As an adult, summer is the season for soaking in the sunshine, enjoying a beer and having toes tucked in the sand, grilled ribeye steaks and campfires when the kids go to bed.
For millennial adults, these summer events looked a little different back in the ’90s.
Kids spent summer days splashing around the public pool playing “Presidents” in the water and nights covered up in blankets at the drive-in. Hopscotch and chalking sidewalks kept children busy for hours, while rollerblading was the best source of travel.
If you’re looking for a summer filled with nostalgia, there is no better way to bring it all back than simply experiencing it all over again.
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So, call your friends on your landline and ask them if they can come out and play because it’s going to be one for the books.
These are the most popular summer activities from the ’90s that will bring you all the way back to your childhood.
Hopscotch was a popular summer activity for kids in the ’90s (and in many earlier decades, too). (iStock)
- Create a sidewalk chalk masterpiece
- Strap on rollerblades or purchase a scooter
- Attend a drive-in movie
- Play games at an arcade
- Cool off with a sprinkler
- Buy a frozen treat from the ice cream truck
- Visit the public pool
- Spend a night or two camping
- Ride the beach waves with a boogie board
- Start a lemonade stand
- Get the squad together for a pickup softball game
- Play ghost in the graveyard or tag
- Rent a dunk tank for your summer party
- Have a water balloon fight
1. Create a sidewalk chalk masterpiece
Creating art using sidewalk chalk has evolved enormously since the ’90s. There are many chalk types and a number of them are specifically designed for sidewalk chalk artists.
Cream and liquid chalks provide a smoother transition onto pavement — and with these elegant products, you can’t imagine drawing outside the lines.
Though chalk is more innovative than ever before, the idea of chalking the sidewalk is still the same. Spend hours outside scraping away at the last, tiny bit of chalk.
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Draw hopscotch or foursquare and teach the kids or invite your friends over to play among yourselves.
2. Strap on rollerblades or purchase a scooter
While bikes have always been a big hit for kids who can’t drive yet, rollerblades and scooters were crazy popular in the ’90s.
Often, roller rinks were a go-to spot for birthday parties. Scooters were one of the many ways you skinned your knees or scratched up the backs of your ankles all summer long.
Many kids in the ’90s would head to the roller rink to hang out with friends and family. (Roland Weihrauch/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Roller rinks still exist and both blades and scooters have evolved in a mega way in the last few decades.
Motorized scooters and electric rollerblades, AKA hoverboards, are hugely popular, but nothing truly beats the freedom of doing the work yourself.
Check out your local rinks for a ’90s theme night, likely hosted by a millennial DJ.
3. Attend a drive-in movie
Unfortunately, drive-in movie theaters are few and far between today. That said, if a drive-in theater is still operating in your town or your area, consider yourself lucky and go support it ASAP.
Pack a load of snacks, blankets and pillows and enjoy a movie under the stars. Be sure to check the weather before venturing out in case of storms or heavy rains.
While any small or large SUV is great for enjoying a drive-in movie, trucks are ideal. Set up the bed of the truck for a date night or the whole gang, including kids, and comfortably separate the family.
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For an extra comfortable experience, put down a blow-up mattress and cover it in blankets. And if your car is too small to back it in and watch with the trunk open, pack chairs or blankets and set up next to the car.
If you’ll be seated outside the car, pack a handheld radio to properly hear the film.
Pack snacks and blankets for a drive-in movie. (Aurelien Morissard/Xinhua via Getty Images)
4. Play games at the arcade
If you want to take it back to some of the best days of the ’90s, find a local arcade and play the games you once worshiped.
NFL Blitz, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Donkey Kong Jr. were just a few of the popular arcade games that you can still find today.
While Roll and Score was released in the early 1900s and Pop-A-Shot was first invented in the early ‘80s, they were popular among arcade goers in the ’90s.
Bring friends or family and score tickets with skee-ball, Spider Stompin’ and Buzzy Buzzy and go for the prized big teddy bear this time.
5. Cool down with a sprinkler
Sure, pools are fun and super relaxing, but if you were a kid in the ’90s there were few things more exciting than your parents hooking the hose up to a sprinkler on a hot summer day.
And yes, simply running through a sprinkler as a grown-up may feel a bit juvenile, but there are many fun ways to incorporate adult fun into this summer pastime.
Try either of the following games to start.
- Set up cup pong at the sprinkler and play as usual. The water will hinder a player’s ability to flip the cup, making it more challenging. The further away from the sprinkler you are, the easier it will be to play.
- Play whiffle ball in the yard and use the sprinklers as bases. When a player runs or dives through the sprinkler, they’re safe. The player must maintain their position in the sprinkler until there’s a base hit, or they’re able to steal a base.
6. Buy a frozen treat from the ice cream truck
Picture this: You’re sitting outside on the back deck in the scorching heat, and you hear the sounds of an ice cream truck in the distance.
If your first internal emotion is excitement, you’ll need to catch the truck next time it rolls around.
Next time you hear an ice cream truck coming down the road, consider grabbing yourself a treat.
Go for an ice cream sandwich, pushpops or a firecracker popsicle.
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Bonus points to the ice cream trucks that still have Powerpuff Girls or Tweety bird popsicles with gumballs as eyes.
7. Visit the public pool
Maybe you’ve purchased a home with a pool or your apartment building offers a community one. While that’s ideal, there’s nothing like visiting a public pool and being back in the company of your neighbors.
Meet up with friends and spend the day soaking in the sun and concession stand food you wouldn’t dare buy for your home today.
Take in the sounds of your childhood. Reminisce about being a teen lifeguard, what it was like to skip the line at the slide or secretly skip passed the lifeguard on duty and slide down two at a time.
Camping is a favorite American pastime that ’90s kids loved, too. (Vincenzo Izzo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
8. Spend a night or two camping
Your style of camping is totally up to you. However, if you’re trying to bring back that ’90s nostalgia, we’re doing it 1998 style and mimicking the “Parent Trap.”
Whether your leave your house and venture out to campgrounds or stay home and lodge in your backyard, you’ll need a few things to kick off camping.
- Oreo cookies and peanut butter
- Cards to play poker and a sock full of change
- A nearby lake
- Prank war ideas
9. Ride the beach waves with a boogie board
If you weren’t a talented surfer as a kid, but you wanted to play around in the water, maybe even try to stand up and balance, you likely did so on a boogie board.
If the trial and error of successfully balancing ended with your childhood, then this might be the perfect time to bring out the boards and try again.
Take them to the beach or toss them in the pool.
Either way, feel free to ride the waves on your belly or your feet and pretend you’re a surfer all over again.
10. Start a lemonade stand
People passing by may not be cheerfully accepting of an adult lemonade stand, as it’s typically a kid’s summer activity to make a few bucks. While this is true, there are ways to involve the children or make it more appealing to adults.
You could make a lemonade stand yourself and simply give away the refreshing drink to walkers or runners as they move passed you. There’s a chance you could really brighten someone’s day by doing so.
If you’re hoping to collect cash for a good cause, a lemonade stand could be a great opportunity to promote it in your neighborhood. Charge a reasonable price for the lemonade and offer materials to people to learn more.
Lemonade stands were popular activities for kids in the ’90s.
You could also host a neighborhood happy hour and make a lemonade stand for the kids, and a spiked stand for the adults. This ideal is more elaborate but encompasses the same idea.
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11. Get the squad together for a pickup softball game
While local parks with baseball fields are often flooded with community leagues all summer long, there are times of the day that no one is playing.
Find out when fields are empty, bring the squad together and compete in a pickup game of softball.
Head to the fields you used to play on yourself as a kid when the sun was hot and summer was in full swing. Pick two captains and select teams when everyone arrives or compete with another group of people who are also looking to play just like start of “The Sandlot” film.
If “you’re killing me, Smalls” is heard under 10 times throughout the game, you didn’t play it right.
12. Play ghost in the graveyard or tag
“Tag,” the 2018 comedy film featuring Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner and Isla Fisher, taught people that the game of tag can be played at any age and stage of life and still be fun.
Whether you start and finish tag in the same day or spend the rest of your lives playing like the group of men “Tag” is based on, it’s a ’90s summer game that is sure to spark nostalgia.
Similarly, ghost in the graveyard was a popular ’90s game played by kids after dark before they had to head home. If you didn’t as a child, you can start now.
The rules of the game are simple. Get a group of at least three people together, designate the playing area and choose a ghost.
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If you really want to take it back to the ’90s, choose a ghost by taping one foot at a time in a circle to the rhyme “Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?”
When the song ends, the person’s foot it ended on will remove their foot. The foot belonging to the last person is the ghost.
Choose a home base and pile the players, except for the ghost, on base while the ghost runs and hides. Then, the ghost will find the players.
When a player is found they should yell, “ghost in the graveyard” and run to the base unless tagged. If tagged, that person is now the ghost.
13. Rent a dunk tank for your summer party
The best part of being an adult is adult money. Having the ability to make your ’90s dreams come true again with financially stability can be gratifying.
Dunk tanks were a summer festival staple item, but they’re not just for community events. You can rent dunk tanks for just a few hundred dollars.
14. Have a water balloon fight
Water balloon fights are pretty universal among children in all decades.
Unless you have children of your own, there’s a good chance you haven’t had a water balloon fight in a while. Summer is the perfect time to bring them back into your life and make them a reoccurring summer event.
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Get your friends together for a backyard brawl and experience those racing hearts of childhood again with a huge water balloon fight.
