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50s to 90s Personal

The 90s

I had lunch with two high school friends today, one of which I hadn’t seen in 16 years. We were mostly reminiscing about the past and how lame everything was for us back then. Those of you in high school today don’t realize how lucky you are compared to us kids who grew up in Kuwait back in the old days. I graduated in 1996 and back then we didn’t have any malls or restaurant chains or anything like that. For entertainment we just had a few options.

The only mall in Salmiya was Laila Gallery but we weren’t allowed in on weekends since it was families only. That was pretty common back in the day.

Even Sultan Center wouldn’t let guys in alone on weekends. It was really embarrassing. Until today whenever I go to the Sultan Center in Salmiya and I see a security guy standing outside I wonder if he’s going to let me or not.

There was a cool Hardees where Starbucks is right now in front of Al Fanar. But then they demolished it.

The ice skating rink was pretty decent in the early 90s but started going downhill after that.

Fuddruckers was like the only restaurant open on the Gulf Road back then. The place used to get crazy packed and at one point was the coolest place to be.

Then Johnny Rockets in Salmiya opened and a lot of the crowd shifted there. Johnny used to get super packed as well but most of us would go and occupy a whole table and just order one tea or one shake. So, they introduced a minimum order charge of like KD1.5 per person so everyone shifted outside Johnny to the sidewalk corner and I never saw Johnny that packed again.

Oddly that sidewalk corner became a hot spot where everyone went to meet up with other friends. It used to get pretty crowded so the cops stopped allowing us to hang out there.

McDonalds opened at around the same time over Johnny so some people started hanging out there instead.

But mostly, we just hung out at each others houses listening to music and talking. Every now and then there was a house party but really that was it.

Kinda miss the simplicity of those days now that I think about it. No cellphone, no internet, no car and just enough money to make the difficult but important decision of buying a music tape from The Video Club or having dinner.

102 replies on “The 90s”

I like Sonic Youth but there really isn’t anything that can compete with Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness, not even NIN or Radiohead. It’s just an epic album and sadly SP went downhill after that, or maybe really they set the bar too high with Mellon Collie that no matter what they did after just seemed mediocre.

REALLY???…..nothing that competes with Mellon Collie???
How about:
Meallica(The Black Album)
Nevermind(Nirvana)
Aenema(Tool)
My Own Prison(Creed)
The Downward Spiral(NIN)
Seriously!!!…..none of these???

P.S: Bleach came out in the late 80’s…88 or 89 I think!

Well…. Scott Stapp is no Eddie Vedder,but Creed did an excellent job with the album….. Looking at their future productions I can understand its hard to relate Creed to amazing music!… Besides a few tracks from Human Clay and Weathered

Just out of curiosity, if you went to High School here, your parents presumably worked here. With a name like Mark, I also presume you are not Kuwaiti. What compelled you to stay here as opposed to your parents’ country?

Most of the expats that work with me grew up here. Better money I guess and if you haven’t lived in your home country for 30 years it’s not really your home country anymore.

Well when I graduated from high school I did go back to Lebanon. But, I came back here once I graduated university. I don’t think it was because of the money or anything like that since I really didn’t look or consider finding a job in Lebanon or anywhere else for the matter. I just got a job here in Kuwait and came back since my whole family was here.

” Those of you in high school today don’t realize how lucky you are compared to us kids who grew up in Kuwait back in the old days. ”

COMPLETELY disagree dude 🙂 I grew up here in the 80s and 90s too and love how things were for us back then. I flinch when I see kids of today ‘enjoying’ their childhood with playstations, ipads, messaging and fooling around at malls all day.

Those were the days. No one will ever enjoy like we did.

I had a videogame console back in the 80s but gaming back then wasn’t like it is today. Not everyone played videogames and when you’re a large group of people videogames wasn’t really something you did.

Its not that people who were born or grew up in the 80s/90s here did not accept the tech-life that is today. Its just that I still feel I had much more fun in my childhood than the kids of today are thinking they’re having. It was quite simple – wanna have fun? Go out and play, make friends and be active in sports. Not anymore though – give a 10 year old kid an ipad and he’ll be entertainined for 25hrs out of 24.

Btw does anyone remember the advent of the internet and MIRC in the mid-90s? 🙂

for me the now apple generation is the worst i think 90-94 got it the best. had the best of the 90s and late 2000’s I loved kuwait in the 90s i still remember, it was just pure calm and peaceful 2000’s were prett exciting ps2 was pretty effing cool! counter strike and just fooling around the streets. post 2010 is just out of freakin control you see these kids just walking like dead zombies in malls wearing fashion and all the bullcrap and ipads n iphones just basically killed going out for football or hanging near a ba8ala or fir3 with bb guns! haha! i had a good childhood ill try n let my kids have the same

actually what it makes me realize is how expensive it must be having a kid now. with all the demands of owning a smartphone and smart gadgets, clothes and fashionable items, having coffee at starbucks or the like, dining out at non-fast food chains!it’s so much pressure on the parents and the kids!
but yeah, the 90s rocked!

Are you freaging serious dude?
Like word? They wont let you in sultan?
THE sultan center? i can get to some extent with the mall..but sultan?
How does that like work man? what the security guy just goes like, ‘ Hey! , no..families only’ ?
i cant seem to grasp the filtration scheme..what they got bouncers?
you cant even buy stuff?..
quite hard to imagine..damn.
Sorry for sound shallow as F**k
Boom dude. ciao.

Yup, you’d have a bouncer outside and he wouldn’t let you in if you were guys alone. Kinda like getting into a club, you needed to have a girl in the group. It’s like dude we just want to get some munchies you could come with us if you don’t believe us. Nope you can’t come in.

Although Sultan was just a super market it was one of the very few places or maybe the only place that was open 24/7. There was no Starbucks, Costa or any coffee franchise then so the coffeeshop/restaurant in Sultan upstairs was a popular place to go to very late at night.

I see.
That’s quite f**ked up dude.
an actual legit bouncer. for a supermarket.
for weekends. Wow now i’ve heard it all.
But i guess the cafe spots you mentioned adds up to it making some miniscule sense.
I take it you’re talking about the salmiya sultan center eh?
But you know what, in a weird way i sometimes dream/ day dream about a simpler time like your days, it just seemed cool for some reason. i also bet there were much much fewer A88holes back then. Although my dream ‘teen era’ would be the late 80’s haha.
Anyways really cool write up dude.
boom. Ciao.

Hahaha well their species have expanded since then and have spawned numerous more annoying inbred sub species.
Only these subspecies have BB pins on their cars.
haha Boom dude. Ciao.

90’s were awesome man, Kids today are totally disconnected from reality, everything is done over facebook or twitter. If you are a mall just observe the kids, there is no ‘verbal’ communication anymore, they don’t talk to each other anymore, all are busy either tweeting or BB’ing their other friends. Quite sad to see.

I didn’t grow up in Kuwait, but I can still vouch for 80’s and 90’s kicked ass of today.

hehe the 90s bug is in the air – I totally raped my facebook page with memories from the 90s on Thursday – I feel a 90’s themed party should be in the air!!!!!! KUWAIT PLEASE LET US HAVE SOME 90s FUN!

I was born in the 80s and the comments in here sound like a bunch of grumpy old men/women

I like having internet on my phone :I

No one is grumpy but being born in the 80s your senior years pretty much looked like Kuwait today which is why you might not understand why the simplicity of our time can be appreciated.

Even though we’re not from the same generation as Mark some of the commenters have a point. Kids these days have a difficult time moderating their time online and actually doing some sort of activity. I don’t believe we’re like that though. We were born in the 80’s and basically grew up as technology advanced. We have an appreciation for it (in my opinion), taking games (and Nintendo) for instance. We grew up in the age of the NES > SNES > N64 > Gamecube > Wii. We saw that advancement so I honestly think we appreciate games then most kids today who just want HD graphics and violence.

90s was Pokemon, Hanson, Ace of Base, Savage Garden, Tekken, Streetfighter Cheap EVERYTHING, , Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Beach BBQs, sigh…. :’)

I miss Pizza Italia, Preggo and Fanar was the bomb in the 90’s. It’s sad to see Salem AlMubarak street not as it used to be.

The 90s were the BEST!!! I am quite younger than you Mark, but I when I was a teenager the shopping mall I used to go to was AlFanar. Marina wasn’t open yet, and it was mostly my friends and I going to a movie, walking around Salmiya, or hanging out at each others houses. Also the first Pokemon games cames in the late 90’s, I started playing them in 98 I believe. Man that was so much fun. Nokia phones were the phones to have, and they always tried to make smallers phones. The communicator was back then what the iPhone is today ;p. Playing the Sega Mega System (I think thats what it was called?), that was so much fun! Then we picked up the Play Station I think in 96, and played Resident Evil for the first time! Everything was just so much fun in the day! Don’t get me wrong, things are fun now, but we’re older now, and when I look at kids who have iPod touches and iPhones, I’m like “Oh man, all I had was the fat Game Boy, my Pokemon cartridge, and the link cable!”. Good times.

Loving the reminiscing! Especially as far as music goes. Unfortunately, i am old enough to remember when A&W was THE place to hang out and have a frozen root beer and getting a map to a house party at ice skating on a Wednesday night was the routine! Great days; simple, inexpensive, creative and exciting!

I guess growing up anywhere in the Middle East is the same – except maybe in Saudi Arabia where I grew up.

However, the music kept us going – man I missed the music the most.

These days all this manufactured trash like “Kei$ha” – give me a break.

Even the rap and r&b back then was better; but nothing compares to Nirvana – and ….. I can’t believe you guys didn’t listen to Pink Floyd? Not one mention!

I remember the Atari 2600 – with the one stick controller with two buttons and game cartridges.

The very first walkman, and having to rewind tapes with a pencil.

Pink Floyd really wasn’t my thing, even until now. Maybe a few songs during uni but nothing more. Led Zeppelin on the other hand was more popular with us. Around the mid 90s it was really pearl jam, smashing pumpkins, nirvana, jimi hendrix, silver chair, live, weezer, bush, Hole and more along those lines.

Where did the sega go? Nintendo, vandom pool tables, arcades at hungry bunny, sonic shop, al fakh store… Where did all that go man? And you call yourself the mayor of salmiya, ppsshhtt ;p

I was born in 1994 ! and all i remember from the late 90’s is Need for speed 4 + Miami Kuwait Band And Khiran Resort , PS1 , Dial Up Internet !…And Off course some Cartoons like Moka Moka and Captain MAjed ..etc !

any one remember? Ghost House? On 4th ring exit on fahaheel express….. Where big hotel is getting ready…….no one use to stay there…. And all time lights used to ON without curtains …..lots of stories about it during those days….. I use to wonder if those were true…..

Hmm, suprised to see no mention of Swan Lake or Musical Bells. They carried some of the most kick ass original CDs which were rarely found here. I remember Mechanical Animals was “banned” in KWI due to a “picture problem” but musical bells had it…even though not the original. They had loads of Megadeth which was rarely found. Buying an audiotape of CD was like going in for the biggest hunt. Owning a CD was such a privilege as my parents didn’t make much money and saving .5 KDs and .250 really meant something. Now we are forced to feel normal and nonchalant about anything we see as owning the latest mobile phones or cameras has become the norm. Sometimes I want to have that wonder and awe of owning something expensive and new.

Well I didn’t mention it because I was talking about the mid 90s. Swan Lake and Bells were at their prime right after the invasion in the early 90s. By the mid 90s it was The Video Club that had the largest collection of tapes and cds and Swan Lake and Bells were going downhill. You also had other shops like Soul II Soul, White House and Subway that were focused on certain music genres as well and they usually carried stuff none of the other stores had.

My first three CD’s were from Bells.

Whoa! I graduated in 96 too from KES. I also remember that underpass where the road intersection is now! I kinda miss the 90’s in Kuwait though. The music was better, the social scene was healthier and I was much more active. There was also green island and showbiz!

thanks for the memories

future kid fireman water shooting thing was the bomb, fuck paintball or whatever mark posted a few days ago haha! ps i love paintball

cant believe no one talked about entertainment city!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the place at the time for 90s generation was like freakin jurassic park!

Yeah back in the 80s but not the 90s. There was a run down arcade in the basement in the 90s but nothing else. Now Hilton/Safir Hotel across the street from fudds had a bowling alley. just remembered it.

You said it brother,,, that pretty much described my middle school and high school….they were great days…now, I’m in sensory overload with mobile calls, internet, whatsapp. The day I will be relaxed will be the day I can throw my mobile away…

Born in ’89, youngest child. The 90s stayed in our house for a while.
I remember post-war lifestyles, getting that disgusting booster shot (everyone born before ’91, check your left arm for a faded scar!) Sally+Vimto, ChiChi’s birthday parties, Hungry Bunny, the rising and take over of internet, the construction and opening and Fanar, and Savage Garden.
Oh yeah, and I also remember when the security guy at Sul6an wouldn’t let everyone in. And being really annoyed when my driver would have to pick up my sisters in front of McDonald’s next to fanar, since they would take forever to get in the car. Good times- there’s definitely no going back.
Only to name a few memories, of course. Growing up 90s in an environment filled with adults and adolescents was definitely an education I clung to during the 2000s.

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