Remember Y2K and the year 2000? It wasn’t that long ago. But you might have forgotten exactly what happed in the news that year.
The co-hosts of Camp Codger, the podcast for people in their golden years, recently got together to talk about Y2K the year 2000. The big news stories, the popular movies, the events that impacted us, and even the prices of things we buy.
Even though it has been less than two and a half decades since the year 2000, there were many things about that year that we’ve conveniently forgotten about.
Y2K and the Year 2000 Begins
One of the biggest memories of 2000 was the way the year began. The leap from the 20th century to the 21st century was a big deal all by itself. Flipping the calendar page from 1999 to 2000 seemed monumentally important. Surely, we were all entering the Jetsons era, with robots and flying cars just around the corner.
Then there was the Y2K bug. On the Y2K the Year 2000 episode of Camp Codger, the fearless co-hosts (Gary, Richard, and Randy) do a great job of explaining what the Y2K bug was, and why computer geeks were all paranoid about it. (Listen to the episode for a full explanation.) But the short version is this: when the year switched from 1999 to 2000, all hell was going to break loose. Computers everywhere in the world were going to shut down. Modern life as we knew it was going to be disrupted in all kinds of horrible ways.
But then the end of the world didn’t happen. And we all rejoiced by watching cable TV and eating SpongeBob SquarePants popsicles.
The Bush vs. Gore Presidential Election
The year ended with the biggest news story of Y2K the Year 2000. The presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore was the closest in American history. How close was it? It was so close that Florida had to recount all the votes cast in the state. And the Supreme Court got involved. We didn’t know who won the election for over a month. There was lots of talk about “hanging chads.”
Fortunately, panic did not ensue. Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore acted like responsible men. Neither of them called the other a liar, a loser, or stupid. They behaved with the decorum that Americans had come to expect from Presidential candidates. When George W. Bush was declared the winner, Mr. Gore accepted the results. No further drama ensued.
More about Y2K the Year 2000
When it came to popular culture, there was a lot going on in the year 2000. A rapper named Eminem and a band called the Beatles battled on the charts for the most popular album (CD?) of the year. On TV, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire was a primetime hit.
Montgomery Ward, the old-school retailer in business since 1872, announced that it would be closing its retail stores. And so much more happened in Y2K the Year 2000. Listen to this episode of the Camp Codger podcast to hear all about it.
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