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cimoreneI've reached 1991 in my trip backwards through This Old House: I was 8 at this time. In the current episodes they're following the restoration of a 20s Mediterranean house in Miami after Hurricane Andrew. We visited my grandpa in Miami probably just a few months after this was filmed, and I think we toured some of the same hard-hit areas. My parents have photos of me perched in the roots of an overturned 100-year tree and our walk around the marina.
More generally, it's great seeing the 90s clothes and hair and, boy, the 90s light fixtures (and sometimes 80s light fixtures...). For some reason microwave hoods were apparently really trendy around 1991, because this is the third old season in a row I've watched where they put one in.
This final picture caused a bit of head-scratching.
"Wax, do you think it's possible for an educated white middle-class public television-watching, opera-listening straight dude in Boston in the year 1992 to completely innocently and ignorantly wear a lavender shirt with rainbow-stripe suspenders?" (I was alive and in America in 1992, but Wax was a teenager and was way more dialed into pop culture, while at 10 I took pride in ignoring pop culture as much as possible.)
"1992?" said Wax. "Boston? ... Maybe... but he's from California, isn't he? Didn't he say he grew up in Berkeley?"
"Oakland."
"He should know," she decided.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. It's just I was thinking he, well, seems like way too much of a douche to be bisexual. But to be fair, I guess there are bisexual douches," I said. (To be fair to Steve, I meant. He isn't automatically disqualified from bisexuality, which would make him cooler, just for being kind of douchey.)
And of course, this outfit could be informed but not bisexual. This could be a straight but not narrow ally outfit.
And you can never guarantee that someone would know something. I was a full-grown adult when I realized that Tucson and "Tou-son" are the same place.
More generally, it's great seeing the 90s clothes and hair and, boy, the 90s light fixtures (and sometimes 80s light fixtures...). For some reason microwave hoods were apparently really trendy around 1991, because this is the third old season in a row I've watched where they put one in.
This final picture caused a bit of head-scratching.
"Wax, do you think it's possible for an educated white middle-class public television-watching, opera-listening straight dude in Boston in the year 1992 to completely innocently and ignorantly wear a lavender shirt with rainbow-stripe suspenders?" (I was alive and in America in 1992, but Wax was a teenager and was way more dialed into pop culture, while at 10 I took pride in ignoring pop culture as much as possible.)
"1992?" said Wax. "Boston? ... Maybe... but he's from California, isn't he? Didn't he say he grew up in Berkeley?"
"Oakland."
"He should know," she decided.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. It's just I was thinking he, well, seems like way too much of a douche to be bisexual. But to be fair, I guess there are bisexual douches," I said. (To be fair to Steve, I meant. He isn't automatically disqualified from bisexuality, which would make him cooler, just for being kind of douchey.)
And of course, this outfit could be informed but not bisexual. This could be a straight but not narrow ally outfit.
And you can never guarantee that someone would know something. I was a full-grown adult when I realized that Tucson and "Tou-son" are the same place.
(no subject)
Date: 24 Jul 2020 06:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 24 Jul 2020 06:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 25 Jul 2020 12:58 am (UTC)Like, for people plugged into gay culture, absolutely rainbow would have those connotations but for straight folks or queer folks not plugged into that culture (which was a lot more niche pre-internet), not so much.
(no subject)
Date: 25 Jul 2020 10:46 am (UTC)