The Summer of 1995

Hold on to your flannel and backpack purses. The summer of 1995 was the summer that I discovered some stuff that I still like today. That summer was between the grades fifth and sixth. 

Let’s start off with music. I was really into pop music that year. There were a lot of good songs released that summer. “You are not Alone” by Michael Jackson, Have you Ever Really Loved a Woman?” by Bryan Adams, “Waterfalls” by TLC, “Kiss From a Rose” by Seal, “Run-Around” by Blues Traveler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Nicki French, “I can Love you Like That” by All-4-One, “Water Runs Dry” by Boyz II Men, “One More Chance” by The Notorious B.I.G., “Runaway” by Janet Jackson, “Don’t Take it Personal” by Monica, “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio, “I Believe” by Blessid Union of Souls, “Only Wanna be With You” by Hootie and the Blowfish, “Fantasy” by Mariah Carey, “I’ll Make Love to You” by Boyz II Men, “I Wanna Be Down” by Brandy, “He’s Mine” by MoKenStef, “I got 5 on it” by Luniz, “Roll to Me” by Del Amitri, “Feel me Flow” by Naughty by Nature, “1st of tha Month” by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, “Best Friend” by Brandy, “I'll be There for You” by The Rembrandts, “You Oughta Know” Alanis Morissette, and “This is how we do It” by Montell Jordan.

Some of those songs may have found their way into my MP3 player.

I watched my first ever Korean Drama or K-drama with English subtitles. It was a show called “Blowing of the Wind”. 

I still remember the theme song. The bad thing is there is not a lot of information about this drama online in English or Korean. This led to my interest in East Asian cultures. I went to the library and checked out some books about Korea and Japan.

My dad introduced me late night tv and “The Tonight Show”. I mostly watched Leno, Letterman, Conan and “Friday Night”. My dad was explaining about how “The Tonight Show” was taped locally and that you could go to tapings in the early evening, and then watch the show you went to at 11:35PM. Then I started watching Letterman and Conan. I liked their New York Style and absurdity. Leno was ok, but I thought Dave and Conan were funnier. I really liked “Friday Night” because the show had music videos and standup comedy.  That was the first summer I messed up my internal clock by staying up late to watch late night tv. I even watched a handful of episodes of “Saturday Night Live” from season twenty.

I got really into NBC’s Must See TV shows that I saw in summer reruns. I started watching “Frasier”, “Wings”, and “Friends”. I had starting watching “Seinfeld” during the summer of 1994. I had some interest in “Wings” earlier in the year because my cousin had seen episode “Is That a Ten Foot Sandwich or Are you Just Glad to see Me?” and he wanted a big sandwich for his birthday party. The Big Sandwich is now a family tradition. 

I made a tape with some of those comedies. It had the “Frasier” episode “Flour Child”, the “Seinfeld” episode “The Jimmy”, and the “Friends” episodes “The one with the Boobies”, “The one with Two Parts (part one and two)”, and “The one with the Ick Factor”. Then the VCR ate the tape. That VCR was a tape eater.

I used to check out entrainment and celebrity magazines from the local library.

I discovered the show “The Big Comfy Couch”. I knew it was a show for preschoolers. The show was just so weird and interesting. For some reason I really liked the Clock Stretch. Loonette kinda looked like one of my neighbors, but I never told her that or admitted I watched that show. I was too mature to watch something like that. 

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers the Movie came out that summer. I wasn’t over the Power Rangers yet. I thought the movie was really good. The continuity errors ruined it for me. My favorite scene is when the characters inline skate to the song “Free Ride”. I used to tell my dad to play the song really loud from the house so I could reenact the scene from the movie pretending I was Kimberly. I collected the trading cards and the toys. The White Ranger was even on the cover of the August 1995 cover of Disney Adventures. 

The movie got bad reviews because critics were not familiar with the characters. The movie was made for fans of the show that were already familiar with the characters. When I saw the “Ninja Quest” episodes of the series it bothered me that there was a different plot, and how they got their ninja powers were different.

While I was in fifth grade towards the end of the year I was feeling that my clothes were a little too childish compared to other girls in my grade. They were wearing stylish and trendy juniors’ clothes. I was still dressing like a little kid in cartoon shirts and shirts with pictures of Power Rangers on them. I was happy I could get clothes from the juniors section. I could start dressing like a teenager. I really wanted by baby tees. I got about five baby tees when I went back to school shopping. My favorite one had an embroidered sunflower on it.

I still watch K-dramas occasionally. I'm not as crazy about late night tv as used to be when I was a teenager, but I still watch it. "The Big Comfy Couch" and Power Rangers are more for a nostalgia factor.