Bedroom over the 90s.

During our escapes through this decade, a lot of what takes place will happen in my bedroom. During the 80s the room was just that, I played out in the garage and the family room mostly and slept in the bedroom. With a new focus on friends and hanging out after school my room would get more lively. It would get a television, computers, video games. So now it’s a place to know, here was my first attempt at cataloging that.

So, time and memory are supported in my mind by remembering where I was watching something in my room etc. at the time. Luckily, I seemed prone to rearranging my living quarters about once a year as a teenager so I can put together the timeline based on where things where when I witnessed an event.

Coming into Junior high I had a few staples in the bedroom, the main being a bunk bed set that was cumbersome to move. Thus, for a long time I had the bed along the west wall, the dresser next to it on the north wall and managed around that. Then there was a change around 1990, and that was getting an art table, the Nintendo and then my own TV.

To adjust the dresser moved near my closet on the south wall along with the bunk beds, the art table took the west wall and dad helped construct a series of shelves using boards and cinder blocks on the north wall. This would be the room going forward into the teen years that I would start with. The first real modification came with getting my own computer, which eventually with a computer desk was crafted into the north wall, giving me the first picture, I really have of my room:

image 135 Chris K. in the last vestige of my room at the L street house before the destruction of the bunk beds.

This picture of Chris K. may be the only picture that includes the bunk beds, they would die a horrible death before High School. But this picture near the end of my junior high run starts showing the groundwork for how I was defined by this room that was heavily used for next few years.

First, we still the leftovers of the Baseball card collecting Dad got me into. The Mark Grace poster that would always stick around was on the west wall, which if not for this picture I would have never remembered. Attached to it is a Starting Lineup action figure of Gracie, I believe I found it at the Kay Bee toy store in the woodland mall which was quite amazing considering local sports figures would be the bulk of the stock for those items.

Next to Mark is a drawing I made of Darryl Strawberry in and or around the third of fourth grade, I think. It was a submission in the county fair and didn’t win a thing. But I was proud of it, I remember for some reason it was competing against a lot of pencil art sketches of U2 for some reason. Its luckily colored because what littered most of my wall was pencil drawings in black and white, which don’t come through well on camera.

Surrounding the Straw are what look to be a large amount of sketches made probably during class in junior high. There is one of the Grim Reaper, then what looks to be a slew of characters that Keith, and Chris H. and I used to draw during that time. Even looking as best as I can at them their context has left the brain, I can’t get a little spark of memory from some of them, but in the end, they were just filler I guess for the room.

Near to the bed there is a drawing of a stormtrooper on yellowish cardstock that I don’t remember and then the newspaper cut out of the people living under the stairs. Why did I cut this out and tape it to my wall. I don’t know for certain, but I am pretty sure it was in response to the idea we had that George dealt with the people under the deck in the backyard. Sort of a horror parallel to a weird story we would joke about George dealing with in his daily backyard patrols.

Above Mark is a map I printed out of Mongolia, which was a weird obsession I had for a while historically and geographically speaking thanks to the game Civilization. I don’t remember why they became my go to civ, but there it was. Then of course Reise’s Star Wars poster that was on that spot on the wall forever.

What you can’t see in the picture but had already begun at this time was the application of pencil drawings straight on the wall. Overtime a rite of passage for friends that visited regularly was to add a drawing of their own permanently to the wall. In my old age instead of thinking about how dorky that was, I wish I had colored them in, the room would have been oddly lively with all the different little pictures and possibly quite amazing all taken in at once, instead the black and white sketches on photo just look messy, much as they must have looked to my mother.

The drawings were all mainly small and of varying quality and taste. Notable Sam’s close friend Frank who would occasionally visit from Santa Cruz just wrote Canker-sore along the north wall. And Keith drew a thinly camouflaged penis coming out of the eye of a cartoon version of Chris H. which was around the area the People under the Stairs clipping resides. Chris K. drew my ATAT, Karl added a stick figure on a skate board that had the line “Skate Sick Tricks”, and Marty added a Tag that said O.G. Readmore(a cartoon cat from Saturday mornings encouraging children to read) along with at least two free mason symbols. Chris K. not to be outdone eventually just straight permanent market tagged the back of my door with graffiti, more than enough to incriminate himself if any police officer ever thought to come snooping around.

Unfortunately, its almost all not photographed well and after my parents sold the house and painted over it all, it’s all lost art to time. Maybe my door lives on in a dump somewhere with Chris’s tags and Marty’s attempt to act like we’re all masons, but probably not.

So at the point of this picture the summer of 1993 must have punched through, that summer the room would have had this general setup as well. In fact, I can see two figurines in boxes I bought in Germany at a renaissance fair, so this is the tail end of this rooms arrangement. The television I bought for the NES system is next to Chris K. hooked up with cable and presumably both the NES and SNES, which were generally played from the beds.

Now sometimes the SNES would be moved into the Television room across the hall from my room, where there were couches and lounge chairs to play street fighter in or enjoy a long Final Fantasy session, as Chris M. had the Christmas before this picture, and that me and Chris M. and K. would have in the next couple months following this picture.

We can see Chris K. in this picture playing civ 1, which I thought was stunning but on researching, civ 2 didn’t come out until 1996, so there is another reason why it felt like civ 1 was played a lot. It was the only version we knew for four or five years. What I also like about this picture is that the big five and a quarter inch floppies are out and presumably still in use, 1993/4 would have been the tail end of their lives, so it’s good to see the old things shining in one picture. That box they are in will be relegated to being shelved in the closet in all subsequent pictures and it is to spot on the shelf they are currently lost to time. I had a similar box style for the smaller three and a half inch disks and have found most of the disks, but the boxes and the big floppies have disintegrated into the void. Oddly I remember that yellow floppy as always having something we were using on it, nice to see it being where the disks are sorted too.

On top of the computer desk are both versions of Might and Magic, the Xeen saga. I actually got clouds of Xeen on diskettes first, then later got the Darkside upon its release, of course not knowing at the time eventually a CD rom with both games would come out. I remember the game getting heavy play from not only myself but both Chris K and M and Tom.

The last note on this room picture is that the head of peavy guitar I spent the last of my paper route money on can be seen laying on the floor. From the looks of things this wasn’t during a particularly clean time for the room. Although only a yogurt cup and one empty Pepsi can, can be seen. As anyone that has deal with teenage boys and computing knows, empty soda cans around the desk are a natural feature much like moss on the side of a tree in the forest.

What must have not been long after that picture, Chris K. sitting on the bottom bunk managed to hop enough on it that the bottom bunk broke. Which will lay the groundwork for the room configuration I really relate in my brain space as being how my room was setup during high school.

image 136  Some guy, me, being a rock star in his bedroom at the L street house circa 1994.

We can see the map of Mongolia and the Star Wars poster of Reise’s still in the same position as in the picture with Chris K. but now all those drawings that were below them are gone. Also, now Mark Grace and figure have moved next to Snoop Dogg where they would live together in harmony for years. Now that those sketches are gone you can see some of the wall drawings that remain behind. The one in the picture on the left I think is a dragon’s neck and head with the title Hack and Slash, which was a popular BBS door game we all played on Purgatory BBS.

I am standing on my new bed in the picture holding that peavy guitar. Now just a single with a metal frame, the bed is just a sleeping device and a couch for watching TV or playing games. The dresser that I have had forever has moved from the foot of the bunk beds to its old spot up against the north wall where it used to be when I was younger.

On top of it is the CD player mother bought herself years before that we appropriated during the big music revolution of the eighth grade. Living by it is a sprite soda can, because soda. On the other end we see some of my accumulating Star Wars the Role-playing game books that I loved back then. In 1994 Star Wars was in a state of semi-hibernation so the RPG books were one of the only bits of information out in the world, so I always was looking for more. Next to those are presumably the photos from the Germany trip in 1994 along with the vans shoe box that those photos still live in too this day (2022).

On the wall next to Snoop we see a sketch of Yoda I made, then a few of the wall drawings, A nerd ala nerd candies by Chris K, a weird veiny guy by me and a Pineapple with a shotgun, who was drawn by someone I forgot.

image 137 Chris M. playing some Tie Fighter in my room at the L street house the night of the skylight incident, crica 1994.

Then we roll over to where the bunk beds were and now the computer desk lives. In this picture Chris M. looks into the original Touch monitor I got with my first computer. The Touch monitor lasted for some time, later being used as the screen we downloaded MP3’s on during the late 99s. The monitor would always work but later on in its life the red color would go out and it would require a tactical smack to the top of the monitor to get the color back.

You can also see now the floppy disk drive boxes have been moved up to a shelf in the closet. From this point on CDs and other forms of larger media will start to dominate and the old disks will start to just sit around. In that closet I moved the Television setup, it somehow worked even with there being someone on the computer in front of it. I spent a lot of afternoons falling asleep to whatever was on FOX 40 while someone else played whatever game on the PC. It also gave me a captain’s chair when I was in the room on my own where I could watch tv and play the games easily.

It was in this mess that all of these sometime in 1994 shenanigans would happen. Jake and the Skylight, Marty and the radio shows, the day Karl crashed his truck, the back and forth from here and the room Jake was in.

Oddly I think that CompUSA mug next to Chris M’s hand stayed around and was used to house my dad’s kleptomania with pens when he got older. In other angels you can see the amount of Nintendo games stacked next to and around the TV. You can also see the photo albums from various outings on the top of the desk along with an empty soda can.

After this there is some sketchy remodels before 1997. At one point in 1996 the computer desk and all the computers etc. were out in the living room for Goldfish BBS. Leaving my bed, which I would take of the metal frame, the television in the closet and a console hooked up to it. However, I think before that I moved the computer desk to where the bed is during 94 here along the west wall, moved the tv out of the closet into the corner of the room and had my bed along the north wall. Then there was also some interim time between both those phases that confuses me.

The art tables journey is confusing too, I must have moved it out of the room when I reconfigured for the fall of 1994, but where it was after Jake moved out is a mystery. Dissolved into the nether with the large sized floppy disks.

Eventually in 1998 the room would morph into what we see in the video capture of Marty from 12-inch Johnson. The door and filing cabinet desk that was on the southwest corner of the room in 97 would be northwest, I would hook the two computers up in the southwest corner and put the bed back on the south wall. During these transitions I would get rid of the dresser I had since I was little and start keeping my clothes in a hamper, because I decided that was okay and it took less space.

The funny thing in all of this, is that if I take a picture of the 1997 setup and compare it with what would eventually win out in 1998, it looks like I simply slid the filing cabinets setup over, however somewhere in there is an interim phase where I put the bed along the west wall, slid the lounge chair that we see in the 98 plus years as the computer chair into the northwest corner and then turned the whole computer desk to face that west wall, but the filing cabinet desk along the south wall and split the room in two sections. One would actually have to walk on the bed to get into the computer chair. It was an interesting design.

Then of course I would move out. When I came back the computer desk would go to its final location in the house which can be seen in the picture from Christmas 2001. There is the new computer I ordered that year would live along with the server we would make out of moms old computer, until my parents sold the house in 2007. By far the longest stint for my computer desk, which the decade prior got moved seemingly once a year. Once I moved back my bedroom became more of a toy storage room and a lived in the living room.

One can see in the picture the entertainment center with the Television that would replace the old RCA XL100 that came to live in my room in the late 90s, along with newer consoles that took up more space. The old ones were still there though, I kept the SNES and NES up and running the whole time. The SNES which was pretty much my favorite never failed me, however during the moves of my later life got lost it seems in transition somewhere, sadly probably thrown away when someone found a lost box of antiquated technology.

Room Addendum:

The living room. I cannot remember Christmas 1995 for the life of me for some reason. I don’t know why, they were always fun, I can remember some of them pretty well. This one, which would have been that same crowd remains somewhat mysterious. But low and behold, I came across a drawing I made of how to arrange the front room (living room) of the L street house to accommodate the Christmas tree.

This one is terribly interesting for a multitude of reasons. One, it has a lay out plan for the room including separating the sectional couch into two smaller couches. Second, and by far where a lot of other points come from, the detailed look at how to set up the computers.

The computers to me at least are a brain time sink to figure out that space in time. I see the newest computer, the Pentium 100 setup there with all its pieces, labeled as running windows 95, which I remember setting up on the computers in the fall in the living room, then CivNet, NET and BBS. Then labels for the Null Modem cable and Lap Link cables to network up the P1000 with the 386.

Eureka! In a way. This is a diagram of the whole Goldfish BBS setup and shows I had it going in late 1995 for certain. The more puzzling part is, well not puzzling, just things I don’t remember are the CivNet importance being so high I labeled the computers as having the game. I think I mentioned at some point trying to get CivNet to be a thing, I didn’t realize it wasn’t until almost 1996 that we had a system to play it setup. But it looks like during the Goldfish era was when I have memories of us trying to get CivNet games a foot as well. So, add that to the LAN parties for Command and Conquer, what a time to be nerdy at home!

Because though these guys would have been running the BBS, that is also why I have an elaborate plan to reorganize the front room, because the BBS would have been running through the holidays. So, Christmas 1995 would have seen the family sitting on the chairs and couches in the picture, while the computers did their thing in the corner.

Now for my confusion with the plan. Either the TV is missing from the front room somehow, or only one of the computers is hooked up in the front room. Which means either the TV is somewhere else in the house which would be strange, or the laplink and null modem cables are running through, the hole in the wall. Which while feasible seems like a weird idea to pull off.

However, I think the drawing next to the chair is the TV, with the SNES hooked up to it, so there must have been some kind of complex system keeping the network and BBS going while allowing the TV to be in its regular spot. This is where I wish I remembered this specific holiday, so I knew what was going on exactly there.

That then leads me to this, which must have been a small stop for the room in 1995.

Leaving this picture which as of now is out of time with what camera roll it comes from, as being from probably summer of 1996.

So this picture is then of Chris in 1995 playing SNES, it is just the reverse of the other 1995 room setup:

Which is luckily given away right here, where I might even have just been doing a slow panoramic shot out of those three pictures.

Kind of neat. So that is right before the switch over to Goldfish BBS, I think. There does leave a interesting question on when these pictures are from then:

I’ve listed them as 1995. But the room is definitely without the computer. In fact we know they are in the living room because:

I have pictures from the same camera roll (I think, I really need to do the negative scans) showing the front room setup, which in one messy version I can see the laplink cable, but only one computer. That is also the 386, which is what is behind Chris M. in the other pictures. Also when the room was devoid of computers for Goldfish, around the Christmas plans time, I looked like:

The room had a drum set for a while in it, and general did look a little different:

I know the camera says its 1/1/98, it’s wrong! The only verdict I currently can come up with is that I independently moved the 386 at some point in 1995 into the front room, then we just kept going with that setup for the BBS. I thought it was the other way around, but there seems to be a photographed period of time that says different.

What more is that I know late into 1994 and beyond we have the regular setup I think of as the mid high school look:

Which for a fact was how the room was while Jake lived at the L street house. Which means the earliest the other format could have happened was maybe April or 1995. And we know by Christmas we’ve got the Goldfish setup, which then features the YSS band practices in the bedroom.

Now things get even more convoluted. I still swear when Karl got sent to juvenile hall that one night, it was my birthday weekend, which made sense with why his parents were out of town. But there is no window currently with the Photos I have of the room setups to match with that timetable. I am beginning to feel like it was a mass hallucination we all had.

There is a small chance that maybe I am right, but have the wrong year, and for some reason, the new P100 machine is setup in my room in February of 1996, running the BBS, and hooked up through the wall with the 386 in the front room, but, even though an option, I don’t think the null cabled of the laplink would have honestly been able to reach that far. And I think I would remember the annoyance of running those big serial cables through the hole in the wall. As of now, we just have a mystery.

Sometime after the summer of 1996, we get into the familiar look I know if from 1997. The PSX and SNES are in file cabinets underneath the TV I pilfered when Mom and Dad got a newer one for the front room. This is where stuff like getting back into Star Wars collecting and playing FF7 with Chris M. for the first time happened. This is one of the classic setups like back in 1994 that I remember well. I even have the drawing I tried to do from memory:

That was pretty close. I just had the Television and console setup wrong. The 1997 setup would only get modified over time. I think the catalyst being the new computer.

Then it is still kind of the same setup, just with the file cabinet/door desk setup slid over to accommodate more PC stuff and the bed slightly adjusted to match. This would then just be where I worked until I moved out of the house in 2000. So, the large sweeping quick changed in between Spring-ish of 1995 through Spring of 1996 are kind of crazy and hard to keep track of when pictures were taken.

That then oddly plants this sketch:

Firmly before 1994. So probably an 8^th or 9^th grade look into bedroom from my perspective. Well, unless that was one of Kim’s sketches, I have on the desk’s lefthand door there, then its summer of 1993 almost assuredly.

Interestingly I would never use the PC in my room again after 2000 and moving out. That mess would become the living rooms problem:

Look at that cabling nightmare. Interestingly this setup for the PC would last for years and I think to current date (2023) is the longest static location for the same PC I have ever had. Weird.