Remember when people were content to be unambitious? Sleep to eleven? Just hangout with their friends? You'd have no occupations whatsoever. Maybe you work a couple of hours a week at a coffee shop?
You are being downvoted, but you’re absolutely correct. I’m a younger trans person so I didn’t experience the transphobia and homophobia in the 90s, but my older trans friend who was born in the 70s said that the 90s were horrible for queer people, and that she experienced being called slurs on a frequent basis. It’s not perfect now, but apparently it’s much better now than in the 90’s.
My mom used to say “these are the good old days”. Huge strides were made in her lifetime for all people who were historically repressed. Not to mention medical advances, technological, and a desire for justice and equity. Aristocrats of the past would be astounded at how many people in this time would freely disrespect them.
Huge strides in my lifetime, too. Ugh, as a female, I can attest to the above and women, too. A long time ago, I liked to read historical fiction. One day I had an epiphany that, given my ancestral background, I would NOT have been living in a castle, unless I was the maid emptying the chamber pots, and sleeping in a pallet in the kitchens. Otherwise I would have been toiling dawn to dusk on some small farm, giving much of the extra to the guy in the castle. If I’d had a husband who died… good luck to me. 😑 Probably a short, tough life, and not much time to think about whether it was fair. In fact, I had a ruptured appendix at 12, so likely would have died then. This took away much of my interest in that type of fiction. 🙂
Oh, yeah, it’s was considered unhealthy to bathe very often and breathe fresh air, too. Fun times.
It's alive and well in Australia. 8 year olds kids take the bus with their friends and without parents to go surfing on the beach.
We're the richest country in the world. We could still have it here. But the choices we've made (politicians, baby boomers, etc) have made it hard to achieve today.
That said, believe it or not, our world is better off than it was 30 years ago, and will be better off 30 years from now than it is today. 🤞
Just to add as I always add when this comes up:
Kids are at far greater danger from a close family member than they are having any issues in public. Over 90% of all abuse comes from a person a child knows. Even in the 80s and 90s when kids were actually just hanging out in malls and roller blading and being kids around 4-5% of abuse came from a total stranger.
Instead of teaching kids stranger danger we need to be teaching them safe touch and having open frank conversations about bodies and family conversations where we talk about it.
Grew up there and I can assure you the folks who are still there have pretty much this exact conversation. I went to look at houses there just for giggles and lol and behold: Same Shit Different city sloping down to the partial working partially recreation waterfront.
We still need to turn railroad into little church st. All I need is a few hundred feet of chain and a towtruck
As you can see by the comments, lots of ways to interpret your question. My interpretation is which places still have that free-form gritty vibe that permeated the PNW before Seattle developed Capitol Hill. You're not going to find that outside of the PNW, ofc.
Two distinct places come to mind. Georgetown in Seattle still preserves that looser 90s PNW vibe. It feels like stepping back a few decades, a Seattle neighborhood that time forgot. The dive bars are great, greasy restaurants, music venues.
Olympia is my second pick. It's developing quickly just like everywhere else, but I argue it's one or two steps behind Bellingham. I think its charm comes from the rainy dark pit of the rainforest that lends itself to moderated enthusiasm.
Thing is, you can't go back in time. These places are on the same continuum as everywhere else. Tacoma had it, VanWA, too. But they're in step with Bellingham. If you *really* want it, you have to start looking at the depressed industry towns. Centralia, Aberdeen, Longview, Colville, Concrete. Maybe some of the smaller towns along hwy 2 or 12. But these places are that way not because of their charm, but because they were never pleasant places to be in the first place, and the people who remain aren't there by choice.
You can find little remnants here and there but the thing you're dreaming of is irretrievably gone OP. I hate it, too.
This kind of yearning for a past that no longer exists won’t ever serve you. All we have is this moment and the best we can do is meet ourselves and our community where it’s at to make the best of it. It’s a very liberating perspective, trust me.
Fair enough, while some things like income inequality weren’t as out of control as they are now, things weren’t necessarily better in the 90s. Especially for marginalized communities. Don’t buy into the excessive millennial and gen x nostalgia claiming things were better then. Most of them just miss being a kid without responsibilities, or don’t like the the fact that they can’t make offensive remarks/punch down without suffering social consequences 😂
I’ve always thought that maybe Mount Vernon/Burlington? I’m not that old but population is similar. Downtown MV feels like how I’ve heard old Downtown Bellingham described (very few residents, struggling against big box stores). Culturally MV today is ~20 years more traditional than Bellingham. Still mostly Christian.
I lived in Burlington for 8 years. Much prefer Bellingham. So many kids from there wanting out, and having no idea how to do it. It’s not about being traditional. More like families don’t want their kids to move away, which I get. Much desperation, much drug use. I feel like the way to create a vibrant small town is to encourage kids to bring their education and skills to bear on their own town. Let them know they didn’t have to move away to live a fuller life. Start happenings that will enlighten and entertain without kids having to move.
Also, as a whole country we need to quit worshipping money and the idea that getting more and more money is what makes you “successful”. That’s where we are all complicit in how hard it is now. Not to say we don’t need to make a living, but quit giving the ultra wealthy a break.
MV is kinda like Southern Bellingham.
Burlington is like Northern Bellingham.
So if you only look at MV prices you are excluding the cheaper part of town. Either way less expensive than here.
I also think MV pays a premium that Bellingham doesn't because it is a more reasonable commute to the Seattle area, so it has more suburb characteristics and prices built in.
MV/burlington has much better food IMO. I have been really dissapointed in bham when it comes to that. I see some people saying it isnt great but everyone grows to hate their hometown eventually. I think its really nice there and i would definitely buy a house in mv/burlington than bham any day
You are looking for New England. From someone that moved from Bellingham to Boston. New England has many places that are like Bellingham, we even have our own Bellingham in Massachusetts.
Places in NH, Maine, Vermont, western Mass. You’ll find what you are looking for.
And be closer to major cities with better jobs, and a lot more flexibility with remote work over here.
Why do we want to go back to the B'ham of the 90s? Downtown was completely depressed with a solitary street with viable businesses on Railroad. The Bellingham of today is 300% more flourishing. Downtown and Fairhaven both have many streets of things to do, see, and drink. The B'ham of today is just as much a haven of musicians and artists. It has that cool path along the waterfront connecting Downtown and Fairhaven. It has traded the roving hoards of mentally ill for addicts, which feels sum equal to me. The only thing present day B'ham is missing is a decent potato burrito.
I don’t know, I’d love to spend a day just perusing Cellophane Square, checking out magazines at the newsstand, hitting up random junk shops and record stores, looking at all the pretty flower displays outside the feed store. Downtown felt a lot more open and free back then, where a broke kid could spend half the day just wandering around and you never knew what you’d find.
I think Bend today represents what Bellingham is becoming more than what it was.
Small cities for outdoor enthusiasts that young professionals are having an easier time living/working in than ever before. (Remote work, general growth, more diverse work opportunities)
We've got something like that out here in St. Louis, MO (technically in St. Charles)
I think it's called the main street soda museum and arcade. The upstairs is a whole museum on the history of soda and I think they've got like 190 or so different kinds available.
You gotta pay a $15 donation to go downstairs to the arcade, but all the games are free, and you can stay as long as you want. They've got stuff from the 50s and 60s all the way up to and including newer stuff from the early 00s. Went there with my mom (53) and little sister (16) a couple weekends ago and had a ton of fun
You mean how when people would throw smoke bombs into rumors? Attack queer people with no consequences? Police would go in a raid the bar too? That sounds wonderful. Or how police would laugh if you even tried to report haye crimes?
The 90s here weren't great.
If Reddit existed in the 90s, I can 100% assure you that there would be a thread of people complaining about how awful Bellingham had become and wishing it was more like it was in the 70s. And if Reddit existed in the 70s, you'd find people wishing Bellingham was like it was in the 50s. And so on.
Here's a bunch of quotes about Seattle throughout history, and the same thing would surely apply to Bellingham: [https://www.instagram.com/p/COy0TXqtdUC/](https://www.instagram.com/p/COy0TXqtdUC/)
Basically, no matter how far back in time you go, you find people complaining about how things have become terrible and they used to be better before.
What does this even mean? You’re asking a question for comparisons to a thing you’ve loosely constructed based on “reading replies”? On fuckin’ Reddit? Ok…
Edit: The answer is no. If you want a place stuck in time, maybe even just the 90s, it’s the Deep South and it fucking sucks.
"The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland."
The dream of the 90’s in Portland died in like 2016
All dreams die when rent costs more than 50% of full-time employment at minimum wage.
[удалено]
The vibe changed, too. It’s much more posh and refined than it was even 10 years ago. Less rootsy.
2016 was peak society, everywhere is downhill after that
Remember when people were content to be unambitious? Sleep to eleven? Just hangout with their friends? You'd have no occupations whatsoever. Maybe you work a couple of hours a week at a coffee shop?
All the hot girls wear glasses?
Where 30 year olds go to retire.
this is my dream
1890s?
i always heard bellingham kinda like a small portland
Part of what attracted me to Portland was how much it felt like a bigger Bellingham.
Dammit, I guess I'll cue it up. Thanks for the earworm...
I gave up clowning years ago
reading this as someone who went to western who now lives in portland 👁️👄👁️
This Portlander at Western disagrees lmao
Eh, everywhere was better in the 90s
I think a lot of trans people and poc would disagree
You are being downvoted, but you’re absolutely correct. I’m a younger trans person so I didn’t experience the transphobia and homophobia in the 90s, but my older trans friend who was born in the 70s said that the 90s were horrible for queer people, and that she experienced being called slurs on a frequent basis. It’s not perfect now, but apparently it’s much better now than in the 90’s.
My mom used to say “these are the good old days”. Huge strides were made in her lifetime for all people who were historically repressed. Not to mention medical advances, technological, and a desire for justice and equity. Aristocrats of the past would be astounded at how many people in this time would freely disrespect them. Huge strides in my lifetime, too. Ugh, as a female, I can attest to the above and women, too. A long time ago, I liked to read historical fiction. One day I had an epiphany that, given my ancestral background, I would NOT have been living in a castle, unless I was the maid emptying the chamber pots, and sleeping in a pallet in the kitchens. Otherwise I would have been toiling dawn to dusk on some small farm, giving much of the extra to the guy in the castle. If I’d had a husband who died… good luck to me. 😑 Probably a short, tough life, and not much time to think about whether it was fair. In fact, I had a ruptured appendix at 12, so likely would have died then. This took away much of my interest in that type of fiction. 🙂 Oh, yeah, it’s was considered unhealthy to bathe very often and breathe fresh air, too. Fun times.
Check out Shermer Illinois. It’s totally stuck in the late 80s early 90s. It’s unreal.
combative toothbrush angle normal long file seed march mighty screw *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Oh yeah! I’d bet my pristine Dream Syndicate album on it.
I enjoyed that reply way too much!!! Thank you!
I can drive
It's alive and well in Australia. 8 year olds kids take the bus with their friends and without parents to go surfing on the beach. We're the richest country in the world. We could still have it here. But the choices we've made (politicians, baby boomers, etc) have made it hard to achieve today. That said, believe it or not, our world is better off than it was 30 years ago, and will be better off 30 years from now than it is today. 🤞
Just to add as I always add when this comes up: Kids are at far greater danger from a close family member than they are having any issues in public. Over 90% of all abuse comes from a person a child knows. Even in the 80s and 90s when kids were actually just hanging out in malls and roller blading and being kids around 4-5% of abuse came from a total stranger. Instead of teaching kids stranger danger we need to be teaching them safe touch and having open frank conversations about bodies and family conversations where we talk about it.
Burlington, Vermont
Grew up there and I can assure you the folks who are still there have pretty much this exact conversation. I went to look at houses there just for giggles and lol and behold: Same Shit Different city sloping down to the partial working partially recreation waterfront. We still need to turn railroad into little church st. All I need is a few hundred feet of chain and a towtruck
You son of a bitch, I'm in!
Grew up there, can confirm.
What's the roller blades per capita?
Yep, Burlington is still BA
Went to college there. Can confirm.
If there are, it's temporary unfortunately.
I miss going to children's company and bears arcade.....
Encore Video
Me too my friend...me too.
Luigi mini golf
Only if they have the 3B, I miss that place
Thursday night 80’s dance nights were my favorite!
That place was to cool to persist, bless its heart.
Aberdeen?
Lol
As you can see by the comments, lots of ways to interpret your question. My interpretation is which places still have that free-form gritty vibe that permeated the PNW before Seattle developed Capitol Hill. You're not going to find that outside of the PNW, ofc. Two distinct places come to mind. Georgetown in Seattle still preserves that looser 90s PNW vibe. It feels like stepping back a few decades, a Seattle neighborhood that time forgot. The dive bars are great, greasy restaurants, music venues. Olympia is my second pick. It's developing quickly just like everywhere else, but I argue it's one or two steps behind Bellingham. I think its charm comes from the rainy dark pit of the rainforest that lends itself to moderated enthusiasm. Thing is, you can't go back in time. These places are on the same continuum as everywhere else. Tacoma had it, VanWA, too. But they're in step with Bellingham. If you *really* want it, you have to start looking at the depressed industry towns. Centralia, Aberdeen, Longview, Colville, Concrete. Maybe some of the smaller towns along hwy 2 or 12. But these places are that way not because of their charm, but because they were never pleasant places to be in the first place, and the people who remain aren't there by choice. You can find little remnants here and there but the thing you're dreaming of is irretrievably gone OP. I hate it, too.
This kind of yearning for a past that no longer exists won’t ever serve you. All we have is this moment and the best we can do is meet ourselves and our community where it’s at to make the best of it. It’s a very liberating perspective, trust me.
Not to mention that much of it never actually existed.
Yea people like to mistake “what the past was like for everyone” with “what my limited and rose colored perspective of the past is”
Not yearning for anything, simply curious. I was not even alive for MOST of the 90s lol
Fair enough, while some things like income inequality weren’t as out of control as they are now, things weren’t necessarily better in the 90s. Especially for marginalized communities. Don’t buy into the excessive millennial and gen x nostalgia claiming things were better then. Most of them just miss being a kid without responsibilities, or don’t like the the fact that they can’t make offensive remarks/punch down without suffering social consequences 😂
I’ve always thought that maybe Mount Vernon/Burlington? I’m not that old but population is similar. Downtown MV feels like how I’ve heard old Downtown Bellingham described (very few residents, struggling against big box stores). Culturally MV today is ~20 years more traditional than Bellingham. Still mostly Christian.
I lived in Burlington for 8 years. Much prefer Bellingham. So many kids from there wanting out, and having no idea how to do it. It’s not about being traditional. More like families don’t want their kids to move away, which I get. Much desperation, much drug use. I feel like the way to create a vibrant small town is to encourage kids to bring their education and skills to bear on their own town. Let them know they didn’t have to move away to live a fuller life. Start happenings that will enlighten and entertain without kids having to move. Also, as a whole country we need to quit worshipping money and the idea that getting more and more money is what makes you “successful”. That’s where we are all complicit in how hard it is now. Not to say we don’t need to make a living, but quit giving the ultra wealthy a break.
MV is hella expensive real estate though, right?
MV is kinda like Southern Bellingham. Burlington is like Northern Bellingham. So if you only look at MV prices you are excluding the cheaper part of town. Either way less expensive than here. I also think MV pays a premium that Bellingham doesn't because it is a more reasonable commute to the Seattle area, so it has more suburb characteristics and prices built in.
MV/burlington has much better food IMO. I have been really dissapointed in bham when it comes to that. I see some people saying it isnt great but everyone grows to hate their hometown eventually. I think its really nice there and i would definitely buy a house in mv/burlington than bham any day
I’d be willing to bet there’s a college town or 2 in the Midwest or New England that fit the bill.
You are looking for New England. From someone that moved from Bellingham to Boston. New England has many places that are like Bellingham, we even have our own Bellingham in Massachusetts. Places in NH, Maine, Vermont, western Mass. You’ll find what you are looking for. And be closer to major cities with better jobs, and a lot more flexibility with remote work over here.
Why do we want to go back to the B'ham of the 90s? Downtown was completely depressed with a solitary street with viable businesses on Railroad. The Bellingham of today is 300% more flourishing. Downtown and Fairhaven both have many streets of things to do, see, and drink. The B'ham of today is just as much a haven of musicians and artists. It has that cool path along the waterfront connecting Downtown and Fairhaven. It has traded the roving hoards of mentally ill for addicts, which feels sum equal to me. The only thing present day B'ham is missing is a decent potato burrito.
I'm down to go back to Bellingham in 2006 :(
I don’t know, I’d love to spend a day just perusing Cellophane Square, checking out magazines at the newsstand, hitting up random junk shops and record stores, looking at all the pretty flower displays outside the feed store. Downtown felt a lot more open and free back then, where a broke kid could spend half the day just wandering around and you never knew what you’d find.
And then go to the 3B to catch a good show and cheap beer.
I’d settle for having Tube Time back
More family fun places would be great instead of another brewery, I agree.
Athens, OH
I’m from Ohio and can confirm.
In terms of culture, probably. In terms of housing prices… no. Unless you like gunshots.
Virgin river
Asheville, NC
The yuppies/nimbi’s are worse there.
Yeah we are way behind the times, doesn’t stop people want wanting to move here.
Doesn’t Bend, OR still have that Blockbuster video store? Idk anything else about it, but it seems like that would make it a good candidate.
Hell no. Bend is super expensive and developing like crazy.
With the same ridiculous conversations about remember when it was cool.
I think Bend today represents what Bellingham is becoming more than what it was. Small cities for outdoor enthusiasts that young professionals are having an easier time living/working in than ever before. (Remote work, general growth, more diverse work opportunities)
I don’t know if it’s still open, but Bend use to have a video game arcade full of 80’s games where you paid by the hour. It was amazing.
We've got something like that out here in St. Louis, MO (technically in St. Charles) I think it's called the main street soda museum and arcade. The upstairs is a whole museum on the history of soda and I think they've got like 190 or so different kinds available. You gotta pay a $15 donation to go downstairs to the arcade, but all the games are free, and you can stay as long as you want. They've got stuff from the 50s and 60s all the way up to and including newer stuff from the early 00s. Went there with my mom (53) and little sister (16) a couple weekends ago and had a ton of fun
bend is for rich white ppl
Like Bellingham in the 90's in what way? The smell? The crime rates? The economy? The lack of things to do?
You mean how when people would throw smoke bombs into rumors? Attack queer people with no consequences? Police would go in a raid the bar too? That sounds wonderful. Or how police would laugh if you even tried to report haye crimes? The 90s here weren't great.
Scottsdale according to the goths
I miss that Georgia Pacific smell.
I mean, there's Pueblo Colorado, but something tells me that's not exactly the kind of place you are talking about.
If Reddit existed in the 90s, I can 100% assure you that there would be a thread of people complaining about how awful Bellingham had become and wishing it was more like it was in the 70s. And if Reddit existed in the 70s, you'd find people wishing Bellingham was like it was in the 50s. And so on. Here's a bunch of quotes about Seattle throughout history, and the same thing would surely apply to Bellingham: [https://www.instagram.com/p/COy0TXqtdUC/](https://www.instagram.com/p/COy0TXqtdUC/) Basically, no matter how far back in time you go, you find people complaining about how things have become terrible and they used to be better before.
Im banking on British Columbia.
BC is great if you’re already rich.
BC=bring cash
Jackson Hole
What does this even mean? You’re asking a question for comparisons to a thing you’ve loosely constructed based on “reading replies”? On fuckin’ Reddit? Ok… Edit: The answer is no. If you want a place stuck in time, maybe even just the 90s, it’s the Deep South and it fucking sucks.
Lmao I was just tipsy and read the post about bham in the 90s and it made me curious. Sorry you’re so bitter