The Summer of ’94

Back in the Summer of ’94, I was 11 years old and I knew how to have a good time. My Dad and Stepmom both worked nights so when they took vacation time during the summer they would normally keep their same hours because that’s what they were used to. And during the summer, my brother, sister, and I kept their hours too because we thought we were the coolest thing since sliced bread to be able to stay up super late.

It wasn’t just that we stayed up late, we went out on the town too (a.k.a. going to Taco Bell for the 4th meal or Dunkin Donuts for tomorrow’s breakfast). We would take advantage of the cool 84 degree Oklahoma summer nights and drive to Taco Bell at 12 am in the Chrysler LeBaron with the top down.  Oh yeah.

Even though we were with our parents, we didn’t care. We were the coolest kids around because we were out way past our curfew. Once we got back from the “Midnight Run” were were so hoped up on Mountain Dew or donuts that the only logical decision was to make a pact to stay up until dawn for no other reason other than that we didn’t have school the next morning.

But how do you waste away 6 hours in the dead of night? By playing copious amounts of board games and video games, that’s how. We played Wahoo, Monopoly, Mario Bros. But the game we played the most, for one reason or the other was Mortal Kombat. Yup. As an 11 year old girl, I was spending my summer perfecting finishing moves, impelling my enemies with spears and burning them to death with the fire breath from my skull head. All of which were moves for my favorite character in the game, Scorpion. Undoubtably these are things that probably wouldn’t be allowed in this day in age. But back then it was no big woop.

Recently, when the new disgustingly gory trailer came out for the new Mortal Kombat movie, the strangest thing happened. I was filled with so many fond and pleasant memories of being 11 years, addicted to Mountain Dew, playing games with my siblings until the wee hours of the morning without a care in the world. Aren’t violent action films great?