11:59 pm, Just Before 1990

December 31st, 1989. New Year's Eve Party. What a sad night.

The local post modern rock station was playing the top 100 songs of the 80's. Instead of being excited about the 90's, we seemed to be in mourning of the end of 10 great years of music and pop culture. Each song on the radio sounded so far away. "Safety Dance" was already very retro; 1983 seemed totally different from 1989. Footloose, Flashdance, Fame ... all those F words were far, far away.

The idea of the 90's made us feel old. Perhaps that's because we knew that there would only be 10 more years left until the year 2000. We had ten years to accomplish all the futuristic dreams that people had been dreaming up for years. We remembered Prince singing "Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999". That didn't seem so far away anymore. What would happen then? Just like Prince's song, would our children some day be saying to us "Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb?"

The 90's. How could they possibly top the 80's?

At midnight, the number one song of the 80's was played: "How Soon Is Now" by The Smiths. I think we were all expecting something that you could dance to. Or, something that really, really rocked. But, it actually fit the mood of that night quite well.

I remembered a friend of mine in school had to quickly turn in an essay that he finished at the last minute before class started and he hadn't titled the essay yet. He quickly jotted down at the top of the paper "How Soon Is Now". He showed it to me and we both laughed, knowing that the title had nothing to do with the essay at all. He had hoped that the teacher would find the title itself to be so deep that this would increase his score. He got an A on that paper! That was back in high school... back when you didn't have to TRY to live in the now... you just did.

It was after midnight and it was 1990. We weren't ready for the future, but we were in it anyway. We didn't want the future to be here now... not that soon. But, it was. High school was almost over. It was time to PLAN. And DO. The Gulf War was on the way.

And REM would get us to sing about "Shiny Happy People... holding hands". Hello 90210. Hello raves. Hello grunge. Hello Nirvana: "Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello..."