The Good Life – September-October 2021

And no child of the 90s will ever forget
the sound of dial-up internet or the thrill
of an AOL chat room. If you ever wondered
where the idea for parental controls came
from, it's safe to assume it was the direct
result of some poor parent who stumbled
upon the history feature of Windows 95
Internet Explorer.
Then there was the Friday night movie rental. It's
hard to imagine anything more fun, exciting or
important to a kid in the 90s than looking forward
to wandering the new releases at the local
Blockbuster on a Friday night. If you were lucky,
your parents handed you a $10 and waited in the
car, giving you that first sense of independent
choice.
New releases took up the most attention, but you
had your pick of genres throughout the store.
Comedies, dramas, Sci-fi and eventually game
rentals, too. If you were daring (or cool), you'd
wander over to the unrated section to peruse
things like Faces of Death, the first Ultimate
Fighting Championships and, of course, all the
WWF pay-per-views your parents never let you
order live. The bulging biceps and vicious stares
of Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker and Macho Man
Randy Savage glared at you from behind the
plastic case, daring you to check them out.
urbantoadmedia.com / THE GOOD LIFE / 19