16 Years - A Perspective

by Chris

December 1st marked 16 years since I got out of the Army and informed Kelly that she would henceforth be my girlfriend. Alot has happened since then, here are a few tidbits to jog your memory of the last 16 years.

1991

The collapse of the Soviet Union. After 45 years of the Cold War, the final chapter closes on the once mighty Soviet superpower. One by one, smaller regions break off into independent republics.

1992

"Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher (From Kelly's hometown of Bellmore) drives to her boyfriend Joey Buttafucco's house (in my hometown of Massapequa) and shoots Mrs. B in the face.

1993

The worldwide web (WWW) is born...thats right people, Kelly and I were dating before the internet.

1994

Ahhhh OJ... the first live police chase covered on every single TV channel for hours on end. The OJ story , on every channel 24 hours a day until you wanted to kill people too.

1995

Timothy McVeigh blows up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

1996

1996 seemed to be the year of plane crashes. TWA Flight 800 explodes off Long Island, the ValuJet crash in the Everglades, an Ethiopian Airliner is hijacked and crashes into the Indian Ocean and Ron Brown (Secretary of Commerce) is killed in a plane crash in Croatia.

1997

The biggest story of the year, Princess Diana killed in a car crash in Paris.

1998

The economy is booming, everything is going great...then BLAM ! A sex scandal involving the President...thanks Bill...what a f-ing mess.

(Chris & Kelly, inspired by Bill & Monica's love, finally get married on Valentine's Day 1998)

1999

A brave new world. Napster comes out and we can now download music from the internet for free ! The music industry scrambles to stop napster as we all melt our dial up modems trying to download every song ever made (insert modem noise).

2000

We survived months of Y2K hysteria, stories about the apocalypse and doomsday scenarios. As the clock struck midnight, nothing happened. We weren't thrown into the stone age by a worldwide computer malfunction, but we did spend the next month eating our y2k food stockpile....canned meat, YUMMY !

2001

September 11, 2001 - the day that changed everything...forever.

2002

The "Reality" TV revolution that started around 2000 with "Survivor" churned out a huge hit with "American Idol" which led the way for even more ridiculous TV shows.

2003

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers win SuperBowl XXXVII further illustrating why the Tampa Bay area is the center of the universe. Kelly & Chris are quite possibly the happiest people on Planet Earth.

2004

More great sports happenings, as the Tampa Bay Lightning win the Stanley Cup. Tampa is HockeyTown USA.

2005

The worst natural disaster in US history, Hurricane Katrina slams into the Gulf Coast.

2006

Although we all expected it someday, we're still shocked when Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin is killed...by a stingray.

2007

Kelly & Chris make good on their threat to sell everything they own and move to greener pastures. Goodbye Tampa, Hello Ireland !