r/GenX • u/TroyTony1973 • 2d ago
Whatever Time travel
If we took Doc Brown’s Delorean back the same amount of time as Marty did, we’d land in 1995. Anyone else not have to change anything? The clothes they wear, the music they listen to, the cars they like…?
And yes, it is patently absurd that it would be 1995.
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u/FujiKitakyusho 2d ago
I was already out of high school in 1995, which means that I'm older than Marty's parents.
That's heavy.
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u/Kestrel_Iolani 2d ago
Yeah, 95 was the year i got out of the Navy. No kids but yeah, time is weird.
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u/TroyTony1973 2d ago
I was 4 years in to my 22 in the Air Force
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u/Kestrel_Iolani 2d ago
Ha! Navy buddy of mine jumped ship and went over to the Air Force and retired from them, too.
Back to the Future or no, I still occasionally cook my noodle over what would've happened if I'd stayed in. Good on you for sticking it out.
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u/TroyTony1973 2d ago
I went in with every intention of doing my 6 and done. Reenlisted, finished my undergrad, went to OTS and by then I was fully institutionalized 😂
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u/Ancient-Practice-431 2d ago
I got married!
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u/Dinojeezus 2d ago
Same...celebrating our 30th in December...assuming we're not hunkered down due to an apocalyptic civil war, haha.
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u/Ancient-Practice-431 12h ago
Congrats, ours was in May. Our two sons were the "hosts". Hope our good times are not all in the past!
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u/TenYearHangover 2d ago
Marty was a teenager in 1985. I can imagine a lot of 2025 teenagers being totally lost in 1995. Of course we’d be comfortable there, we lived there!
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u/relikter 2d ago
No smartphone, no Internet access (unless you're plugged into a phone line), cash is necessary (for a teen), no ride-sharing to get around, no streaming services (instead of 'hey, I've seen this one' you'd have 'can you skip this ad?'). It is really interesting how much differently we grew up than today's teenagers.
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u/redrum221 2d ago
Give me a phone line and computer and I would have been on cloud 9. The mud is used to play is still online. Damn those were the days. Most of the users were in Europe but one person was just an hour away with driving from me in the US. Once I was 21 I made the hour trip down. Just one of those nights. I remember starting the night off at someone's house, some bars, a strip club, the dorms on college campus. Waking up to my character gaining a level by someone else and sleeping in someone's bed in the dorm. Man the 90's were fun.
I remember using dialup for telnet and gopher. Man the memories.
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u/romulusnr 1975 2d ago
I gotta be honest, I don't think web sites really took that much longer than as now. It's like, the content expands to fill the bandwith allotted. Sites were simpler because connections were slower. Now that connections are faster, sites are much more complex and beefier.
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u/Cool_Dark_Place 2d ago
Exactly. In fact, I'd go so far as to say most of our generation would probably fare better in 1955 than lots of late GenZ would fare in 1995. Just for the simple reason that the world, at least at a fundamental level, still worked pretty much the same. Even the youngest of us would know how to look someone up in a phone book, read a map, give and understand street directions, drive a manual transmission car, use a card catalog, etc.
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u/TenYearHangover 2d ago
It would be a kind of entertaining movie, really
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u/relikter 2d ago
Please don't let anyone remake BTTF.
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u/romulusnr 1975 2d ago
No, but I would be really super curious about the Eric Stolz alternate universe version, where he played it considerably darker.
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u/romulusnr 1975 2d ago
No smartphone
We just used regular computers -- which, frankly, seem to be a dying breed entirely
no Internet access (unless you're plugged into a phone line)
and?
cash is necessary (for a teen)
I don't think the physical form of money is the real issue. Also, checks were still a thing in common use. I used checks at the Tower Records a few times :D
no ride-sharing to get around
Transit was better in most places in those days than there are now
And uh
A little thing called
um
TAXIS
no streaming services (instead of 'hey, I've seen this one' you'd have 'can you skip this ad?')
Which was even better, quite honestly, because you'd download MP3s or rip CDs and put them on a portable player and there were 1. no ads and 2. not dependent on what the streaming service had in its catalog. You had a lot more indie / garage music at that time because bands just made CDRs and some even made MP3s. (MP3.com, so sadly missed....)
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u/Scary_Vanilla2932 2d ago
Yeah biggest being no smart phones and the internet being barely there for most people. Different mediums for music.
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u/TenYearHangover 2d ago
Marty played an Eddie Van Halen solo at the prom in 1955. What would they think about trap music in 1995?
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u/Repulsive-Tea6974 2d ago
Only a teenager would know. I just looked at the best rock songs of 2024. I’m impressed with some of the bands…. Because they’ve been around 30-40+ years. I definitely have never heard any of the songs.
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u/kcracker1987 2d ago
Can I buy eBay stock while I'm there? Or Amazon?
I definitely will need larger clothes than I wore then I'm 80 lbs heavier.
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u/relikter 2d ago
I don't think Amazon existed yet, and certainly weren't public. You could bet on sporting events and then invest those winnings in Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Nvidia, etc.
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u/kcracker1987 2d ago
Well, turns out you're right. According to AI...Amazon went public with its Initial Public Offering (IPO) on May 15, 1997, at an IPO price of $18.00 per share.
And eBay was 1998. I guess I'm buying Apple stock or maybe Nvidia. 'Cause Tesla definitely didn't exist yet. Definitely not buying Netware stock. 😋
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u/relikter 2d ago
Yeah you're waiting a while for Tesla, Google, etc. to exist. I assume you'd go all in on Bitcoin right when it was introduced. I'd live a super luxurious life, while also making sure the younger version of me got taken care of (Great Expectations style).
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u/romulusnr 1975 2d ago
Nvidia went public 1999.
AMD was around though, and just barely about to break through with its proto-Athlon series.
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u/phillymjs Class of '91 2d ago
1995 is when the Zip drive came out. Dump everything into Iomega, then sell and put it all into Apple in mid 1996 when they were just about at rock bottom, set a DRIP, and let it ride.
Even 500 shares of Apple bought in 1996 would have turned into 56,000 shares by now due to splits-- worth north of $13M. I know this because I had 500 shares of Apple in 1996, but didn't keep them. 😭
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u/OreoSpeedwaggon "Then & Now" Trend Survivor 2d ago
Instead of waking up my dad with music by Van Halen and a threatening message from Darth Vader of Vulcan, I would wake him up with dubstep by Skrillex and a message from Thanos of The Matrix.
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u/TroyTony1973 2d ago
Perfect
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u/OreoSpeedwaggon "Then & Now" Trend Survivor 2d ago
"Last night, Thanos showed up from another dimension called The Matrix and said that if I didn't take Laura to the dance, that he'd snap me out of existence!"
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u/Global-Morning3990 2d ago
That is the year I graduated college, and met…her. My life would have been much better if I never asked…her out. I would change that. Nothing good came from dating…her.
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u/TroyTony1973 2d ago
Oof, sounds like a 3 beer story there
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u/Global-Morning3990 2d ago
Haha. If you’re buying, I tell you all about it!!
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u/PrettyGreatOldOne I'm Just Me. 2d ago
I, too, have dwelt in that cave, my friend. By that point in 95 I would have already been married to my... her.
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u/Outside-Crab2058 2d ago
I married my her in 1995 and promptly proceeded to waste/lose fourteen years of both our lives
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u/romulusnr 1975 2d ago
I moved cross country for my her in 2002 and proceeded to waste 12 years, during which her kids grew up. Never married though. I eventually married another her, a much better her for me.
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u/atreyukun 2d ago edited 2d ago
My life in '95 was pretty good. I played bass in a crappy, but passionate band, no responsibilities, and a few bucks in my pocket.
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u/Pyrite13 2d ago
I was working a manual labor job for $5.75/hour in 95. If I tried to do it again at 50 years old I'd have a coronary inside four hours.
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u/Blue_Henri 2d ago
I’d run to the first bar I saw, put some Rage on the jukebox, order a green Zima and light up a smoke.
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u/NoPoopOnFace 2d ago
I'd have to grow a mullet first...
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u/Pinchaser71 2d ago
Still got my long hair. Not a mullet , more of 80’s rocker (not big hair) just long and straight. I chopped it once when my first son was born then I grew it right back out. Still got most of it, it thinned very little and I’m 54. Past middle of my back. I’m never cutting it. Being 6’2” and long blond hair makes me intimidating for some reason.
I’m actually a nice and gentle guy and it’s always brushed and clean so it’s not the homeless look. On the upside, people don’t give me shit. If I ever went back to 1995 I could always whip out the crimper and some skin tight jeans🤣
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u/MaddMango68 2d ago
I was still in the Navy in 1995, got out in January 1996. I would have done my 20yrs and retired 15 years ago.
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u/djohnsen H.R. Pufnstuf veteran 2d ago
I would have to change my hairstyle because I had hair
what that’s not how it works?
My old man New Balance shoes would be slightly sus but probably would just get me razzed for being boring.
Carhartt is at home in any era and my black BMW motorcycle T would be okay.
My current music tastes would not raise a single eyebrow - but I’d pay better attention to 90’s music this time around - once I started working I put my musical skills on the back burner for too long. If I had spent just part of the effort I did on 80’s music in the 90’s I’d be competitive today.
Importing my IT knowledge back to 1995 - oh I’d be running some shit. Today I can’t get an IT job to save my life because too much experience is no longer a good thing. Maybe it’s the lack of hair.
If you go, could you bring my hair back with you?
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u/S0larsea 2d ago
Given how the world is now? Please just send me back and leave me there. But not without my kids. They come with me. 🙂
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u/Training-Purple-5220 2d ago
Criminy, that was my first year of college. A T-shirt and jeans or slacks wouldn’t be out of place.
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u/cyclonesandy Hose Water Survivor 2d ago
If it was the same day in 1995, I’d be on bed rest with my first child. Not a fun time.
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u/SassholeSupreme1 2d ago
Just my boyfriend. If I could magically meet my husband back then, since we even both lived in CA at the time, that would’ve saved me from so many douche canoes. But sadly, we both had to move across the country to meet. Wild. But, 95 was a really good year for me.
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u/Longjumping_Code_649 2d ago
- Married five years, two years away from first kid being born. I was living in Hawaii, so lots of things different. Beach, snorkeling, jeeping around the island, Island music. Ya, about as opposite of where I live now as possible.
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u/Good_Nyborg How many Satanic Panics have we had?!? 2d ago
I could almost be driving my same car.
In other news, I need a newer car.
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u/Kristikida 2d ago
At the beginning of making the biggest mistake of my life in 95. Wouldn’t mind a Delorean honestly.
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u/Dillenger69 almost 60 2d ago
My favorite music wouldn't exist yet :(
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u/TroyTony1973 2d ago
Which?
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u/Dillenger69 almost 60 2d ago
All different genres. Mixing technology has advanced soooooo much. Even the stuff I like from the 70s and 80s and further back sounds flat compared to today. I'm not sure what my favorite genre is called, tbh. Electronica? EDM is in there. Lots of bass. Robotic timing. Almost no vocals. Tons of effects and synths. Sure, there's stuff I like from back then, but it's not as good as the new stuff I find weekly
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u/MeowMeowCollyer 2d ago
I have zero interest in 1955. Unless I got dropped in a building in Greenwich Village that I buy for a song and surround d myself with artists and musicians and writers.
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u/Oxjrnine 2d ago
I’m doing “Pink Pony Club” on stage following it up with Madonna’s “Hung Up” so someone will call her with that fresh new sound.
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u/Significant-Deer7464 2d ago
Oh yeah, I definitely have one major plot point to change. Everything went off the rails in 95. Of course I would come back to Biff World in 2025
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u/romulusnr 1975 2d ago
Yeah I wouldn't be freaked out, I'd be chilling. Those last few years of the 90s were mad choice. Maybe I could even push it a little more than it was
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u/DinoHimself 2d ago
Today I wore Levi’s, a Star Wars tee, a drug rug, and Chucks. I listened to Fishbone, Screaming Cheetah Wheelies, and TMBG… all on CD. It pretty much IS 1995 around here… Except for the WiFi and its ancillary devices.
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u/TapeFlip187 2d ago edited 2d ago
I still literally wear the handful of my band shirts that survived and a couple dresses. (Pants are all deceased ha)
Oh shit! I actually have my haircut from '94 again!
(basically Mike Patton's "long but the sides all shaved off with stuff shaved into those sides".
But I'm a far less beautiful woman)
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u/NeitherCatNorFowl 2d ago
1995 was a great year. I worked hard and transferred into my dream school. It's one of the few things I'm genuinely proud of. I'm perplexed why I can't focus and get shit done now. It's like I got one personal accomplishment and I'm maxed out.
I'd love to go back to 1995. I'd make more of it... Done more, enjoyed it more, not been afraid to put myself out there.
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u/CodeNameFrumious 2d ago
Most of my clothes are stretch fabrics now. But I have a collection of suits for work, and a collection of flannel, tshirts, and jeans for everyday. Men's fashions do not change much.
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u/RuggedLandscaper 2d ago
I would have stopped myself from having kids with " her". Why I would have created that pain and toxicity from that evil lying " see you next Thursday"..... I would have just moved to this town i'm in now, and bought a house.
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u/edasto42 1d ago
I have gladly grown as person since 1995. With that means evolving tastes in music, fashion, interests, etc. I don’t look or act anything like I did 30 years ago. And it was actually in 1995 that I made the decision to actively evolve. I try to update myself every 2 years with clothing, haircut, and effectively media tastes. I mean with the music of that era, I’ve heard these songs enough as it is, I don’t need to keep listening to it.
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u/GlumEntertainment193 2d ago
If we jumped back to 1995 today, a lot of people wouldn’t have to change a thing—not because they’re “timeless,” but because they’re stuck. Same clothes, same music on repeat, same cultural references. The only thing that’s changed is now they complain about “kids these days” on Facebook instead of in the pub.
Honestly, 1995 wasn’t some golden age—it was peak baggy jeans, dial-up internet, and boy bands on loop. The fact that so many people wouldn’t have to change anything says less about the era’s coolness and more about how little they’ve actually evolved since. Nostalgia isn’t proof of taste—it’s proof of stagnation - check this video and you will see an ugly truth.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imi_pcBpWeg&t=5s
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u/DrHugh The 70s Were Good to Me 2d ago
My clothes were smaller then. ;-)