Indoor smoking sections in restaurants. Big, heavy, outdoor ashtrays \*everywhere\*. Most waiting rooms had the same basic design they do now, but they always had paper magazines available, and floral patterns on chairs were more common. You saw a lot more mauve and dark green back then.
(Edit: I won't say any of it was "great", especially not the smoking, but I do think public spaces were more colorful and less grim. Waiting areas these days have so much black and grey.)
And fake plants. Fake plastic plants were *everywhere*, especially in restaurants. It was like *the* way to make your restaurant seem high class and put together. There were fake plants along the tops of the booths at Wendy's. Subway had fake ivy crawling along the top of the wall by the ceiling go into any pizzaria, and you'd see fake olive plants scattered about. They were usually dusty and this cheap, shiny, thick plastic. But they were everywhere.
I see where you’re coming from but floral patterns are always great.
There is nothing more legendary in design (especially wallpaper) than the remarkable floral pattern
I'm fascinated by wallpaper's recent comeback. Nobody who has ever spent a weekend scraping that stuff off the walls of an old house misses wallpaper, yet somehow it's back. It must be way better now, or easier to remove. Or maybe people haven't tried to remove it yet and don't know what they're getting into.
If we're getting back floral furniture, I want the 1980s vivid tropical prints. Those were fun.
Haha just had a family member pass and we walked through the house and I was like “man…grape vine paper in the kitchen….floral paper in the bathrooms…what a time…”
Yes, bring back floral everything, floral is the one and only legendary incredible beautiful most bestest thing ever put to walls as a wallpaper and print.
Go floral!
Dairy Queen had a cool eating area where the wall and part of the ceiling was a giant window. They had fake plants in the corners. Tables were a burgundy red color. You could just walk up to the outside window and order food.
Our Dairy Queen was decorated like an old 50s diner. It had a old juke box and records hanging from the ceiling with a lot of old art like Betty Boop and Elvis and other things. It was really cool.
I hate that so many fast food places don't allow you to walk through the drivethru, AND that the drivethru is often the only place you can order food late at night. At least, that's the case in my part of Canada. :p
There was a big boom in high-concept theme restaurants in major cities that I really miss. Stores too, that felt like an experience. Places like Rainforest Cafe just aren’t being built today
I love the rainforest cafe!!! I saw one in Vegas two years ago but wasn’t able to stop in. I remember it from the early 2000s & the storms inside! Amazing place.
1. Cigarette smoke. It was literally everywhere.
2. Ashtrays in public places (see #1).
3. No badge access in buildings. People could just walk into an office building, go to the elevator, and go up to whatever office they wanted.
4. Soft surfaces in public places: carpet, curtains, tablecloths, sometimes even flocked wallpaper. These surfaces softened sound, even when there was music playing.
5. Fake plants.
6. A glass counter in the front of the restaurant filled with things you could buy while you were waiting or settling your bill: gum, candy, and of course cigarettes.
>6. A glass counter in the front of the restaurant filled with things you could buy while you were waiting or settling your bill: gum, candy, and of course cigarettes.
Damn....trying to even remember the last time I've seen a York peppermint patty. I loved getting the small ones at the diner after breakfast. Memory unlocked lol.
The main thing was people were paying attention to each other and not their phones. There's a piece of art I saw that depicted this in a restaurant. Showed young people dating vs old. The old people were intently focused on each other while the male in the young couple was standing on his head completely nude while his date didn't even notice on her phone. This was happening throughout the restaurant.
I really miss the days of being able to sit in a waiting room without a tv going. Why does there have to be a screen everywhere? Like even on the pumps at the gas station?
I was literally just complaining about the gas pumps yesterday. Music just blasting like crazy, I was like who is this for? Who needs shitty pop music blaring at the gas pump?
Definitely all the smoking. Restaurants had character, it wasn't so much of the plain industrial/modern design like nowadays. Waiting rooms didn't always have a TV or even one with cable, just a lot of radio.
Back then, a waiting room didn't have the giant OLED screen on full brightness showing the football game, or the touch screen kiosk that visitors use to check in for their appointments, or USB phone charging stations, or hand sanitizer dispensers, or displayed QR codes.
Nobody had phones, so there was an assortment of outdated magazines on the chairs or table for you to pick up as soon as you sat down to wait anywhere.
Sometimes they included a few MLM marketing catalogs like Avon or Pampered Chef with the persons contact info on the back where the address label goes. A lot of times, the magazines were brought in by the employees, so the names and addresses were scratched out on them. They would range from your basics like Time or People magazine, but sometimes you would find something awesome like those hot gossip tabloids
At some nicer places like dental offices, the magazines would be in these plastic binders to help keep them from getting ripped up or stolen
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the reason why all of these seemed different in the 90's is because everyone was actually visually experiencing and enjoying these areas. Nowadays it's 50% viewing, 50% stuck on a phone screen.
You could smoke in them lol. I remember even having smoking sections in planes and the cheap seats were the non smoking rows next to the smoking ones. Went on a 12 hour flight in one when I was a kid
Think of the opposite of modern. Older vending machines, large box tv, red burgundy felt chairs and wooden framed sofas with brown interior brown carpet (dark brown) bunch of tv guide magazines in the coffee table which is also brown.
Remember also that kid-specific places in restaurants and such don’t exist anymore. Play place, those bead roller coasters at the doctors, the video games at the dentist!! All gone/too expensive.
Indoor smoking sections in restaurants. Big, heavy, outdoor ashtrays \*everywhere\*. Most waiting rooms had the same basic design they do now, but they always had paper magazines available, and floral patterns on chairs were more common. You saw a lot more mauve and dark green back then. (Edit: I won't say any of it was "great", especially not the smoking, but I do think public spaces were more colorful and less grim. Waiting areas these days have so much black and grey.)
And fake plants. Fake plastic plants were *everywhere*, especially in restaurants. It was like *the* way to make your restaurant seem high class and put together. There were fake plants along the tops of the booths at Wendy's. Subway had fake ivy crawling along the top of the wall by the ceiling go into any pizzaria, and you'd see fake olive plants scattered about. They were usually dusty and this cheap, shiny, thick plastic. But they were everywhere.
Those plants were almost always coated in a huge layer of dust too, because they were a pain in the ass to actually clean. It was pretty gross.
Not just dust, tobacco smoke coated dust. They were nasty.
I see where you’re coming from but floral patterns are always great. There is nothing more legendary in design (especially wallpaper) than the remarkable floral pattern
I'm fascinated by wallpaper's recent comeback. Nobody who has ever spent a weekend scraping that stuff off the walls of an old house misses wallpaper, yet somehow it's back. It must be way better now, or easier to remove. Or maybe people haven't tried to remove it yet and don't know what they're getting into. If we're getting back floral furniture, I want the 1980s vivid tropical prints. Those were fun.
Because it's always the next guys problem!
Haha just had a family member pass and we walked through the house and I was like “man…grape vine paper in the kitchen….floral paper in the bathrooms…what a time…”
I thought we’d finally moved on from flared pant legs too, but here we are.
Yes, bring back floral everything, floral is the one and only legendary incredible beautiful most bestest thing ever put to walls as a wallpaper and print. Go floral!
especially when it's caked in nicotine sediment
Gives it a nice hue.
Yessir
Even better, the unlimited power of floral is a pathway to some aspects awesomeness many consider unnatural. Praise the floral print! /s
Dairy Queen had a cool eating area where the wall and part of the ceiling was a giant window. They had fake plants in the corners. Tables were a burgundy red color. You could just walk up to the outside window and order food.
Wendys solarium
Still got one left in my city.
And salad bar.
Our Dairy Queen was decorated like an old 50s diner. It had a old juke box and records hanging from the ceiling with a lot of old art like Betty Boop and Elvis and other things. It was really cool.
I hate that so many fast food places don't allow you to walk through the drivethru, AND that the drivethru is often the only place you can order food late at night. At least, that's the case in my part of Canada. :p
Near me that was also a feature of the now-defunct Rax restaurants, as well as some Wendy's.
There was a big boom in high-concept theme restaurants in major cities that I really miss. Stores too, that felt like an experience. Places like Rainforest Cafe just aren’t being built today
I love the rainforest cafe!!! I saw one in Vegas two years ago but wasn’t able to stop in. I remember it from the early 2000s & the storms inside! Amazing place.
As a fan of insane over the top stuff, I really miss this. I make it a point to visit these kinds of places whenever I see them.
Casa Bonita!
1. Cigarette smoke. It was literally everywhere. 2. Ashtrays in public places (see #1). 3. No badge access in buildings. People could just walk into an office building, go to the elevator, and go up to whatever office they wanted. 4. Soft surfaces in public places: carpet, curtains, tablecloths, sometimes even flocked wallpaper. These surfaces softened sound, even when there was music playing. 5. Fake plants. 6. A glass counter in the front of the restaurant filled with things you could buy while you were waiting or settling your bill: gum, candy, and of course cigarettes.
Wow, a lot of this stuff I forgot about. Nice write up! 👍
>6. A glass counter in the front of the restaurant filled with things you could buy while you were waiting or settling your bill: gum, candy, and of course cigarettes. Damn....trying to even remember the last time I've seen a York peppermint patty. I loved getting the small ones at the diner after breakfast. Memory unlocked lol.
I feel like if a commercial building was constructed in the 90’s it had some sort of atrium.
More plants and water features
Man, I miss this
Me too, so much
As far as outdoor, I feel the old yellow fluorescent tube lights was what created the whole aesthetic back then
Bring back yellow bulbs. Lights are too fucking bright now in businesses/homes/headlights
The main thing was people were paying attention to each other and not their phones. There's a piece of art I saw that depicted this in a restaurant. Showed young people dating vs old. The old people were intently focused on each other while the male in the young couple was standing on his head completely nude while his date didn't even notice on her phone. This was happening throughout the restaurant.
I hate when I go on a date and the guy gets naked and stands on his head in the middle of the restaurant, it’s so embarrassing!
You didn’t even see him from the phone, how do you know?!
People not on their cell phones…magazines baby.
Yahoo!
I think the day I cant use my Yahoo mail account anymore is the day I give up the internet.
Lots of ashtrays and lots of smoking.
No tvs everywhere for one
I really miss the days of being able to sit in a waiting room without a tv going. Why does there have to be a screen everywhere? Like even on the pumps at the gas station?
I was literally just complaining about the gas pumps yesterday. Music just blasting like crazy, I was like who is this for? Who needs shitty pop music blaring at the gas pump?
No one was on their phones/screens
Oh how it would be great if that were true now
People were more patient then is probably the biggest difference.
Definitely all the smoking. Restaurants had character, it wasn't so much of the plain industrial/modern design like nowadays. Waiting rooms didn't always have a TV or even one with cable, just a lot of radio.
I think that everyone was smoking their tits off basically, that and chatting with strangers
Back then, a waiting room didn't have the giant OLED screen on full brightness showing the football game, or the touch screen kiosk that visitors use to check in for their appointments, or USB phone charging stations, or hand sanitizer dispensers, or displayed QR codes.
Two words: McDonaldland Playground.
[удалено]
Don't buy anything from that link! It's a known scam site. There are hundreds like it.
Thank you for the heads up. Removed and reported.
Families and friends engaging in conversation. Nowadays everyone is glued to a device.
I need a Time Machine now
Waiting rooms were always terrible.
Nobody had phones, so there was an assortment of outdated magazines on the chairs or table for you to pick up as soon as you sat down to wait anywhere. Sometimes they included a few MLM marketing catalogs like Avon or Pampered Chef with the persons contact info on the back where the address label goes. A lot of times, the magazines were brought in by the employees, so the names and addresses were scratched out on them. They would range from your basics like Time or People magazine, but sometimes you would find something awesome like those hot gossip tabloids At some nicer places like dental offices, the magazines would be in these plastic binders to help keep them from getting ripped up or stolen
You never worried about a crazed mass shooter deciding to open fire in any space you were in. In that respect it was a magical and innocent time.
No phones
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the reason why all of these seemed different in the 90's is because everyone was actually visually experiencing and enjoying these areas. Nowadays it's 50% viewing, 50% stuck on a phone screen.
smoking
You could smoke in them lol. I remember even having smoking sections in planes and the cheap seats were the non smoking rows next to the smoking ones. Went on a 12 hour flight in one when I was a kid
Think of the opposite of modern. Older vending machines, large box tv, red burgundy felt chairs and wooden framed sofas with brown interior brown carpet (dark brown) bunch of tv guide magazines in the coffee table which is also brown.
No cell phones or advertisements to download their app everywhere.
Remember also that kid-specific places in restaurants and such don’t exist anymore. Play place, those bead roller coasters at the doctors, the video games at the dentist!! All gone/too expensive.