What was your life like twenty years ago?

That was 11 years before my construction.

Then go with your Half your Life ago option. If twenty years ago was eleven years before you were hatched, then you must be nine. What was lt like when you were four? Did you eat the family dog?

No, but I made lots of puppies with him.

Alright, great answer!

Twenty years ago, I was an Administrative Assistant at a church in a dying suburb and was trying to get the church to buy some property across the state line and start anew, as a grocery store was interested in buying our property.

We had a stupid Marquee out front that said, “We don’t have ice cream, but we have great Sundays.”

When the grocery chain (Albertsons) bought our property and our neighbors were resisting the zoning change, I changed the sign to, “We don’t have ice cream, but Albertsons will!

Seems like I was really trying to make life work in roles I really wasn’t cut out for, but could have been if allowed.

I had cancer. Life was sucky.

Same house, same husband, different set of grandkids. My three older grandkids are all grown up and married now, and one just had a baby, making me a great-grandma.
I am homeschooling the younger two grandkids (ages 9 and 11) now, just like I did the other three

@canidmajor I am happy you are here now.

Thanks, @YARNLADY, me too! :-)

Well…I was upper middle class raised, married into upper middle class….but as of 20 years ago I was in poverty, by myself, with 4 kids to raise and support by myself.

I could walk, run, dance, kick a man hard enough in the chest to stop his heart.
I turned heads.
Worked harder than anyone I knew, except one guy.
He was a homeless veteran with a secret permanent tent spot somewhere.
He avoided work when he could, but on those occasions when he could be persuaded, he was excellent. Also, he was the one person I ever worked with who gave no thought whatsoever to my being a woman. Man or woman, he carried his end, and if the other end dragged then he wasn’t responsible. (But that was another time in my life, he was already a memory twenty years ago.)
Twenty years ago I was driving a cab at night.
I was good, real good. I was quick to get there, handled the drunks like a champ. I knew all the cut-throughs, and side streets where I could make time.
I never tried to boost fares, because tips are better that way, and most of the fare goes to the company. People trusted me, and I had some real cool regulars, like twenty dollar guy. I first picked him up at a bar that called me when they needed to get rid of a problem. He told me his address, and when I got there, he was out cold. I threw him over my shoulder and dragged him to the front door, rang the bell. It was his mom. I apologized for waking her. She had her husband drag the kid in while she paid me.
The next evening I got a “special”, a trip requested for me specifically. It was him, sober and going out. He wanted my cell number, because I was the first cabbie who didn’t empty his wallet and leave him on the lawn. He gave me a twenty dollar tip every time I took him out, so I would get him when he had to go home.

Now I am a wheelchair full of ABC gum.

I was married. My mom and brother were still alive. I had a different job and house.

My Mom was alive too. AND she had moved back to Kansas, from Seattle, at least for a couple of years before she passed. This meant I could see her when I wanted and not just once every 2 or 3 years.

Only 1 of my 10 grandkids was born.

Great. Life has always been great. I’m blessed beyond words.

Miserable. I was at the tail end of a bad marriage. Life was pretty tough.

I was married and my kids were teenagers. I had quit my job in the family business and gone back to work as a librarian. We were in the house I’m in now. My kids had their ups and downs emotionally but they were never wild and I loved being their mother and family time. My marriage was functional but we didn’t have a joyful connection (still there was shared humor at times.)

My heart huts for you @janbb.

We already had staff for that
My son was 2yrs old
My daughter was a year away from being born
I found Carstairs lurking in the doorway of Harrods

@Dutchess_III Thanks. It’s ok. I’ve built a new life but I do miss the family times.

1998.. Hmm. I had just turned 21. I was the head projectionist here. I lived here.

Our rent was $420 a month for a two bedroom apartment. I have a pay stub from around that time.

The apartment was ugly on the outside but nice enough inside. We lived on the back-side of the building so we had a porch.

I was living with my co-worker and best friend from high school. We pretty much just got drunk and did cocaine and went around crashing parties. It is Eugene in the 90’s so you just walk around campus and can walk into any of the 50 parties you see.

And the theater was a hard place to get a job. You had to know someone. So all of us were friends and would party or go camping after work.

Not a real care in the world. Worked, skateboarded, did drugs, no major health problems.

My world was collapsing… I lost faith in myself. I failed out of college and university. Dumped by my friends and some family. But my mom stood by my side and we survived. Now I am thriving and happy. Took me an additional 20 years to find out that learning was more important than grades. I however still refused to jump through hoops for a girlfriend and for professors.

20 pounds lighter, more hair,....otherwise just the same…

20 years ago I was 30. Thought there was no chance America would elect a certain George W. Bush.

911 happened. Iraq War. Recession. And now trump. It will get worse before it gets better.

It wasn’t a good time for me. I was in an unhappy marriage that would drag on for another four years.

Harder with more struggling, but younger, so it all balanced out.

Now is only marred by the constant nagging thought that, unless I live to be 94, it’s more than half over.

I was 40 and my 2 sons were small and my hubbie at that time was making plenty of money so I loved that time in my life. My life was centered around my kiddos and I was running 2–3 miles a night and enjoying that. My parents were still alive and that was a big deal as I was so close to them. We would go to TX to see them for 2–3 weeks in the summers and I would hang out with my HS girlfriends (and old boyfriends).