Here's a glimpse back at what the world was like back in May 1994, when she died.
1. Texas Monthly wondered if that "brash, cocky son of a Bush," George W., had what it took to win the governor's mansion.
2. There were retrospectives of Richard Nixon, who died just weeks earlier. Jackie was invited to his funeral service but was unable to attend because of illness.
3. 24 million of us had cellphones in the US. (By contrast, in 2021 the number was 294 million.)
4. There were more than 2.5 million pay phones across the country. Today, there are 500,000, down 80%.
5. In an average week, 62,294,000 of us read a Sunday newspaper. Today that number has shrunk nearly 60% to 25,785,000.
6. Kmart had 2,485 stores in 1994. (Not that I believe Jackie ever picked up a blue light special.) Today there are 9.
7. The May Cosmopolitan introduced the phrase, "Social Insecurity." I think today it's called "imposter syndrome."
8. Bill and Camille Cosby invited Ebony to photograph their 30th wedding anniversary celebration.
9. Jodie Foster promoted her sexy onscreen romance with Mel Gibson in Maverick with a glamorous photoshoot for Vanity Fair.
10. The Flintstones, starring John Goodman and Rosie O'Donnell, was #1 at the box office.
11. Instead of Colbert, Fallon and Kimmel, you could watch Letterman, Leno or Nightline.
12. Seinfeld and ER were tied as for #1 in the Nielsen ratings. Streaming wasn't yet a thing. Cable was almost all documentaries and movies and considered a threat to movie theaters, not network TV.
13. We were all singing along with Ace of Base ("I saw the sign when I looked into your eyes I saw the sign")
Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.
Things have really changed in those 28 years! The passage of time is hitting hard this week. Last night on Facebook many of my high school graduating class were commiserating on how fast the last 40 years have gone and what changes we've been through as those among the last to grow up without computers and cell phones.
ReplyDeleteI kind of miss those days.
ReplyDeleteWow, such a long time ago - and yet, like yesterday. Better days, I suspect. Really interesting list.
ReplyDeleteThat really was a long time ago... this was fascinating!
ReplyDeleteAny newspaper I buy these days is like getting a Sunday paper. Some papers have the comics in color to the Husband’s happiness. :-)
ReplyDelete