Nostalgia

Do you remember the good ol’ days?

Who amongst us has not reminisced about a time before COVID although some people were grateful for an excuse to not visit their in-laws or people they did not like.
 
Nostalgia was first described in the 17th century as an illness it was deemed to have a negative effect on the soldiers who were away from their families in battles. I mean that was kind of obvious, but it wasn’t nostalgia’s fault. It was the battle and being away from loved ones and familiar places that was the negative effect. It wasn’t until the 20th century when academics started to realise the power of nostalgia and the positive effect it brings about.

Photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash

What were the good ol’ days?

For me nostalgia is McDonalds happy meals with actual ‘proper toys’, Power Rangers (the original 1995 movie, not the endless variations), sugary cereals with puzzles on the back and plastic toys that I would fish out as soon as getting it home and fighting with my brothers to get to it first (which being the youngest used to work its way to me after a few dramatic screams).

Photo by Dim Hou on Unsplash

It is a great tool to bond over, to share experiences and remember the “simpler” times we all had. That’s the thing with the nostalgia, you only remember the good, not necessarily the bad and the ugly as nostalgia is now associated with positivity.

We all look back at our “youth” as the good old days, through rose tinted glasses having romanticised it all. The times certainly were “simpler”, technology wasn’t as advanced, the world wasn’t at our fingertips, you had to watch adverts without any option of skipping them and I mean a world without internet – my nieces and nephews believe in Santa Claus yet cannot fathom a world or scenario where internet didn’t exist.
I always used to get annoyed when my mum would play her boring old songs when I was a kid, now I find myself listening to those same songs my mum used to listen while I go about my daily activities because it gives me a sense of safety, of being a careless child playing cops and robbers with my cousins – while in reality I am cleaning the house like my mum used to. I love watching old home movies, even the ones where I am falling down (though that clearly hurt at the time) I now look at those times and only remember the happiness I felt after nailing a dance routine with my brother.
 
What you notice about nostalgia is that it that more often than not it relates to memories and the feelings rather than the materialistic items or technological advances. Though, some of us have also bonded over waiting patiently for your new favourite song to play over the radio so you can record it on the cassette and time it perfectly, trying to find a new address required using the A-Z, the instinctive directional abilities of a homing pigeon coupled with a bit of luck and not just Google Maps or showing up to a designated place at a designated time hoping the people we made plans with will also show up and just accepting if they are a bit late rather than having constant messages about ETA and in some scenarios TV channels only being active during certain time (that was news to me!).

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

Even though the technology is now better than the “good old days” the world is generally better too; there is a lot more intercultural learning and acceptance. Looking back is great, you can learn from mistakes or remember and re-familiarise yourself with the winning formula and keep traditions alive. It can also be detrimental if you keep living in the past, not learning, adhering to certain traditions too closely and growing with the ever changing times. As the saying goes “you can’t move forward if you keep looking back”.
 
With my nieces and nephews now at the age where I was discovering “awesome” shows and music I find myself introducing them to the shows and songs I grew up with in the hopes to almost impress them and form another bond over which we can share moments and create nostalgic memories.
 
Nostalgia, it is a wonderful and powerful tool and as great as the memories already created are I am excited about making new and more memories that I can look back to when I’m older (through rose tinted glasses obviously!).