How to have a ’90s summer in Pittsburgh

Remember when “be home before the streetlights come on” counted as a summer plan?

That’s the fantasy millions of people are trying to re-create this year. This summer, TikTok and Instagram are awash in videos romanticizing what users have dubbed the “’90s summer” or “analog summer”: kids riding bikes until dusk, cannonballing into public pools, catching lightning bugs, eating melting ice cream cones and wandering the neighborhood with no itinerary beyond being home before dark. 

Parents are trying to give their children the kind of unstructured childhood they remember. Gen Z, meanwhile, is discovering that boredom can actually be … fun.

For most places, you’d have to hunt down the last surviving roller rink, seek out a drive-in theater or explain why hitting a golf ball through a fiberglass windmill once counted as peak entertainment.

Luckily for us, Pittsburgh has a head start. Growing up in Turtle Creek in the 1990s, Emily Ruby, curator at the Heinz History Center, would climb on her bike and disappear for hours, pedaling from one neighborhood adventure to the next. 

She wasn’t headed anywhere in particular, Ruby recalls. Maybe she’d end up at a friend’s house. Maybe someone would suggest the public pool. Maybe she’d spend the afternoon wandering the neighborhood until hunger — or eventually the streetlights — sent her home.

“I just remember being home and kind of on my own,” Ruby says. “Wandering around the neighborhood being bored.”

That, she says, is the part people get wrong when they think about a ’90s summer.

“The big part about the ’90s was the freedom that we had,” she says. “You would go out, ride your bike and maybe be out all day.”

The places mattered, of course. But what people are really nostalgic for is the space between them, Ruby says. The long days at Kennywood, the chance encounter at the county pool, the evening spent at a church festival or the aimless hours that somehow became the best memories of summer.

So if you’re ready to swap endless scrolling for soft serve, wooden coasters and a little glorious boredom, here’s how to have a ’90s summer in Pittsburgh, whether you’re introducing a new generation to those simple pleasures or rediscovering them yourself. After all, the joys of a ’90s summer aren’t just for kids. They’re for anyone who’s still young at heart.

Kennywood visitors wait in line to ride the Jack Rabbit roller coaster, July 1991.
Photo courtesy of Kennywood Park Records, Detre Library & Archives at the Heinz History Center.

Relive Kennywood’s golden age

Founded in 1898 and opened to the public in 1899, Kennywood became a summer visiting ritual through school picnic days, company outings and nationality celebrations that brought generations back year after year, Ruby says. “Planning your outfit, picking your partner, Kennywood was a huge deal,” recalls Ruby. “You’d go with your school, but you’d also go for your dad’s work picnic.” Ride the century-old Jack Rabbit, race your friends on the Racer, brave the Thunderbolt and don’t leave without an order of Potato Patch fries, a Kennywood staple since 1973. 

South Park Wave Pool. Photo courtesy of Allegheny County Parks.

Spend a day at the wave pool

Allegheny County still operates wave pools at South Park, Boyce Park and Settlers Cabin, plus the historic North Park Swimming Pool, which opened in 1937 and was among the nation’s largest public pools at the time. South Park’s wave pool, which first opened in 1977, underwent a major renovation before reopening in 2024. Settlers Cabin’s debuted in 1978, making Allegheny County one of the few regions that still maintains multiple public wave pools. Whether you’re floating through the waves or stretching out on the deck, these pools remain some of the city’s most affordable — and enduring — summer gathering places. 

The Sandcastle Wave Pool in 1995. Photo courtesy of Kennywood Park Records, 1895-2018, MSS 141, Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center.

Make a splash at Sandcastle

When Sandcastle opened in July 1989, it transformed a 67-acre former U.S. Steel railroad yard along the Monongahela River into the Pittsburgh region’s first major water park. Originally developed by the Kennywood Entertainment Co., the park became an instant summer tradition for families who didn’t need to head to the shore to cool off. Today, the Mon Tsunami wave pool, Lazy River and 11 water slides continue to draw generations of Pittsburghers back each summer. 

Photo courtesy of Dependable Drive-in.

Watch a movie the old-fashioned way

There were 4,000 drive-ins operating nationwide at their peak in the late 1950s. Today, only a fraction remain, but Pittsburgh still has two within an easy drive. Dependable Drive-In in Moon Township, which opened in 1950, is the last remaining drive-in theater in Allegheny County. It now features four screens showing first-run double features. About 35 miles north, Starlight Drive-In in Butler County has welcomed moviegoers since 1958. Roll down the windows, tune your radio to the movie’s FM station and enjoy. 

Photo courtesy of Kniess’ Miniature Golf.

Putt your way through miniature golf

Thousands of Tom Thumb courses opened across the United States before the Great Depression slowed the craze. Pittsburgh still has a piece of that history. Kniess Miniature Golf, originally opened as Tom Thumb Miniature Golf in 1930, remains one of the country’s oldest continuously operating miniature golf courses. Looking for a bigger outing? Fun Fore All Family Fun Park pairs two 18-hole courses with go-karts, batting cages, duckpin bowling and a sprawling arcade for an all-day throwback. 

The Neville Roller Drome’s Sunday afternoon Family Skate attracts skaters of all ages and skating abilities. Photo by John Beale.

Roll back to the roller rink

Roller skating’s popularity has ebbed and flowed for more than a century, from the golden age of neighborhood rinks in the mid-20th century to the roller disco craze of the 1970s and the inline skating boom of the 1990s. Pittsburgh still has one of its survivors. Neville Roller Drome, open since 1948, continues to host public skate sessions and birthday parties, offering a rare chance to experience a pastime that generations of local families grew up with. 

Photo courtesy of The Church Arcade.

Trade consoles for coin-operated classics

The Church Arcade has transformed a former Catholic church in Duquesne into a retro gaming destination with more than 100 classic arcade and pinball machines, all set to free play with admission. About 20 miles northwest, Pinball PA houses more than 400 playable video games and pinball machines inside an interactive museum dedicated to preserving arcade history. 

Sprinkle indecision. Photo courtesy of Page Dairy Mart.

Join the line for soft serve

Every Pittsburgh neighborhood seems to have an ice cream stand that signals summer has officially arrived. Page Dairy Mart, serving the South Side since 1951, remains one of the city’s great seasonal rituals, where waiting in line is simply part of the experience.

Students in a dorm at University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg in 1995. Photo courtesy of University of Pittsburgh Greensburg Archives, University of Pittsburgh Library System.

Embrace the lost art of boredom

Perhaps the most authentic ’90s summer activity isn’t an activity at all. Ruby remembers spending entire days riding bikes, wandering the neighborhood and simply being bored. “That’s part of the summer experience,” she says. “Being bored, being hot and not knowing what to do with yourself.” This summer, consider putting your phone away for an afternoon and seeing where curiosity takes you.