Gen X'ers Share What They Loved About High School In The '90s

Buzz Feed

11-07-2025

Before smartphones, Snapchat, and being tracked by your parents on Life360, high school in the '90s was pure unfiltered chaos (or so I'm told). Recently, u/Extreme_Raccoon_8736 came across a Facebook post that perfectly captured what it was like being a teenager in that golden era. The post resonated so much that they shared it on Reddit, saying it 'rang true,' and asked other Gen X'ers to share their own '90s high school memories. The response was a nostalgic goldmine. Before getting into the responses, however, here's the Facebook post that started it all:
"If you were a high schooler in the 1990s, you know we lived in a golden window of time: right between rotary phones and social media, landlines and iPhones, mix tapes and Spotify playlists. And man, was it fun. We didn't have smartphones glued to our hands. We had to memorize phone numbers, call our friends' houses, and actually talk to their parents first before we could even think about making plans. Friday night plans? You made them at school or hoped your friend called your house before your dad picked up the phone and said, 'Who is this?' Music was everything. We had real variety — grunge, gangsta rap, pop, R&B slow jams and skater punk all living together in perfect harmony. You recorded your favorite songs off the radio on a cassette tape and prayed the DJ wouldn't talk over the intro. If you had a CD, it was a prized possession. If you had a Discman with skip protection, you were high-tech royalty. Fashion? It was chaotic in the best way. Baggy jeans, flannel shirts, chokers, Starter jackets and Airwalks. We dressed like we were either going to a Pearl Jam concert or about to skateboard through a Mountain Dew commercial. And those who dared wore JNCOs so wide you could smuggle an entire boombox in one pant leg. We passed notes in class, folded like origami masterpieces, and absolutely no one texted. If someone liked you, they had to tell you. In person. Or they'd ask their friend to do it and circle 'yes,' 'no,' or 'maybe.' School dances were full of awkward slow dances to Boyz II Men and No Doubt, with sweaty palms and butterflies. There was no filming it for TikTok, just living it in the moment. Half the photos were blurry because your disposable camera only gave you 24 chances. We watched TRL after school, recorded our favorite episodes of Friends or Fresh Prince on VHS and stayed up late to watch Unsolved Mysteries even though it gave us nightmares. If you missed an episode, you just missed it. No streaming. No spoilers. We drove around with no GPS, just vague directions like 'Turn left after the old gas station,' and nobody ever knew exactly where they were going, but somehow we always found our way. Being a teen in the '90s meant real freedom. It meant making mistakes without everyone seeing it online. It meant being present, laughing until your stomach hurt and making memories that weren't for content, but for life. We were the last generation to grow up just before the world changed forever. And honestly? We got the best of both worlds. So here's to the teens of the '90s. We didn't have it all, but somehow, we had everything."
Given that, here's what other Gen X'ers had to say about their teenage years:
"I often think how we are the last generation with no real digital evidence of our teen years. As far as the internet and any searches anyone could do, there's really no evidence of me existing prior to about 2001–2002ish. Even non-digital evidence is scarce. There are probably a few dozen old photographs of my childhood in an album at my mom's place. I still have three of my four high school yearbooks. Other than that, there is very little record of my existence."
"I would hate growing up as a teen today. We didn't know how good we had it."
"Ah, the '90s — cigarettes, beer, and drugs for all. Damn, it feels good to be a gangster."
"I had a Discman with skip protection, and I remember telling my friend that. We were in a Suzuki Samurai with an open top at the time, so he decided to jump the Suzuki with said Discman playing on the stereo using a tape adapter. He got some pretty good air, and we almost flew out of the vehicle, but the Discman did not skip."
"I love the fact that there were only so many shows on TV. We all watched 90210 episodes at the same time. We would watch the MTV Video Music Awards and then talk about it in school the next day. Now, with streaming and so many ways to see stuff, we don't have that general bond. Even if the Saturday morning cartoon selection was limited, we ALL watched them. I miss that for my kids."
"The '90s still had that total sense of shared culture — still 100 percent human-scale times. I wonder how weird it feels to be in high school, say, starting maybe early mid-2010s or later. High school, in particular (or anything pre-college and especially pre-post-college), always had such a tight-knit feel, everyone together the next day sharing the same stuff. But with so much fragmentation now, I wonder if it still feels quite as cohesive and shared."
"The JNCO jeans! My then-boyfriend (now-husband) stole cartons of cigarettes and a ferret with the giant back pocket on those! Separate occasions — you don't want a ferret hooked on nicotine."
"I am 50 years old with teenage children. I recently had to deliver my daughter's Chromebook to her school because she forgot it. This was my first time at a high school during work hours. The last time I was in high school was '94. As I got out of the car, it was very weird. Students were not hanging out in their cars or in the parking lot. They would go straight to class. There was no loud music in the parking lot. Some students had headphones on. When I dropped off my daughter's Chromebook, I saw the vice principal. I told her all about what I witnessed. She laughed and said, 'Students have not blasted music in the parking lot in 15 years.' The whole situation still throws me off. Almost every car on campus was blasting grunge. We had open campuses. We could go as we pleased. We had no curfew."
"The most terrifying thing you could do was ask someone out, then call them on the phone. You prayed to EVERY god in the sky that they would pick up and not their mom or, worse, their dad."
"Remember coded rings? Ring once, hang up. Ring again and hang up. I'll know it's you, and I'll call you back."
"Directions were fun. I'll never forget the time I was told, trying to find a field party, 'If you pass the rooster mailbox, you've gone too far.' Seven quarters to get me a pack of Marlboro Reds out of a vending machine, buying weed from a dude on a skateboard with a 1-foot mohawk and a penis pump tattoo. Party crashing, keg stands, and finding your friends by riding your bike past every hang spot. Wu-Tang forever..."
"I feel bad for kids now because there are just so many ways to bully or otherwise mess with people. At least when I was a teen, the worst that could happen was someone three-way calling you but not telling you the third person was on the call."
"I got an intern the other day who is 20 years old, and he was picking my brain about stuff from the 1900s. The idea of memorizing dozens of phone numbers freaked him out — the idea of hearing a phone number and repeating it a couple of times so you didn't forget it. He couldn't fathom it."
"I was trying to explain to a 22-year-old how back then you bought an album or tape and would listen to it over and over again until they released the next album or tape a few years later. He didn't like the idea of doing that."
"I don't want to be nostalgic (yet I am), but I think growing up in the '80s and '90s, we had more freedom than today's youth. Imagine, we were driving across Europe in a beat-up Volkswagen without phones and navigation systems. If we were lucky, we had a printed map and somebody who could read it. Also, we had no contact with anyone at home other than the occasional postcard. We were on some Greek island for two months, completely off the grid."
"I graduated high school in '85, but a lot of this still checks out. Except the fashion. We loved our colors in the '80s. I had so many different pairs of colored socks along with matching colors in bracelets, necklaces, and big, dangly earrings. Sighing wistfully..."
"Clove cigarettes and Zima. Can't forget those."
"Sometimes I leave the house without my phone...just a quiet act of defiance."
"Graduated in '94, definitely was a different time. Hair metal and '80s pop was dead, grunge was dying and the newer wave was coming in (Green Day, Ace of Base). I miss driving my rusted '60s muscle car I paid $700 for (that's worth $60,000 now) with windows rolled down and not a care in the world. Parties and hangouts were spread by word, starting at 2 p.m., by 5 p.m., everyone knew where to be."
"I remember going to a photo shack or pharmacy to get the disposable camera film developed from the kegger the previous weekend. Got dirty looks from the old lady behind the counter when I went to pick them up."
"Popular kids watched Friends or The Fresh Prince. I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. Back then, watching Star Trek meant you were a nerd, but it wasn't the only way to be a nerd. In the 1990s, we had computers, but they were in classrooms. If you used one outside of computer class, you were a nerd. People didn't understand their potential. They were strictly for school work, in the eyes of most people. I had a computer in my bedroom. My mother did not like it, so we didn't have it in the living room. She didn't want to see the thing. So I had a desk in my bedroom, and the computer sat on it. And it wasn't an IBM/Compatible, nor was it a Mac. It was a Commodore Amiga 1000, and it was awesome."
Whether you were memorizing phone numbers or living for TGIF lineup nights, high school in the '90s really was its own kind of magic. Got your own nostalgic memory from your teen years? Drop it in the comments below!