A Look Back at Y2K

As the millennium approached, the Y2K bug made many people nervous! Early computer programs often used two-digit dates to designate the year to save memory and storage, which were expensive. Would this "bug" trigger computer system errors--causing crucial infrastructure like utilities to fail as midnight hit? This friendly-looking bug was out to protect computers from nasty Y2K ones. It must have worked--very few computer failures were reported.

With its period pair of disc drives, images of computer chips flying out of a 1990s era personal computer, this snow globe embodies the angst of the Y2K moment.

This portion of a computer motherboard was fully Y2K compliant in its recycled role as a bookmark. It's also a clever reminder that, while digital storage media all have their bugs, the printed word has served us well since the days of Johannes Gutenberg's printing press.

This freeze-dried pizza was sold online and was originally marketed as sustenance for backpackers and campers. In the months leading up to Y2K, however, many people feared the worst and began to stock up on emergency food supplies. Sales at the Pizza Maker company doubled--because who can imagine a world without pizza?

Champagne is often the drink-of-choice to ring in a new year. Instead, bottled water sold out all over the country on New Year's Eve in 1999. Many were concerned about impending utility shortages and stockpiled necessities, like bottled water, "just in case."

Wearing big glasses is fun, especially at a New Year's Eve party. The donor of these party-favor glasses used them at a large gathering of family and friends from several states to help usher in the new millennium.

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Lots of companies tried to cash in on the fervor surrounding the year 2000. The Mars candy company started early, promoting its M&M's as "The Official Candy of the New Millennium" by 1998. Why tie M&M's to the new year? MM is the Roman numeral for 2000.

For more than a century, Jell-O has been served at family gatherings, pot-lucks, parties, and barbeques, becoming an American icon. The Jell-O company created this special mold to help customers celebrate Y2K. The person who donated this mold also sent her New Year's Eve Jell-O recipe which called for sparkling club soda, sparkling Jell-O, and champagne. What a way to ring in the new millennium!