To me, 1997 was the last year in which I could still feel that 90s atmosphere and real 90s culture. Along with early 1998. After mid 1998 that changed.

So what are your memories of 1997? Share them here!


It wasn't much different for me as the mid 90s were. I was a teen, and I was in High School. I remember being obsessed with the top 40 and I would always spend time at Strawberries buying singles. I use to treat myself every weekend to a new song, either a cassette single or CD single. It was also the year I spent my 17th birthday at my cousin's funeral....could not enjoy the day at all. I remember trying to make myself feel better..., talking to myself. I remember saying "Yeah. This is normal". "At least I'm with the family", and my favorite of all time "Who has a birthday on the day of someone's funeral?". Thankfully people still gave me gifts at least. ::)


Pop culturally, 1997 was a super great year!

After graduating college in December 1996, 1997 was my first year working in engineering full time. 55 hours a week nonstop, 40 miles from home. My parents were also in the process of divorce, so a lot of nights I just didn’t come home. I wandered around town till the wee hours and slept in my car (a wagon very similar to the one I have now). It was a lonely life. I made a lot of money, I spent a lot of time in the used tape store and built my 80s collection. We always listened to the lite station at work. Walking through the mall I heard a lot of Hanson. I also heard Sleeping Satellite a lot and was surprised to find it was an early 90s song.

My buddies and I always sat right where they shoot the fireworks off. Back then they always shot them off from the middle of the crowd. Well that year one of my buddies got called to work at the last minute to one of the hotels, so we walked over there to watch them. Maybe someone upstairs was looking out for us. Because that was the year of the fireworks explosion. We heard a boom way louder than all the rest, but the show continued till the end. Meanwhile we heard ambulance sirens. We walked down the street to see piles of glass on the sidewalks where the pressure wave blew out all the windows of the storefronts. Shrapnel had blown through the crowd as well. One restaurant owner in town lost an arm and a leg. One radiologist at the local hospital got hit in the head and died.

http://rbbi.com/folders/acc/firewks/freep28.htm

http://www.cnn.com/US/9707/27/fireworks.blast/

Our little town made national news. Since then, every single fireworks show in at least northern Michigan has followed suit by launching fireworks from a remote barge well away from the crowd.

On the way to the show I was listening to a Samantha Fox tape and “Rockin in the city” reminds me of that event.

Later on I quit my job in Traverse City in favor of something closer. It lasted 9 weeks until they fired me due to lack of fit. I was never gonna fit in with the cliques there. It was next door to my current job, and even after all these years I still see the same people I worked with walking past my window every day on break. The next year I went back to TC till I quit again for the job I have now. I had a ton of money saved up so I could afford the hiatus, but the reason I didn’t go back right away is there were layoffs everywhere. One song I heard a lot during that short lived job was 2 Become 1 by Spice Girls.

Fall 1997 I got my first CD player, which was a car changer because they didn’t skip near as bad. So then I started buying used CDs to build my collection. That that’s all I’ve ever had since then is changers in cars.

Fall 1997 I also got my first computer. Tandy 386SX/33. And on the internet for the first time at home. I did so much, chat rooms, dating sites, shopping, research on cars and music and all sorts of stuff. And looking for places to move to. By then my mom had moved out so I stayed home more. I bought my own phone line for the internet. One song I heard a lot during that time was Tubthumping.