars and celebrated New Years with them. Made a deal with a girl to have sex on the strike of twelve. It didn't pan out because a friend of her got mugged in the hubbub on Las Ramblas. I had a new suit tailored in a hurry for the party, and it of course got soaked with champagne almost straight away.

My millennium was very memorable. Bizarre even.

[CaroGirl]

I moved to a new house with my husband and 2 yo in November and had a baby in December of 1999. Princess Diana was only 2 years dead. I remember the Y2K hype and I remember not believing any of it would happen. Because of the infant, we just stayed home for New Year's Eve and probably fell asleep early. Very anti-climactic.

[Alpha Echo]

I graduated high school in 1999, so my view of the world was very small. That was actually a very bad year for me - the end of high school was great, but the beginning of college was not. I do remember lots of partying, lots of alcohol, and lot of attention from boys.

I am much happier now and would never go back!

[gp101]

1999:

As I recall, nightlife was quite interesting. "Shiny" shirts were in--I think--for guys. Club pills were all the rage, reaching their peak in the early 00s when techno clubs (because of police and bad press) started closing in droves due to overdoses, and NO I did not partake in that vice. Did seem like everyone was trying Ecstasy in 99. In Boston, because of all the international students attending MIT, Harvard, BU, et al, there were a number of clubs catering to that clientele where you could hear American dance music sprinkled with lots of foreign music, especially arabic--really good rhythms BTW--not so much arabic tunes after 2001. I think Britney may have debuted in 99, though that wasn't my particular highlight for music that year.

I think the early contenders (pretenders) starting woofing for the presidential race.

Pedro Martinez had what is considered by many one of the most dominant pitching years in MLB history--and I think he still had a damn gerrie-curl. The Yankees were near the end of their championship run, but still considered a powerhouse. Was this the year Jordan retired from the Bulls, or maybe the year he played for Washington?

My feeling, if you're going for a 99 nostalgic atmosphere, get in tune with the current big events of the time (use USA Today or NY Times archives if you can get to them), and do throw in a few cultural mentions like top songs, movies, TV shows and trends of the year. Also, research cell phones and computers. I think--though I may be way off--most people were still using dial-up service and I don't believe there were many, if any, camera phones. I do believe Napster and KaZaa were all the rage back then to steal music.

[James81]

1999 was an awesome year for me. I graduated that year, so it was filled with all the stuff Seniors do (hanging with friends, prom, etc.).

I remember the Y2K hysteria and thinking how crazy it was that people were worried about it.

I remember going to the movies to see the Matrix for the first time and being absolutely blown away. It was a very definative year in changing how movies were made.

I remember the feeling of what it was like to have the tiny little bubble I'd lived in (school) be scattered, watching as all my close friends moved away, trying to get a foothold in the world.

I also remember being sickened to DEATH at hearing about Bill Clinton and all his gallavanting with interns. I remember thinking that we were the butt of the joke to the world around us who watched that.

And now, looking back, I remember it as the calm before the storm (9/11) and how much simpler the world seemed back then.

[dahlfan]

All of your insights mean a lot. I'm researching and reading up a much as I can because I don't want to make any mistakes.

[Straka]

I was still in high school and worked at the GAP. I think I remember more about folding sweaters than what I learned in school....(j/k) ;)

Same here, though minus the gap.

As to what I was doing... most likely wasting time. Playing computer games, going to punk shows, trying to avoid a creepy ex-gf. Think I went done to D.C. that year for this government program as well.

[Selah March]

Two in diapers and a puppy that refused to be house trained.

For me, 1999 was the year of "sh*t happens."

[lucidzfl]

Wow. I was just out of college. I'd formed my own LLC and gone into business for myself. It was my last year in Tennessee before I moved to Florida. I didn't have a girlfriend all year. I watched the ball drop with my dog on the couch. (That dog is still alive and kicking, 14 years old)

Coincidentally, it was the night I came up with the idea for what would eventually become a trilogy (though its trunked, how sad is that).

In a discussion with my friend, "Dude, what would it be like, if someone fought god. Not a god, I mean, THE god!"

No, I didn't do drugs, nor did I drink at all.

[scarletpeaches]

I spent the entire year telling people the new millennium did not begin in 2000.

[ink blot]

I celebreated my fifth wedding anniversary and the birth of my fist child in '99. Y2k hype was all over the news, I didn't believe anything would happen but kind of thought it would be cool if it did. I remember the Columbine Highschool shooting kept the news folk talking forever. Spongebob came out. An F5 tornado hit oklahoma, I live in Kansas so it was a big deal.

[Ken Schneider]

A bathtub full of water

[benbradley]

I spent the entire year telling people the new millennium did not begin in 2000.
And no one listened or cared. Been there, done that.

I don't know whether to be relieved or horrified that that stupidity wasn't limited to the USA.

[Adam]

I remember (in no particular order):

* Turning 16 and getting my 50cc scooter (freedom at a rate of 30 miles an hour).
* Not being worried in the slightest about Y2K. In fact, not giving a damn about the millennium in any way, shape or form.
* Playing truant a few weeks before my exams to hang around a guy's flat, smoking and playing banned computer games.
* Jennifer Heal and Rebecca Anderson.
* Finishing high school.
* Getting woeful exam results, thanks to my "studying is cheating" way of thinking.
* Starting college and leaving a couple of weeks later.
* Me and my mate James sat on our matching scooters on Derbyshire Level, smoking cigarettes and thinking we were all growed up. ;)
* Being jealous of James' scooter because his restrictor was faulty, enabling him to reach the heady heights of 36 miles an hour (on the flat).
* Having my first attempt at asking a girl out fail miserably, then being mocked by said girl's friends. That was fun.
* My first gay "experience". Kinda. (Pretty sure that was '99)
* Being kicked in the kneecap by Nick Swann just after a GCSE exam, then having to limp the quarter mile to my parent's car.
* Discovering Megadeth. ;)

[Noah Body]

1999, yes...the year the Moon was blasted out of Earth's orbit! (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072564/)

For myself, I was a busy little beaver...getting divorced, living in Singapore for a few months, then China and Japan. It was the year of frequent flier miles.

[OpheliaRevived]

I was drunk, angry at the world and cheating on my first real boyfriend with a guy I met on the internet.

[Zelenka]

I graduated from theatre school in May of that year, and started work with the tour company in London the following Monday after my grad performance. Around the millennium I was doing walking tours to Greenwich and wearing this stupid headband thing with glittery "2000"s on springs on it, but I went home for the actual new year. I remember the Y2K hype and I remember the news on January 1st saying basically about 2 PCs in France and a toaster in Dundee had stopped working and that was about it. I also remember all the stuff being built for the millennium and not working - like the millennium bridge that ended up wobbly at first, then the millennium balloon they had down on Tooley Street by Tower Bridge, which looked like a rover out of The Prisoner, and kept getting stuck and eventually broke its tether and flew away. In Glasgow we had the millennium tower that never worked properly (and is still closed). And then there was the Millennium Ferris Wheel, now called the London Eye, which I watched being built and watched being raised from the Thames and promptly falling back down again. That's mostly what I remember.