How You Kept Up With Your '90s Crush In The Summer

Summer vacation in the '90s meant three things for certain: Bagel Bites for breakfast, pool parties, and Nickelodeon marathons. It also meant that for the next few months, you wouldn't see your crush in gym class everyday; you wouldn't cross paths in the hall; and no more passing notes in homeroom. Horrors! We were creative kids, though, and there were plenty of ways we kept up with our crushes over the summer in the '90s. It wasn't as simple as today's forms of communication, where a quick text or liking their new Facebook profile picture will remind your crush that you're thinking about them. But we were tough cookies, and we made it work.

Really, staying in touch with your crush over summer vacation was vital to your mental well-being. The last thing you wanted was to return to school in the fall to learn that they had found love with some super cute high schooler who was a dead ringer for Buffy and had her own car. (Lies. She had to share it with her big brother and everyone knew it.)

Since you couldn't often see your crush face to face over summer vacation — affording them the opportunity to admire your fresh tan, denim skorts, and the high heel jelly shoes your mom finally let you get — you were forced to find other means of communication. Like these ones:

1. Late Night AIM Chats

"What's up?"

"NMU?"

"Same."

"Cool."

"Yeah."

2. Ding Dong Ditch

You just wanted to see their beautiful face. So you'd ring the doorbell to their house, run away, hide behind a tree, and watched as they opened the front door to investigate. Did they know it was you? You'll never know for sure.

3. Bumping Into Each Other At Summer Camp

You "accidentally" knocked into each other in the mess hall when you both reached for the last piece of pineapple upside down cake. Sparks flew.

4. Prank Calls And "Wrong Numbers"

You'd call their house and speak in a made up accent. Utter confusion ensued. Then there was that time you got the nerve to call and be yourself. Their mom answered, you chickened out, and you said you dialed the wrong number. But it's OK; we've all been there.

5. Sending 07734 To Their Pager

Turn it upside down and it says "hello." This was the '90s version of texting. So high tech, no?

6. Meaningless Neighbor Chit Chat

You told Brittney to tell Monica to tell Shawn to tell Luke to tell your crush that you said hey.

7. Leaving Comments On Each Other's LiveJournal

You couldn't contain the excitement you felt upon reading about your crush's trip to the post office with his mom, similar to the comment he left on your post about cereal. Ah, true love!

Images: NBC; Giphy (7)