Nostalgia

Nostalgia (n): a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations 

The world is tough. Really tough. Some days, I would like to stay in bed. Most days, I would like to return to my childhood—where I didn’t have to pay my bills, didn’t have to work, and I could just enjoy life. That’s not this world. Every time we turn around, someone has something to complain about. The world (especially the US) is more divided than ever before, and it seems things get worse every day. I’ve heard it’s my generation that made the world is what it is grew; we were raised with technology in a world where we got a participation trophy. No matter what happened, it’s not always fun to live in our current society. We need things that remind us of better times; that make us happy. Simply put: we need nostalgia. 

This year, I have been trying to enjoy nostalgia—life in simpler, less angry and chaotic times. I don’t want to be angry. I want to be pleasant in this world of unpleasantness. Which I will admit, with my feisty personality, has become increasingly harder.  I have tried to relive my childhood/youth just a little. 

The Superbowl kicked it off. I wasn’t really interested in the game. Which for me, is blaspheme—when do I not care about sports? The Packers beat both of the teams in the Superbowl, and screwed ourselves out of the Superbowl again this year, so I couldn’t get excited about the game this year. For the first time, maybe in forever, I watched the Superbowl for the Halftime Show. The last few years have been terrible, for one reason or another. This year, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J., and Kendrick Lamar—was amazing. This was the music of my teenage years. Even though it wasn’t music I typically listened to during the time, I knew every song, and I jammed along. To me, the 2022 Superbowl Halftime show was what the world needed: a throwback to a simpler time. (Of course, people had something to complain about because this is America, and this is the world we can live in. My opinion: if you don’t want to watch, don’t watch. You know who is performing before the Halftime show comes on). The 2022 Halftime show made the world better for just 14 minutes—people forgot how they had been in lockdown and couldn’t live normal lives for the last year+. For 14 minutes, we were back in simpler, happier, and less contentious times. It was amazing.  

I have never been a movie fan. Usually, I can think of a million better things to do with 1.5-2 hours of my time. Often, when I watch movies, I am doing something else—writing, Googling, etc. For this reason, I have never seen movies people consider MUST-WATCH, like Forrest Gump, Shawshank Redemption, or Schindler’s List. My friends often tease me about movies I haven’t seen. During Lockdown times, my friend convinced me to watch Terminator, Back to the Future 1-3, and Rudy. I also watched Jaws 1-4. None impressed me very much, but it was nice to see/recognize what movies were considered great in the times they were made.  It’s also interesting to see how special effects and technology has changed over time. For example, in the 1970s, I am sure the shark in jaws was realistic, but nowadays, the shark would look and move more realistically than it did 50 years ago. People were more satisfied by story in days gone by, and as a storyteller, I appreciate good storytelling. 

Last month, Top Gun: Maverick came out in theaters. When I was growing up, my mom loved Tom Cruise. As a child, I saw many Tom Cruise movies, mostly on TV because A LOT of his movies were not child appropriate. My favorite movie of all time is a Cruise movie—A Few Good Men—taught me you can stand up for what’s right, even if it’s not popular. And the courtroom scene between Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson is still theater gold 30 years after the fact. Top Gun was special to me. The movie shaped a lot of my childhood. When I was a kid, I loved every part of the movie. I remember vividly, sitting on the couch in my parents’ basement watching the movie over and over again. I loved the volleyball scene. I wanted to be like Charlie when I was young—she was smart, drove a cool sports car, wore a cool jacket, and gets the hot guy. The movie impacted me so much that in 7th grade, for my first solo performance, I chose to sing Take My Breath Away the love theme from the movie. I loved the soundtrack. As a music lover, the soundtrack to the movie is the perfect one for the movie, and Kenny Loggins was the perfect voice to sing the soundtrack.  

When I first heard a sequel was coming out a few years ago, I was somewhat skeptical, but interested in seeing it because it was a sequel to one of my favorite movies. Then Covid delayed production, and I had to wait 2 more years. As I said before, I don’t really do movies, especially in movie theaters, but I knew I had to see Top Gun: Maverick in the theater. In many ways, the sequel was a love story to my youth. I loved that the sequel used the original soundtrack throughout to tie the original movie to the present movie. I loved the details that reminded me of the original movie: pictures of Goose, Iceman, etc. The sequel was really well done, and complimented the original very well. I am glad I saw it in the theater. Some say it was better than the original, which I am not so sure about. I watched the 1986 movie the day before I saw the sequel in the theater. Both are really good. I had some storyteller issues with the sequel, but I would recommend for everyone to see it, especially if you enjoyed the original (which can be viewed on Amazon Prime). It’s funny how memories change over time, and how we think things are one way, but when we see them again, they are very different. When I re-watched Top Gun, there were certain details I remembered slightly differently than the last time I watched it, but it didn’t change how I felt about the movie. Those details also impacted my viewing of the second movie.  

Friday night I went out with my friends to celebrate my good friend Linda’s birthday. Linda was my first friend when I moved to North Carolina. In March, I was shopping, and I saw a Golden Girls mug—Golden Girls is Linda and my show. I had to buy the mug for her birthday, though we usually don’t get each other presents. I bought one for myself as well. In her card, I wrote that we can have Hulu watch parties and watch the show together while drinking from our new mugs. After Betty White passed, I have been following her social media, which has been sharing pictures and memories of her. I have always loved Betty, but after seeing all the memories of her life, I love her even more now. After we finished dinner, we went to Goodberry’s, which is a frozen custard restaurant we frequented in our youth after church dances. My belly was full, and I don’t usually eat ice cream because it upsets my stomach, but for nostalgia’s sake I ate some ice cream. It tasted as good as I remember.  

After dinner, another friend and I decided to watch The Emperor’s New Groove because I was comparing Nancy Pelosi to Yzma. Politically, the movie is pretty spot on, and it has aged well for a children’s movie. David Spade plays the part of an entitled, sarcastic emperor perfectly. I watched it in college with my roommate and her family. I loved it then, and I loved it again last night. Again, if you haven’t seen it, the movie is worth the watch. 

Again, this year, I have tried to remember more of the simpler times. This has included activities like: 

• Listening to music from my childhood. After a particularly bad lightning storm a couple weeks ago that cancelled a baseball game, I listened to Blame it on the Rain by Milli Vanilli. I don’t know why anyone ever thought the two guys that portrayed the singers were actually the singers—they don’t look like what the songs sound like. I have even rick rolled myself a few times, lol. I have been on a boy band kick lately. Who doesn’t love singing at the top of their lungs to the music of *NSYNC or BSB? If it’s good music from the 70s-00s I am all about it right now.  
• Watching old tv shows. I have re-watched episodes of Sister, Sister sporadically throughout the year, which was a staple in our house when we were growing up. I have also watched almost the entire series of Murder, She Wrote. I love the premise behind the show, and I love Jessica Fletcher and Seth Hazlitt. However, the show is one that I wouldn’t ever want remade. Angela Lansbury cannot be replaced. Streaming services are great for watching nostalgic TV shows. They are also great for watching remakes of older shows. I love older shows because they aren’t worried about politically correctness and inclusion—they are what they are. Yes, at times, they make jokes that are not appropriate. TV shows nowadays are too worried about political correctness. In a different vein, though, not all the older shows have aged well, and the jokes aren’t always funny. You have to pick and choose. (To me, Friends hasn’t aged well). 
• Watched clips of Aaron Rodgers’ beautiful throws from Superbowl 2011 to the Miracle in Motown. I could watch those clips all day. Each time I watch it’s like I’ve never seen them before. It’s amazing. One of the reasons I love the Packers is the revered history and nostalgia behind the team. The front office is big on remembering times of the past. I love that my team started with blue-collar workers from a tiny town in Wisconsin, and I can own part of the team because of that. Only problem is trying to find tickets to Lambeau for an affordable price.  
• I have played Oregon Trail on my computer several times. I even made it to the end once without everyone dying, haha. I remember being allowed to play the computer game when I was in typing class in elementary school if we finished our assignments early. It was a great reward. Now, they even make a card game version you can play. Good times. 
• Memoirs of my favorite actors from my youth: Billy Crystal, Will Smith, Alex Trebek, and Matthew McConaughey. Hearing them describe the stories of movies/tv shows I grew up with helped me feel connected to them. It’s also interesting to hear insider details of things I grew up loving. I have also re-read some of my favorite books: Les Mis and The Firm. I found a Choose Your Own Adventure book I loved as a child (these books were great because you essentially make up your own story for the book as you read it), and a book my grandmother bought for me when I was about 11—I plan to re-read them for nostalgia’s sake. 

Nostalgia invades us with feelings and memories of the past. The feeling gives us comfort in times of chaos and unfamiliarity—times like now, in the world we are living in. This is why we are seeing remakes and sequels to movies from the 1980s and 1990s because times were simpler, and we need the feeling of nostalgia in our current world. It’s also the reason marketing executives use nostalgia to sell things. If we are reminded of things that make us happy, who doesn’t want to buy them. 

A 2015 article in Time stated, “nostalgic reminiscence can be a stabilizing force. It can strengthen our sense of personal continuity, reminding us that we possess a store of powerful memories that are deeply intertwined with our identity.” Essentially, nostalgia is part of who we are. There are two types of nostalgia: restorative and reflective. 

•  Restorative refers to the type where you try to reconstruct or relive the way things were in the past. 
• Reflective refers to longing and yearning feelings while accepting that the past is the past. 

Nostalgia gives us optimism for the future—shows us how connected our lives truly are. Our past and our present are all a part of the cycle of our lives. Of course, too much nostalgia can become a bad thing. We don’t want to live in the past. We need to live balanced, realistic lives.  

I read an article of things we would feel nostalgic for in 25 years. Among the list was talking on the phones, books, magazines, etc. The list made me sad because it stated we would forget what our loved ones sounded like because we text over talking. We don’t want to lose too much of what makes us human and gives us meaning—life should not be all nostalgia. What’s cool about nostalgia is it’s different for different people. Even though it’s a different experience for different people, nostalgia has a way of bringing us together with mutual experiences. An article in The Journal of Experimental Psychology reiterated we need nostalgia. Nostalgia makes us feel like our lives are meaningful and have value. Nostalgia is basically free medication when we are feeling sad or chaotic. Choose your medication because we all need it!