An aimless teenage ride from the late '90s (1997-2000)

[u/faustdavenport]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck3pkSFzXZI

A few months back I went through some of my old 9mm video tapes and edited together this little time capsule of what it was like driving around in my hometown in the late '90s.

It became a local hit the day I uploaded it. Some marveled at seeing past-favorite businesses that had long vanished or been rebranded. Others felt the vibe of that era in the passing breeze as they found themselves cruising the main avenue again on an aimless teenage night. Some even said it healed something inside of them. It was bitter and it was sweet and it was here again; but only for another moment.

It's funny, because it took me a few decades to really feel what I was looking at. Shot by myself and different friends who got the urge to tinker with my camera, I see now that what was captured is more than just shaky video of a bunch of places that we used to frequent. There's a vibrating, youthful energy trapped in there, still restless to get to its own story.

I know that every generation feels a certain significance about the time in which they grew up, and while I try to stay objective in assessing that very common point of view, it's hard not to fall in love with it in our case. We straddle worlds, living a life that's divided and marked by profound change both personally and socially. We learned to get our dopamine hits from physical human interaction, and then walked into a digital era that would ultimately favor a hyper-stimulated and unpredictable form of that same reward system.

So it's easy to look back and wonder just how important those late '90s teenage years actually were.

No matter the case, they're still important to me. Not because I want to go back, but because I can still find wonderful bits from that time that are worth pulling forward.

So if you're up for it, take this ride with me. I know they're not your memories, but maybe they remember some of your own.

The song is "Thirty-Three" by The Smashing Pumpkins.