I’m currently writing a short book set about 25 years ago. It’s a prequel to my Seasons of Faith series about couples who are in their 40s. My work-in-progress tells the story of how one of the couples fell in love when they were in their 20s.
Writing a book set in 1998 seemed like a simple enough thing to do. But as I get deeper into the story, I’m realising how many things we take for granted now that didn’t exist back then. It’s easy to trip up on the details, so I have to be careful to steep my mind in the world of the late 20th century. It seems so long ago when I think of it like that!
In 1998, I was working as a journalist in Uganda, and I was still one year away from getting my first cell phone. Many of my colleagues had bought phones, but I was slow to jump on the bandwagon. And, of course, these were not “smart” phones. All they could do was make calls. Text messages weren’t a thing yet.
Phones like these were the height of mobile technology in the ’90s.
I didn’t have a personal email address—that was still a couple of years away. If anyone wanted to get in touch with me electronically, they sent the message to my office’s general email address, with my name in the subject line. The “email computer” sat in the middle of the enormous newsroom, where dozens of people shared access to it.
Mail order purchases were still common, and nobody I knew did any shopping online.
Researching stories for the newspaper meant going to the library and thumbing through stacks of back copies and looking things up in actual books and encyclopedias.
Automated teller machines had been introduced only a year previously, and only the biggest banks had them. On payday and any other day I wanted cash, I had to queue up for ages, clutching my bank book, waiting for the teller to update my bank balance manually.
In 1998, public alarm was building up about the Y2K bug, which we thought was going to create havoc to all this technology we were dependent on. I find it rather amusing now, considering how much more plugged in we are these days.
What about entertainment in 1998?
Remember these? Back in 1998 we used to record our favourite TV shows on VCR, and this is how we’d also rent movies to watch at home.
Everyone was raving about Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan, but neither interested me. My favourite movie of 1998 was The Prince of Egypt, and I also found The Parent Trap amusing.
There was no such thing as streaming or video on demand. You watched a show when it came on, or taped it on a VCR to watch later. Friends was at its peak and Seinfeld was in its final season.
I didn’t have access to many Christian books at the time, apart from the works of Francine Rivers and Frank Peretti, and had never read any contemporary Christian romance.
What were you doing back in 1998? What were you watching, reading, and wearing? Does it seem like a lifetime ago or just like yesterday?
I write fiction that reflects my Christian faith. I love happy endings, heroes and heroines who discover sometimes hard but always vital truths, and stories that uplift and encourage. My family and I live in the east of England where we enjoy rambling in the countryside, reading good books and making up silly lyrics to our favorite songs.
In 1998 I was working hard to save a deposit for an apartment, back then property was affordable. Skipped TV as I think you had to be home to record more than an hour or two of TV, so it was the cinema for watching films. Books were on paper, so it was a trip to the library and CCR if it existed wasn’t easily accessible. So happy with much of the progress we have now.
We have indeed made progress on many fronts, Dianne. Although I didn’t think property was affordable even back then!
We had a home computer, C-64 or C-128, and we were just becoming acquainted with email and the Internet. My husband had a cell phone but rarely used it. Y2K was a concern. We moved, our son was a college freshman, our older daughter engaged, and I was homeschooling our second daughter. I believe I read a lot of Janette Oke and Grace Livingston Hill. We watched Walker: Texas Ranger reruns. I’d have to do research to dig out other details.
Those sound like great memories, Beth! I hadn’t discovered Grace Livingston Hill just yet, but I did a couple of years later. I can’t imagine homeschooling without the Internet! We take so much for granted now.
In 1998 we were making the transition from Dallas, Texas, to the Chicago area in Illinois. It was our first year as empty-nesters.
Wow, that was a big move, Merrillee!
In May 1998 I was born.
You’re so young!!!
I was in my last year of school in 1998. I can remember the school getting a computer connected to the internet – we took in in turns to go class by class into a small room and watch the computer ‘dial up’ with its distinctive sound…then no one had any idea what to do with it lol. I remember some students had pagers, no one I knew had a mobile phone. And yet a couple of years later at university we all used email and I did eventually get a phone! It doesn’t seem that long ago, but it really is!
That dial-up sound does bring back memories, Ruthie! Why on earth did students have pagers? The only people I new who had them were super busy executives or people in medical pofessions wh had to be reachable.
Oh, wow! I was working in the healthcare field in 1998, and it was only two years after my Daddy passed. I was working on computers, but that were definitely not like the ones of today, though they were slimming down some, and at least had detached keyboards, unlike the ones I first started working on, where the keyboard was actually the base of the monitor!!!
The computers back then were very different, with those clunky monitors, weren’t they, Trudy? Flat screens were still a long way away. Some of my colleagues were still insisting on using MS-DOS and we still had some hardliners who insisted on Word Perfect.
In 1998, I was 17. I was a Junior in high school. I played on the varsity girls soccer team. And I worked weekends at Magic Mountain as a ride operator. I lived with my mom during the week when I had school, and with my dad anytime I had work. I loved X-Files and Friends and Fraser. I was a teen who thought she was pretty cool (I was not…lol).
That’s hilarious, Nicole! I felt pretty sophisticated when I’d watch Fraser, too. I’m impressed by how productive you were, playing competitive sports as well as working!
I honestly can’t believe it was so long ago. How did that happen?
Oh, and I didn’t get my first cell phone until 2004.
I know, right? I was shocked when I counted back 25 years and saw how recent it seems.
I was 11 years old in 1998. We didn’t gave a computer yet. We rented VHS movies from the local movie rental store. I ADORED The Parent Trap and watched it obsessively. And yep, I was homeschooled without internet or really any technology. I read the Mandi series of Christian YA novels that our little Iowa library had. My mom also ordered me YA historical novels from the Christian Book Distributors catalog, and I shared them with my best friend.
Aw, another young one, ha ha! I very well remember video rental stores and rushing to rewind the tapes before returning them.
In 1998, we had two teenagers and my dad died on my birthday. I was working two jobs, neither of which I enjoyed, and life was super stressful. We’d had our computer for a couple of years (I want to say it was a 386???) but our dial-up and email address were brand new!
Sounds like a tough year with so many hard things going on.
Hi Milla! In 1998 our family was recovering from total loss house fire (July 1997). The church parsonage had to be rebuilt. Hubby and I celebrated our 25th anniversary with a parsonage open house.
Hubby and I purchased our first computer in 1984. Our family was always technology minded. I taught high school German and so was familiar with computers and the internet. Due to hubby being a pastor, we had two phone lines – our house phone and a line we used for the internet. We also had cell phone. Mine was pay by the minute. Since we had teens, Friday night was movie night. Rent two VHS movies, have a pizza delivery, make popcorn. Cheaper than the cost of 5 movie tickets.
As a teacher, I laughed when a student asked why I did not have an iPod. Didn’t I like technology???? I said I have seen more improvement in electrics than they had – reel to reel tape recorder, to turn table, to 8 track tape, to cassette recorder. Add computers, phones, calculators, movies. YES – Those were the days my friend – we thought they would never end. HA, ha. Still learning new stuff daily at 70+ years. Enjoy your week.
Wow, you really are technology-forward! And don’t forget CDs and DVDs giving way very quickly to streaming services. Time really has marched on.
I can’t even imagine what it’s like to lose everything in a fire. I have a friend who that happened to, and she said it’s one of those experiences that marks you for a long time.
I love the Friday movie night idea! We’re a family of six, so going to the cinema costs an arm and a leg. We only visit when there’s a film that we know all of us are going to enjoy, which doesn’t happen often.
Have a wondeful week!
You just made me feel old! Ha ha!
I was feeling old, too, so glad to spread the love, tee hee!
In 1998 I turned 13. I’m pretty sure it was the year I found ‘*NSYNC & constantly wore butterfly clips in my hair 😀. I didn’t realize there were cell phones back then!
That’s hilarious, Tonya! And butterfly clips are making a comeback now, judging from what I see in the hair accessory racks.
I loved this post, Milla, and admire your bravery to write something “historical.” (I can’t believe we’re applying that term to 1998!!) This is one reason why I haven’t tried writing historical romance. I’m certain I would include something that didn’t belong!
It seems like a lifetime ago. I had four kids living at home, so whatever I was doing revolved around them! They’re all out of the nest now and have given me four grandkids to love. I’d never go back!
Thanks, Erin! I didn’t think of it as “historical” until I started writing. 1998 seemed totally contemporary since I remember it so well. It’s a totally different feel to write about twenty-somethings in the 2020s versus twenty-somethings back in the ’90s when I was that age, too.
We would have been married for ten years. So much has happened, that I could not tell you much more . In many ways, it seems like a lifetime ago. I guess in some ways, it is for anyone who have been born in the last 25 years. Thank you for sharing. God bless you.
God bless you, too, Debra. You’ve been in my prayers since your recent loss.
can’t remember
I had to think a bit before thinks came to mind! Thanks for your comment.
I know back then I only accessed the internet via the local library. I didn’t get it at home until 2001.
I may have still had the betamax video machine for videos.
We had our old tv that didn’t have a remote and we only had 4 or maybe 5 channels.
Ha ha, I remember limited channels back then, too, and TV going off the air at about 11 pm every night. Times have indeed changed!
I was exactly one year old so I guess I was too busy doing what you do at that age learning to speak correctly, walk steadily and play hahaha.
I think in those days the movies and the culture weren’t yet so anti-Christian and the harlequin lines for the most part were still more sweet than spicy, I suspect the YA books really were YA.
Ha ha, you really are young! And, yes, there’s definitely been a shift in culture and media.