The Good Old Days

Thinking about the good old days is something that people my age (51) do often, at least I do anyway. The world has changed so much and everything is different, nothing the same. My son is in his mid-twenties and surprised me yesterday when he referred to the “good old days”. The reference was to the 1990s.

Think about how different your life was throughout the 90s. The future held such promise for me. My son recounted the many ways life was better, even in 1999. The 90s was a great decade. Reflect on the music... yes, that is what my tour of the 90s songs is all about on both of my blogs. The Blueprint Blogcurrently has “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65 playing. This blog has “The Rhythm of the Night” by Corona playing in the header at this moment. She is so lively, so in love with life as many of us were back then.

What were you doing in the 90s?

Anyone remember World Cup Soccer in 1994? Orlando was one of the host cities in the US. For every game (before and after) I was partying at Church Street in downtown Orlando. I had various people that had no clue what they were doing answering my escort lines, which were ringing off the hook day and night.

While partying at the now defunct (yes, it is defunct no matter what anyone in Orlando claims or how much they attempt to revive it) Church Street, I met a wonderful group of guys from Ireland and Australia. These visitors were victim of a scam travel agency booking and had no hotel rooms so I offered to loan them my beach house for the week and they accepted. The house was smack on the beach in Cape Canaveral... One could step from the jacuzzi on its deck into the sand.

Each sent me a card to say hello and thanks when they returned to Ireland and Australia, and perhaps one was from the UK. I have those cards in a box in my storage, but if they're by chance reading this blog, contact me. We all had a falling out of sorts after the game – the Mexico vs. Ireland game in Orlando – but all was forgotten later. My cousins from Mexico were in town for the games too, and well, it was a competition thing that turned into a light brawl downtown. Hell, I don't even remember who won that game now. Cheers! and Salud!

That house was wonderful. A former love leased it for a year for me, but I spent less time there than anyone. My friends and family had barbecues regularly though. The last week that I had the house, I loaned it to a Jamaican friend to hold his birthday party and he had family from Jamaica and South Florida come in for a huge beach party. It was crazy during, but they left the house in perfect condition. What a house and what a time...

Moving forward... Remember all the hoopla over the 1999 to 2000 issue? Well on New Year's Eve 1999, I was in Times Square with my son and his sister Ruby. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis for the week, shopping till we dropped, and then New Year's Eve was the grand finale. One thing about Times Square on that particular night is that there are no bathrooms to use. We ended-up going back to the room for this reason and by then cops had the blockades up and we couldn't get back in so we had the balcony view.

The 1990s are filled with wonderful memories for me. This was before the War era. I think that the 2000s and 2010s should be called the War Era. From the moment Bush stepped into office, war was imminent. Life changed so much so quickly and has only gotten worse since.

My son remembers those years fondly. For this reason I am not sorry that I went into the escort business – we had lots of fun and a great life! But should a young man in his mid-twenties have to look back on the good old days?