Remember back when the new millenium was new? 1999-2000

[doomsdave]

Hard to believe, but it's been almost 20 years.

So many memories.

Maybe you have some to share, too?

Like the New Years' eve celebration you went to. I had the luxury of a total time-waster of karaoke at the infamous 100-to-1 Club in Arcadia California (don't think Joan was even a gleam in her daddy's eye yet) right near the race track and the mall. 8 pm to 2 am the following day. Sang Love Shack by the B-52s three times. A grand time was had by all, for sure. And, on top of all else, it was a Friday, right before a Saturday (I looked it up).

Alcohol was consumed (this wasn't Saudi Arabia, after all) but, amazingly, things went relatively smoothly. This was, after all, a new millenium, and it would be bad luck to get sent to jail or the graveyard at the very beginning of it. We even toasted the cops (with raised glasses) for keeping us safe from Y2K, and laughing when we nose-dived paper airplanes to the ground, "oh no, planes are falling from the sky, please save us!"

So what do you remember in this time of reflection? When you really partied like it was 1999, because it actually was?

 

[Jem]

I was still in high school. So I just went to a house party and drank a lot. Lots of music and dancing and basically everyone just hanging out. When the ball dropped everyone just went around kissing everyone, (not in an orgy kind of way - lots of cheeks and pecks) Nobody felt left out and we all had a great time.

 

[AbbysMom]

I was home alone as my husband is a computer guy and it was all hands on deck for the Y2K issue.

 

[doomsdave]

At the time, I kinda laughed off all the Y2K stuff, I mean, how could all those computer geniuses be that dumb?

But . . . . I actually knew better, upon reflection. I'd become a lawyer by then, so this computer geekery was stuff I wasn't involved in so much.

Back in the early 1980s, I studied COBOL, FORTRAN, BASIC and RPG II at a community college, and we had this big discussion about date fields and date-sensitive applications.

STUDENT: "So, what happens when 1999 turns over to 2000?" [And "99" becomes "00"]

INSTRUCTOR: " . . . the turn of the 20th to the 21st century is still nearly 20 years off!"

And, by 1999, a friend from high school was working as a programmer on COBOL, etc., for banks and the like much of which hadn't been updated much for 20+ years. [Expletive.]

 

[Mia6]

I had a small dinner party.

 

[Willowy]

I worked for Gateway 2000 at the time (so modern!), but they changed their name to just Gateway before 2000 so they wouldn't be outdated, lol. I was 20, didn't drink, didn't party. Sat at home and watched the ball drop and kept an eye on the cell phones and computers to see if anything interesting happened (it didn't). There was some talk about whether the computers at work would go down, but to everyone's (except the IT guys) disappointment, nothing happened there either.

 

[Kieka]

I was still in high school at the time. My Dad worked as tech support for hospital equipment at the time. I asked him and he said it was a non-issue at his company. They had switched to four digit years on their data years earlier so even if it showed a two digit year it was actually four digits in the system. They didnt even bother having extra people on call that evening they were so unconcerned. So I wasnt concerned that evening either. I remember watching the countdown on TV but I never have done much more for new years. Shoot, this year the only reason I might be up is to up my bid on something that ends at midnight.

 

[mightyboosh]

I worked for the cops then and remember the extra planning they did for when the planes fell out of the sky and for when every computer in the World crashed because they wouldn't be able to 'compute' the year 2000.
Ha, it was all a bit of a damp squib in that respect.
As far as partying goes, I was working but I remember a lot of folk saying that they wouldn't even bother going out as it would be too busy and they wouldn't be able to get a taxi for love nor money etc.

 

[AbbysMom]

My husband worked for a very large bank at the time with operations worldwide. They didn't have any issues, but had everyone there that night, just in case there was.

 

[Katie M]

I was in middle school. Since people didn't seem to know when the millennium *actually* started, I stayed up for both 2000 and 2001, just to be sure.

When we came back to school from winter break in 2000, my friend told me about her family's New Year's party. Just before midnight, her dad went down to their basement. He shut off the power at midnight to freak everyone out

 

[doomsdave]

I was in middle school. Since people didn't seem to know when the millennium *actually* started, I stayed up for both 2000 and 2001, just to be sure.

When we came back to school from winter break in 2000, my friend told me about her family's New Year's party. Just before midnight, her dad went down to their basement. He shut off the power at midnight to freak everyone out

That friend's dad sounds like one scream of laughter after another . . . .

 

[Tik cat's mum]

I went to a friend's house party and consumed way to much alcohol that I don't remember actually seeing in the new year. What I do remember is waking up behind my front door with a blanket chucked over me, from what I've been told it was a excellent party

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I was in high school. Back then our church had big parties for New Years and on Christmas Eve. That year it was at the youth pastors house. There was food, loud music and friends. The teens usually settled off in a room away from everyone else to hang out. So I have some great pictures of skinny-me with friends. I was wearing one of those Old Navy shirts that were so popular at the time. The ones where the arms and shoulders were a different color from the body of it.

Everyone tried to squeeze into the family room and the kitchen that overlooked it for the midnight countdown. The youth pastor was afraid we’d exceeded the weight limit for the room but its still standing today.

I remember lots of cheering and shouting and people being goofy about y2k.

 

[golondrina]

With friends of my generation we used to wonder if we were going to make it, i.e. be there for the year 2000!!! Twenty years later am still here Sadly though I only have one friend left from my youthful days. She is a few months older than I.

 

[Lari]

I was in high school and slept over at a friend's house. We had these walkie talkies and were trying to reach people on them and tell them the millennium didn't start until 2001. And sprayed silly string.

 

[rubysmama]

I'm another one who was working in IT at the time, so had spent the last couple of years helping expand all those COBOL program fields from 2 digits to 4. We'd started on it in 1997, so pretty much all our programs had been tested/run before 2000, so no major headaches occurred, that I recall. By the time Dec 31st rolled around, I was sick with a cold/flu, so didn't do any celebrating, but I think did manage to stay up till midnight.

 

[doomsdave]

I'm another one who was working in IT at the time, so had spent the last couple of years helping expand all those COBOL program fields from 2 digits to 4. We'd started on it in 1997, so pretty much all our programs had been tested/run before 2000, so no major headaches occurred, that I recall. By the time Dec 31st rolled around, I was sick with a cold/flu, so didn't do any celebrating, but I think did manage to stay up till midnight.

Thank you for your service!

Seriously!

 

[Norachan]

I graduated from Uni in 1999. I went back to my home town for a few months, but I was in Australia for a 6 month working holiday by New Year. I remember going to a club in Sydney called Chinese Laundry, then spending January 1st on Bondi beach. Couldn't believe I was actually on a beach in January.

 

[Koveshnikov]

we never believed in disaster 2000 it was a regular new year

 

[NY cat man]

As per usual, I had been up at 3 a.m. to go to work, so at midnight I was busy looking at the inside of my eyelids. I can't even remember the last time I celebrated the new year.