Ah, the 1990s.
Grunge music. Seinfeld. Bill Clinton. Pete Sampras. Michael Jordan.
It’s not long enough ago yet that people are necessarily nostalgic for a return to that decade.
Julie and I were in Monroe, North Carolina, I was pastoring Mt. Carmel & Midway United Methodist Churches (yes, at the same time!), and our children were very small.
So what do I miss about the decade of grunge, Seinfeld, Clinton, Sampras, and Jordan? Aside from those five? Here are five more:
1. Concentration. I miss the ability to work on a project or sermon or retreat without stopping to check on email, Facebook, or Twitter.
2. Dot Matrix Printers. With tractor feed. Nothing signified “finished” quite like the grinding sound of a document emerging from the dot matrix.
3. U2, “One.” Because every decade has a song, and this is the “one” for the 90s. Don’t even think of disagreeing with me.
4. Overhead Projectors. Because this is how Mt. Carmel first went “contemporary.” Eventually, we even ran the transparencies through a copy machine so the words would be typed and not printed.
5. Promise Keepers. I remember going to the Georgia Dome with about 20 men from Mt. Carmel. While there, we joined with about 60,000 guys for two days of singing, praying, race reconciling, sharing, and weeping. Some found this controversial; I found it cathartic.
