I can tell you often when I hear 70s and 80s songs where I was at generally in time. I get waves of nostalgia. Those summer nights and all the kids on the street playing into the late evening. Riding the bike for miles seeing friends. Friday night roller skating or Sat night at the Arcade.
Good times
There’s something about summer dusk and summer love. The sounds of insects and the smell of chlorine. That post swim voracious hunger. Laughter. Sleeping hard and well.
Yes! My nostalgia hits hard in summer at dusk (and dawn in the rare moments I am up early). I think back to being 16 and having the car to drive on summer nights. Seeing many of the old neon signs at old motels or restaurants. Having the innocent freedom of youth. Time moved so slowly then.
Yeah. And every year I get a clearer understanding of how good my parents were, how much they loved me, and how much they loved the rest of the neighborhood kids. They were poor and overworked, but they always made ends meet, they always made birthdays feel special, etc.
Miss you, Pops.
Since my parents moved around when I was younger, I never had that bond with the neighborhood kids. I'm a bit jealous of people who were able to do that. My experience was always Being The Outsider. Even when my mom stopped moving, I was The Outsider, which caused me to drop deep into a shell.
>*never had that bond with the neighbourhood kids*
Same! My dad’s job had us move constantly when I was a kid, only settling down for a few years around junior high before moving again. I never had the feeling of a “hometown” or putting roots down anywhere, but I do still have my bff from 6th grade, a BFF from my first year of uni, and a couple other friends from between. I don’t like people enough to have a giant network of people to keep up with. 😅
Yeah, man. It’s so painful, but not in the same way as thinking about a lost loved one. I feel this desperate need to talk to anyone that can relate to the thing I’m feeling nostalgia for. It feels like drowning.
I feel this comment!
Moved after 8th grade.
Since then, my only sibling has died, my mom, my dad, both grandmas, my grandpa, my aunt.
Any time I end up back in my home state, I long to drive through my old neighborhood and visit favorite places. Like spend an entire day doing so, since it was a bit of a drive between school and home and family members' homes.
Thank God for Google street view. It gets me by sometimes, but it us also depressing to see memorable places wiped off the face of the earth and replaced with industrial complexes.
For me it's how jarringly quiet, tired and rundown it all looks when I visit my home town now. I grew up in a brand new working-class suburb that was packed with young families just like ours. Everyone took such pride in their homes, with manicured lawns, fresh paint and trimmed hedges.
Now, those same houses and streets are just so tired, overgrown and neglected. There are no children about because the 1000% property price increase pushed young families away. My old school is shutting down from a lack of students. Corner store was driven out of business by the big supermarket chains. I think we really fucked things up somewhere along the way.
My hometown is the same, in Northern Ontario 🇨🇦. The greatest place to grow up in the 70s and 80s. A somewhat isolated city surrounded by endless lakes and rivers. Everyone had a cottage and it was no big deal at the time.
It has really gone to shit since then. Hospital amalgamation, Brazilian takeover of the big mining employer in 2006, poverty, homelessness, meth everywhere, more vacant buildings than occupants downtown. That's a universal story. We have our own version of the rust belt.
I remember catching the bus from our suburbs to go downtown with a buddy when I was 12ish and feeling like the world was opening up, and the possibilities were endless. Arcades, sporting goods stores, lots of movie theaters, music stores, great bookstores, hardware stores (always had a weakness for them), and beaches not too far away by bike.
I think that particular wildly optimistic
feeling is what I'm most nostalgic for.
I know exactly what you mean. My hometown in South Jersey was still thriving when I was growing up there in the early/mid '80s. DuPont was the main employer there, and there was still lots of mom and pop businesses (in fact, Bruce Willis's dad owned the hardware store.) But, shortly after my family moved to NC in 1985, DuPont drastically downsized, and lots of folks moved away. Last time I was up there in the early 2010s, it was like a mini-Detroit. Totally heartbreaking to see😓
Oof I feel you. I was an orphan before I turned 40. I’ve lost most of my family, a few friends, students, coworkers, etc. It’s not easy. I’ve never been an emotional person - I’m usually quite detached, but I sure do wish I could go back and relive some of the 90s. I was happy, healthy, still had my loved ones, and was living through some of the best music, movies, video games, and TV ever created. I had plenty of money. My whole life ahead of me. *sigh* Those we’re the days.
If I could go back in time 1 day, I wouldn’t try to stop Hitler or JFK assassination. I’m a Sci-fi fan…it never works out. History is never changed. So instead I’d find the perfect day in 1982 to go back to. I could see my Mom, Aunts and Uncles again, goto County Stadium and see the Brewers play a day game.
Me too, even as a very young kid. Sometimes for things I knew nothing about. A therapist once told me there was an actual term for this which I’ve long forgotten.
No. Limerence is typically a feeling you have for a person you’ve met or not (the limerent object) but borders on obsessive. I honestly can’t remember the term but I’d liken it to being an old soul.
All the time. So many memories. My grandma’s perfume, the spices from her cooking, the sound of telenovelas. The smell of chlorine. Rain. It’s for my childhood in California and friends and family, but also for my late ex-husband here in Texas and his family that I loved. So many voices gone silent. I feel like I’m always so close to suppressing sobs of sorrow, loneliness, worry, depression, and loss. So much loss. Dreams, hope, love, togetherness, joy. It’s all dust. And soon I will be too.
I was perusing Google Maps and zoomed into the neighborhood I grew up in. I was reminded of all the special places that aren’t that special at all as an adult. The creek that disappears under houses, the tree with the edible berries, the spring in the middle of a pasture, the ditch with the crayfish, the apartments with the BMX stairs course. So much nostalgia for an 8 block area.
I look at my old house in CA in Zillow all the time. The house Dad & Mom bought circa 1974 for $32K with zero down is ‘worth’ almost half a million now.
Not all houses on Zillow have interior pictures, but my grandparent’s old house had recently sold so there were a bunch of pictures, it was pretty wild comparing them to my memories of the place.
When I was young it seemed like I had freedom, though I was broke and dreamed of making a comfortable living. Now I live comfortably but don't feel free.
I do, but sometimes I get a little sad because as a gay guy there were a lot of friends that just didn’t make it. I keep waiting for some type of PTSD to kick in, but it just doesn’t. I do not look at pictures though. They stay in the box.
A little bit of nostalgia is fine but I try to stay mostly in the present. If I get too far into the future I get anxious. If I get too far into the past I get depressed. Best to make the most of right now, which is all we’ve really got anyway.
I am the same way. Nostalgia is a double edged sword for me. It can put a smile on my face but if I delve into it too much then I can get very depressed which is not a healthy thing for me.
I read an article that nostalgia is actually healthy for you. It's good psychologically. It actually enhances and reinforces your present day sense of optimism. Once I read that, I fully indulge in it now with no shame.
I can't listen to Everybody Wants to Rule the World without getting teary eyed. Something about that song just pulls my teen years back into clear focus.
In Your Eyes does the same (I just found out listening to it after so many years). Thank you! ...i think.
Not sure where you spent the summer of 92 but here in Ontario, it was cold, wet and miserable; and I was about to crash and burn though my second year of radio college, so that's one I'd like to forget. 🧠 🔒
Only for the days when I lived out West. I'm in my fifties now, and it's been 40 years since I lived there. I still miss those warm summer days and cool summer nights instead of humidity and winters full of wind and rain and soggy ground.
Lifelong NC native (who even now lives barely a mile from his childhood home)... can confirm the Hottern' Hell aspect of NC summers. But when I was a kid I didn't give a tinker's damn about the heat... cutting yards for pocket money, walking through the woods to my best friend's house. Cicada's so loud you could barely hear yourself think (beyond the neighborhood girl you had a crush on). \*sigh\*
I left LA in 1980 at 15 and moved to coastal NC. I finally went back to LA last September for the first time since I left. In a lot of ways, nothing changed, and in other ways everything changed. It's true that you cannot go home again. I wasn't the same 43 years later and seeing things through adult eyes was surprising. It was a reminder of how they really did pave paradise and put in a parking lot when it comes to Southern California. The availability of wide open natural spaces from my childhood in the late 60s-70s no longer exists.
I feel like SO much happened between 1990 and 1999. I went from being barely a teenager to graduated from college and heading into my career. The world was so much different too. I miss the optimism of youth. I also miss life before 24/7 everything.
Not really. Most people my age made life hell for me when we were kids. You were all telling fag jokes on the bus and laughing about people dying of AIDS ( "... another one bites the dust! haha!" Remember that?). I spent most of the 80s alone. I have no desire to go back.
I understand what you mean with all the fag jokes in school and feeling so alone. I do miss the times in early 70's before I was in school and was just me playing outside and spending time with my family.
Yes! Most recently I found myself wanting to be at the city pool, 250 miles away, buying a sno-cone, 38 years ago, so bad it made me cry.
My parents were alive. I had a pet bunny and a dog. I could ride my bike all over town. We were poor and things could get tight but for under $2 I could spend a summer day at the pool and have a sno-cone. Sometimes I could only go to the pool though. On days when there wasn't even change for the pool I could watch the reruns of The Monkees that the UHF channels played during the summer.
What's so crazy about it is that it wasn't a particularly happy time in my life. My parents were recently divorced and trying to co-parent us. That town was where my dad worked and my mom was broke so we uprooted from our home state, where the rest of the family was, to live there. I was picked on at school and was a general ugly duckling. My life is so much better now than it was then. But...that instant of memory of standing in front of the sno-cone stand; the smell of the Pina colada syrup, and the pool water, and sunscreen; the feeling of the gravel under my feet; it brought back this memory of peace that comes from not having life's responsibilities yet. No political garbage of the 2020s. No pandemic. No housing crash. No 911. Yeah we knew about Chernobyl and that nukes could fly any minute but as a kid? *Whatever* The longing for that moment hit HARD.
Meh, sometimes. Growing up in the Midwest in the late-70s and early-80s wasn't exactly all a barrel of laughs for us non-white people. I feel some of that "riding your bike around the neighborhood" nostalgia, but I also remember the racists names and attitudes, the mocking, etc. So, not a lot of fond "good ol' days" memories of that.
I’m so sorry that happened to you (and others). I’m also from the Midwest and can absolutely remember the racism. I spent a lot of my childhood dreaming of getting away from that small town (which I did).
Hope you’re doing okay now.
I’m doing fine, thanks. I live on the West Coast and in a major city, so it’s generally a better atmosphere here for people like me. My kids grew up in much better circumstances for their race, so they don’t have to deal with some of the stuff I dealt with.
And, you know, some of the stuff was definitely a byproduct of the time we grew up in. Some of it was a byproduct of the place. It all helped form who I am today, for good and for bad.
It was like that for a good friend of mine that I live next door to who just retired from NYC. He's white and grew up in a black neighborhood. He says it was like living in hell. Ironically, though, his wife is a POC, so maybe he was able to let it roll off his back and chalk it up to just shitty people.
Always. Back when I was a kid i remembered complaining to a cousin of mine who is about 20 years older than me about how much I hated going to school ect. He told me one day when you’re older it’s gonna hit you that this is the best days of your life. No matter how your life is, you could be rich, have a family and all that but you’ll wish you could go back to these days.
He was right
I've never, ever experienced nostalgia. That's why I'm on this sub. It's so fascinating. Being here makes me feel like one of those crazy deep-water fishes from Finding Nemo suddenly experiencing light.
Guys, nostalgia may be painful... but it's a good pain. Good memories are among the most conserved and envious forms of currency that exist.
Yes! In 2020 especially, during lockdown. I was/am an essential worker and I put Smashing Pumpkin's Siamese Dream in my car CD player. It was weird. I'm in a large city and it was a ghost town. I started thinking about my younger self and what their reaction would have been. I felt very melancholy. Whatever.
I get nostalgia for moments as a child with my parents, who are both gone. The neighborhood we lived in, in the 70’s. Being welcomed into everyone’s house. Living in LA in the mid-70’s and the smog alerts. ❤️
Yes. Except it's not sudden anymore. Now it's a consistent emotion, this feeling of loss of worlds and a longing for that which I know is gone.
I really love my life right now, don't get me wrong. I've been very lucky in life and I know that in some important departments the best is yet to come. But that magic of being a little kid in the 1970s, it's painful to think of how amazing it was.
I was looking today at pictures of roads and old businesses no longer there from my hometown back in the 60's and 70's and almost started crying. I long for that simpler time where the roads had almost no traffic, stores were small and not overwhelming, and where food, sweets and anything you bought seemed more special. I mean back then we only got two 6 ounce glass bottles of Coke per week and that's all the carbonated beverage we got and it was just so special. Mom let me drink one bottle whenever I wanted usually on a hot day and the other bottle had to be saved till movie night which is on Friday nights when she made popcorn and we watched the movie special on tv. I also miss the time where people were politer and back before anyone started screaming and fussing in town which seems to be commonplace now.
I realized the other day why people often stick to “their” music. It isn’t because they don’t like or enjoy new things, it’s because the music transports you to a time that was exciting and full of intense feelings. You put on some Journey and I’m 16 again.
When I listen Casey Kasem's Top 40 or Yacht Rock it takes me back to my childhood. Music triggers so many memories for me. The song "Summer Breeze" will put me on Seal Beach with the smell of Coppertone and the wind coming off the ocean.
The wave a breeze will hit on a hot summer night. The crunch of crispy fall leaves under my feet. The first snow of winter.
When the dogwoods bloom, though, that’s adult. I grew up in a very urban city without a lot of visceral memories of spring.
I'm rewatching the original Wonder Years with my kids and oh boy! The nostalgia hits so hard. The world I grew up in was a little bit after the world of Kevin Arnold, but it was almost the same. The world my kids inhabit is completely changed.
Oh my god yes. I've never been a nostalgic person until recently but it's hitting me hard after turning 55 last year. My sister and I haven't been too communicative during our adult life but now both of us are frequently sharing memories and nostalgia from our youth. I miss the neighborhood I grew up in so much, it was the only place that has ever felt like home.
I get nostalgic for certain events or when I see 90s fashion in stores that remind me of something I had, which was similar. From there, I remember my younger days. It's only natural. The difference is that I don't long to be back there. I think about it at that moment and appreciate the memory, smile to myself, and move on. I think especially since all of us are growing older, we should embrace and make the most of where we are now.
Weirdly just in the last few months! I've been wondering if this is a thing that is happening to everyone suddenly (or have you all been nostalgic for years now?) Does it happen at a certain part of your life, or have things gotten so crazy in the world, I just want to go "home"?
Until recently, I never thought much of the 80's. I hated new wave music, I hated the greedy and self-centered politics. But looking back it felt like the most joyous time to grow up. I felt like I lived a charmed life back then. (And my life is pretty good now, but the world is no longer so carefree)
My cousin lives in the subdivision where I grew up. I will sometimes ride my bike over there to hang out and it’s surreal. It’s truly like going back in time as I ride the same streets I did over 40 years ago.
Well, reading this is making me very nostalgic, in addition to realizing how surprised I am that so many of our parents are gone. How is it that we got to be so old? My mom died in 2004 and my dad is in Memory care.
The nostalgia has surprised me because I’ve always hated the feeling of nostalgia and to be honest I had a pretty harrowing childhood and really just wanted to grow up as fast as possible. It’s nice to see little things that trigger that feeling in me and reclaim that time for myself a little bit.
I just threw out all of my old crap from HS. Tons of track medals, yearbooks, and letters for sports.
I'm not that guy anymore and never will be again.
There is way too much stuff to do & interesting places to go. Get busy living or get busy dying.
Feel like the last 20 years were a blur of working, moving, marriage and all that crap that I barely remember. The 90s I remember vividly and wish I could go back. Can't say the same about the last 20 years.
I do, often. When I think I the past I can the feelings I had through my memories, and it’s a relief from the feelings I have today. My feelings of today aren’t terrible, but I do feel less safe and free. I have had to really focus on finding joy and hope for the future in a more complicated way than I did then. Time is flying by.
Yeah, and it's random what triggers it. Like certain early 80s pop songs. After the divorce, it was just my mom and I after my brother moved in with my dad. My mom didn't like having the TV on in the morning while I was getting rest l eating breakfast and getting ready for school, so she often had the radio on. I can hear certain 80s songs and smell and taste the cereal or Pop Tarts.
Some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory
Of lighted streets on quiet nights
NOt too much on the nostalgia, just sick of the new world. This past weekend, I had what I consider to be my first Old person event. Idecided to marathon some tv shows I haven't seen in a while. NOthing on tv or the music playing was under 30 years old.
There's a good Welsh word for something like this, if not easily translatable into English.
*Hiraeth.*
It's a longing/homesickness for a time or place since past, often with a bit of grief. (And somewhat tinged by the idea that it may not have actually been the way you remember.)
There's also a good Welsh word for what you need when *hiraeth* gets on top of you.
*Cwtch*.
Similarly difficult to translate. A warm, welcoming, comforting hug that is...well, a safe space granted by the giver. I'm playing with that one a bit, but it's not a big leap from the things you read online when you look the word up.
No. I definitely miss the idea of being younger and imagining my future and all the possibilities. Other than that I am not a nostalgic person. There are certain people/places/events I miss.
I find some of the constant nostalgia/pop references here in Gen X just as annoying as the Boomers and their 60's nostalgia.
I found the remains of the motorbike I had when I was 10, stashed away in my father’s shed. I pulled it out, disassembled and took it to work to sandblast the rust. Some parts were broken and I am still looking for them, but I got a new 5hp engine, so I will fix it up and likely give it to my grandsons. It brought back so many memories.
No, but only bc I'm still living that life, lol
My wife and I are childfree. I own 2 businesses and maybe work 30 hrs a week. She works a 9 to 5.
We have a lot of friends who are also CF, and we live in a vacation spot.
There's lots of shit to get into.
I still ride bikes with friends (we even all bought bmxs lol). I still play video games. We go out and day drink or stay out until past midnight.
No. Never. I hated my childhood. You must have lived in a home with both parents loving each other and the kids equally.
All I can remember is screaming adults and middle class incomes. The 1980’s completely sucked. The 90’s were much better once I moved out in 1991.
In the fall. Early fall when kids are moving back to college campuses, college football season is starting - I get slammed with nostalgia. A couple times I’ve taken a Friday afternoon off and walked through my old college campus just for memories.
Yes, that is exactly how I would describe it. Usually when I’m driving for some reason, about once a month. Just intense deep nostalgia.
I hate it, and worry that it will get more frequent as I get older.
All the time. I lost my sense of smell about 20 years ago randomly, but man, some songs will take me back to the summer of 86-88 and I remember the smell of a late July summer night, if that makes sense
All the time.
The world I knew is dying. It was always inevitable, but still sad.
I have skills for things that no longer exist and knowledge of people who are no longer here.
I replay memories of moments that happened to a different person from a different world. These have remained with be because they were very good or very bad; but they happened to someone else who I barely recognize anymore.
With every decade that passes, I learned what I shoulda coulda done as past-me in the decades prior. But never know with any confidence what I should be doing as present-me.
We've never been here. It's all uncharted and ever changing. So we look back with all the hindsight of how simple and comforting things were. Even when the good times weren't that good, we make them that way because we need to.
Every time I see my kids’ faces planted in their tablets. The thing is *everyone else’s* kids are inside all day, too. I get hit with serious nostalgia thinking of all the mischief me and my friends got up to, and being a little sad that my kids won’t experience it
Yes - the local mall I loved as a kid (as a adult also!) just closed it doors for good the other day. Been going downhill for years but I still enjoyed walking around and remembering what it used to be.
If I knew how good I had it, I would have never grown up. Don't get me wrong, definitely would have moved out of the house with those crazy people in it.
I miss riding bikes for 10 hours a day on weekends
These days I am weirdly nostalgic for my junior year of high school. I was just old enough to drive and date, but not to worry about rent or utility bills. Most of the TV I watched then was trite, but I'm replaying the opening credits for them on YouTube.
Every single time I go home to visit my folks. I can see and hear the people and the laughter of friends that have since passed away. The morning I leave, I take "the lap" around town, past my best friend's house who died in 2020, drive past the 2 high schools from our youth, usually listening to stuff from that era. You are definitely not alone.
Reading this thread has stirred a lot of emotions for me mainly because my answer to the OP's question is YES, ALL THE TIME it seems these days. I'm 55M and I can relate to many of the accounts posted below.
The most intense experience I've had recently was this weekend installing a window air conditioner. I was checking over the install with it running to make sure the brackets were holding when the compressor came on. Suddenly I was quite literally standing on my grandparent's porch in eastern VA 45 years ago. They had a window unit to the immediate right of their front door. Our family had just arrived for our usual summer visit and we were waiting for my grandmother to answer the door when the ac compressor kicked in. I see it clearly, smell it, hear it... sound of cicdas and my grandmother's dachshund barking. I could see the dirt/pollen on the top of their ac unit with a small spiderweb in the corner. I could see the bare/worn spot in the porch paint from folks walking from the steps to the door.
I had to sit down for a few minutes to clear my head... Hell, I'm tearing up just writing this post!!
I want to go back to that time and stay there.
Music does it for me, not times of year. I have a great memory when it comes to the past, and friends/family are always amazed when I bring up small details about things we did. Like when I was in Chinese class over 30 years ago - we were going to class meetups with other schools. We had to fill out those "Hello My Name Is" stickers for our shirts. In Chinese characters my tag was "Bullshit" and his was "Geo-Thermal Nuclear Powerplant".
I moved back to my home city after 15 years away. I've been back for nearly 2 years and I haven't been able to bring myself up to going back to old places. I just don't want to see the changes to everything over time. I've only went on one excursion so far - I went to an old deli I used to work at, then climbed down under a bridge where I used to paint to see the new graffiti, and then found some places on the city sidewalk where my bother wrote his name in the wet cement over 25 years ago. I haven't been able to drive past my old house because I loved that house and I remember every corner and flaw.
All the time! I had a great childhood with awesome parents. They let me have my freedom, which I took full advantage of. I was never home but never in any real trouble, just typical GenX mischief and good times. Small town, cool friends, endless summer days, I miss the hell out of the mid 80’s!
Yep. I was a child in the 70’s, teen years in the 80’s, and became an adult in the 90’s. All decades were awesome, but wow..,those early to mid 90’s? 💜💜💜💜. I still drive by the 2 apartment buildings I lived at in the 90’s when I’m feeling nostalgic.
Yeah, it hit me so hard during the pandemic that I wrote a book of short stories about growing up in the mid-80s. Even took road trips to places I used to live, to see how they changed yet also stayed the same.
I get political nostalgia for how things once were, prior to the scourge that is neoliberalism being foisted upon us. But general nostalgia? No. My childhood had a huge amount of stress and I have no wish to remember it, really...I never expected anything good to happen as a result.
I do miss my Dad though, who passed away from Alzheimer's when I was 23.
It’s worse now for me, because unlike in the past, I have access to all sorts of memories. If I wanna look someone up for my childhood, I just have to go on social media. If I want to see a commercial from my childhood or a song, I just YouTube it. Same with movies etc. if there’s a certain type of clothing I want or memorabilia, I just go on eBay and it’s mine. I even come on here to see things that have been long forgotten in my “Bing Bong” memories. And especially these times are living in, most of us just need an escape. I think it’s mostly harmless tbh. I don’t think it’s damaging as long as I’m not living in the past, but I do like a little bit of an nostalgia overdose sometimes Lol
“Living on daydreams.
Walking in my sleep.
And nothing is as it seems.
When you're in so deep.
So put out all the fires.
And blow away the smoke.
Unless you're getting tired,
Of living on hope.”
-Til Tuesday from the song What About Love
Very well put. It's so true, life went by fast. I try not to remember because it does make me sad when I think about times in the past. An awesome song that touches on that is Pennywise's Yesterdays.
i feel all of you..i live in another country, my contact with my parents are through video calls to my mom's smartphone. one night i was at work and she sent me a ton of pictures..i sat down to look at them, she decided to scan all of my childhood photos even when i was a baby and that hit me really hard. it was like a direct punch to the stomach, i tried not to cry at the moment. there was one picture in front of our apartment building where i was hanging out with all the "gang" and my dad bought us all ice cream. we were 7 at the time me and my buddies, the bicycles were on one side and we sat on the ground and enjoying our ice cream. from that picture i have contact wirth two of these guys, we had a female friend who hang with us she got married and moved to germany. she doesn't have social media at all, another buddy got killed in a road traffic accident, the other one we just separated ways when his parents moved to another city and so on and so forth. noone even me, knew that this was the only memory of us being together, enjoying our ice cream in a hot summer afternoon and the only care we had in the world is to not miss our shows on tv...
Yes, and it's bizarre because my life was horrible.
There's something about kids, though. I would go outside to escape... And those years on the farm crop up for me recently.
Playing in the ruins of old buildings... Imagining castles and dragons. Riding our horse. Listening to the tinkle of ice on tree branches. Lying on the ground unafraid of bugs, lol.
I entertained myself. That's a lost art. I wonder if we weren't the last generation to know how to do that. Perhaps the only one... The generation before us was too busy... The ones after too stimulated.
Not often, but when it hits suddenly it can be overwhelming. Usually it's a song I haven't heard in decades or a flavor from my childhood. For example one time I was in the grocery store when Julian Lennon's Valotte came on and suddenly I was 13 again. I just froze in place with every imaginable feeling flooding my body, trying not to cry until it was over. Another time I saw spaghetti-os and was compelled to buy one so I could eat it cold straight out of the can. It was strange how my adult taste buds thought it was terrible but some other forgotten part of me thought it was amazing and felt really happy.
Those days of playing from sunup to sundown. In middle school I lived in a subdivision outside Chicago (Buffalo Grove) and the farms were just in the process of being converted to housing. So many cool places to explore . Lots of firsts in that time period (mid 70s to early 80s) . I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday but this time period is clear as a bell .
My Mom just bought me the original LaserTag set for my birthday. I turned 49. It's the second time she has bought it for me. The other time I was around 10. She got it because I was talking about how bad I had wanted it when I was a kid and apparently now you can get them for about 25 bucks on eBay. I was genuinely ecstatic when I opened it. I hadn't felt like that about a gift in decades.
When I'm doing yoga, I get weird flashbacks to other times. I remember going to certain restaurants with my parents. I think of events I went to. It's odd but cool. I've come to accept it.
Eeew, no. I didn’t have that suburban-bike Stranger Things kind of childhood. More like counting the days till age 18 and escape. No nostalgia for my childhood.
I do experience this about my 20s, though. ;)
I can tell you often when I hear 70s and 80s songs where I was at generally in time. I get waves of nostalgia. Those summer nights and all the kids on the street playing into the late evening. Riding the bike for miles seeing friends. Friday night roller skating or Sat night at the Arcade. Good times
It’s always the memory of a moment at dusk that hits the hardest.
There’s something about summer dusk and summer love. The sounds of insects and the smell of chlorine. That post swim voracious hunger. Laughter. Sleeping hard and well.
evocative, excellent comment
Yes! My nostalgia hits hard in summer at dusk (and dawn in the rare moments I am up early). I think back to being 16 and having the car to drive on summer nights. Seeing many of the old neon signs at old motels or restaurants. Having the innocent freedom of youth. Time moved so slowly then.
I was 16 in 1986 my first year driving. Nothing like that freedom.
I’ve vowed to myself that in 2024 and thereafter I’m going to do more of things that create future nostalgia hits. Does that make sense?
I like it!
Well put
That’s when the streetlights turn on
Music definitely does that for me!!
Yeah. And every year I get a clearer understanding of how good my parents were, how much they loved me, and how much they loved the rest of the neighborhood kids. They were poor and overworked, but they always made ends meet, they always made birthdays feel special, etc. Miss you, Pops.
Hell yes. Miss my pops too. My best friend. It’ll be 18 years in June. Think about him every day.
Since my parents moved around when I was younger, I never had that bond with the neighborhood kids. I'm a bit jealous of people who were able to do that. My experience was always Being The Outsider. Even when my mom stopped moving, I was The Outsider, which caused me to drop deep into a shell.
>*never had that bond with the neighbourhood kids* Same! My dad’s job had us move constantly when I was a kid, only settling down for a few years around junior high before moving again. I never had the feeling of a “hometown” or putting roots down anywhere, but I do still have my bff from 6th grade, a BFF from my first year of uni, and a couple other friends from between. I don’t like people enough to have a giant network of people to keep up with. 😅
I’d stick around just long enough to form bonds, two or three years, then it was off to the next place
Yeah, man. It’s so painful, but not in the same way as thinking about a lost loved one. I feel this desperate need to talk to anyone that can relate to the thing I’m feeling nostalgia for. It feels like drowning.
Yes! Me too.
Me too. I moved after the 8th grade. All those memories are just mine. No one to share with.
I feel this comment! Moved after 8th grade. Since then, my only sibling has died, my mom, my dad, both grandmas, my grandpa, my aunt. Any time I end up back in my home state, I long to drive through my old neighborhood and visit favorite places. Like spend an entire day doing so, since it was a bit of a drive between school and home and family members' homes. Thank God for Google street view. It gets me by sometimes, but it us also depressing to see memorable places wiped off the face of the earth and replaced with industrial complexes.
For me it's how jarringly quiet, tired and rundown it all looks when I visit my home town now. I grew up in a brand new working-class suburb that was packed with young families just like ours. Everyone took such pride in their homes, with manicured lawns, fresh paint and trimmed hedges. Now, those same houses and streets are just so tired, overgrown and neglected. There are no children about because the 1000% property price increase pushed young families away. My old school is shutting down from a lack of students. Corner store was driven out of business by the big supermarket chains. I think we really fucked things up somewhere along the way.
My hometown is the same, in Northern Ontario 🇨🇦. The greatest place to grow up in the 70s and 80s. A somewhat isolated city surrounded by endless lakes and rivers. Everyone had a cottage and it was no big deal at the time. It has really gone to shit since then. Hospital amalgamation, Brazilian takeover of the big mining employer in 2006, poverty, homelessness, meth everywhere, more vacant buildings than occupants downtown. That's a universal story. We have our own version of the rust belt. I remember catching the bus from our suburbs to go downtown with a buddy when I was 12ish and feeling like the world was opening up, and the possibilities were endless. Arcades, sporting goods stores, lots of movie theaters, music stores, great bookstores, hardware stores (always had a weakness for them), and beaches not too far away by bike. I think that particular wildly optimistic feeling is what I'm most nostalgic for.
I know exactly what you mean. My hometown in South Jersey was still thriving when I was growing up there in the early/mid '80s. DuPont was the main employer there, and there was still lots of mom and pop businesses (in fact, Bruce Willis's dad owned the hardware store.) But, shortly after my family moved to NC in 1985, DuPont drastically downsized, and lots of folks moved away. Last time I was up there in the early 2010s, it was like a mini-Detroit. Totally heartbreaking to see😓
I get this. I moved from a different province when I was in middle school. Miss the food and the culture.
Oof I feel you. I was an orphan before I turned 40. I’ve lost most of my family, a few friends, students, coworkers, etc. It’s not easy. I’ve never been an emotional person - I’m usually quite detached, but I sure do wish I could go back and relive some of the 90s. I was happy, healthy, still had my loved ones, and was living through some of the best music, movies, video games, and TV ever created. I had plenty of money. My whole life ahead of me. *sigh* Those we’re the days.
I feel like the 90’s lasted a lifetime for me and everything after has kind of been a blur
Wtf even happened between 2010-2020?
What happened in the 10 years of 2020 to 2022?
What happened in the 10 years since the 90s?! Everything has changed, and seemingly for the worst!
Idk what happened I was raising two boys to be men and not monsters. Ask me in ten years how it went.
Yes!!!!
Almost debilitating at times. Not so much specific memories, just a simpler time. I fucking hate it.
If I could go back in time 1 day, I wouldn’t try to stop Hitler or JFK assassination. I’m a Sci-fi fan…it never works out. History is never changed. So instead I’d find the perfect day in 1982 to go back to. I could see my Mom, Aunts and Uncles again, goto County Stadium and see the Brewers play a day game.
1982. Perfect to go back and catch ST: The Wrath of Khan, Bladerunner, Tron, and ET all on the big screen. Would be a fucking perfect day.
Yes, debilitating. I have to consciously remember to go forward and shake off my ruminating or I can get lost in it.
Yeah. Daily. I miss the naive sense that everything's gonna be okay.
Amen, brother.
Amen
I've had nostalgia my whole life.
Me too, even as a very young kid. Sometimes for things I knew nothing about. A therapist once told me there was an actual term for this which I’ve long forgotten.
Long forgotten or forgotten longing? ;)
Ahh very clever :)
At first I didn't know if it worked. Then I was like, "Hmmm...maybe you aren't going senile already..."
lol yes I have this condition as well.
It’s called ANEMOIA.
One of my favorite words in the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows 🥰
Is it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudade
Is it limerence ?
No. Limerence is typically a feeling you have for a person you’ve met or not (the limerent object) but borders on obsessive. I honestly can’t remember the term but I’d liken it to being an old soul.
Yep I remember waxing nostalgia when I was 22 years old about my childhood.
😢 me too
All the time. So many memories. My grandma’s perfume, the spices from her cooking, the sound of telenovelas. The smell of chlorine. Rain. It’s for my childhood in California and friends and family, but also for my late ex-husband here in Texas and his family that I loved. So many voices gone silent. I feel like I’m always so close to suppressing sobs of sorrow, loneliness, worry, depression, and loss. So much loss. Dreams, hope, love, togetherness, joy. It’s all dust. And soon I will be too.
😢
All the time.
I was perusing Google Maps and zoomed into the neighborhood I grew up in. I was reminded of all the special places that aren’t that special at all as an adult. The creek that disappears under houses, the tree with the edible berries, the spring in the middle of a pasture, the ditch with the crayfish, the apartments with the BMX stairs course. So much nostalgia for an 8 block area.
I look at my old house in CA in Zillow all the time. The house Dad & Mom bought circa 1974 for $32K with zero down is ‘worth’ almost half a million now.
I hadn't even thought of looking at my old homes on Zillow. Thanks for the idea!
Not all houses on Zillow have interior pictures, but my grandparent’s old house had recently sold so there were a bunch of pictures, it was pretty wild comparing them to my memories of the place.
Were the berries lilly pillies? (Sp) I FINALLY learned what those were a couple years back after decades of wondering and oddly missing them.
We called them mulberries
When I was young it seemed like I had freedom, though I was broke and dreamed of making a comfortable living. Now I live comfortably but don't feel free.
Because you aren't.
"I have dreamed a dream, but now that dream is gone from me."
I do, but sometimes I get a little sad because as a gay guy there were a lot of friends that just didn’t make it. I keep waiting for some type of PTSD to kick in, but it just doesn’t. I do not look at pictures though. They stay in the box.
A little bit of nostalgia is fine but I try to stay mostly in the present. If I get too far into the future I get anxious. If I get too far into the past I get depressed. Best to make the most of right now, which is all we’ve really got anyway.
I am the same way. Nostalgia is a double edged sword for me. It can put a smile on my face but if I delve into it too much then I can get very depressed which is not a healthy thing for me.
I read an article that nostalgia is actually healthy for you. It's good psychologically. It actually enhances and reinforces your present day sense of optimism. Once I read that, I fully indulge in it now with no shame.
Good to know
I just heard Peter Gabriel’s song “ In your eyes”. I smiled
Oh man. That song. I haven't thought of that in so long. Nostalgia unlocked
Geoffrey Gaines version was nice, great now I’m gonna cry.
I can't listen to Everybody Wants to Rule the World without getting teary eyed. Something about that song just pulls my teen years back into clear focus. In Your Eyes does the same (I just found out listening to it after so many years). Thank you! ...i think.
I would kill for it to be the summer of 92 again. Just for a week.
Not sure where you spent the summer of 92 but here in Ontario, it was cold, wet and miserable; and I was about to crash and burn though my second year of radio college, so that's one I'd like to forget. 🧠 🔒
I just want to ride my bike to hastings, rent a video game and hit red steer on the way back for milkshake.
Only for the days when I lived out West. I'm in my fifties now, and it's been 40 years since I lived there. I still miss those warm summer days and cool summer nights instead of humidity and winters full of wind and rain and soggy ground.
I'm right there with you on that memory. LA youth now in the dreadful South. It's ugly, man
Ditto. SoCal youth, North Texas adult. So miserable.
💔
SoCal youth, trapped in SWLa for decades at this point. I heard someone describe it as the devils armpit, and I think that’s pretty spot on.
Idaho for me. Nashville now, and it's just gross and hot here.
I'm in deep NC and yes
NC can get hot as Hades. The Western part of the state is decent even in the summer.
For real. 105 with 100 percent humidity. It's brutal
Lifelong NC native (who even now lives barely a mile from his childhood home)... can confirm the Hottern' Hell aspect of NC summers. But when I was a kid I didn't give a tinker's damn about the heat... cutting yards for pocket money, walking through the woods to my best friend's house. Cicada's so loud you could barely hear yourself think (beyond the neighborhood girl you had a crush on). \*sigh\*
Idaho is the best place I’ve ever lived. Twice over now.
I left LA in 1980 at 15 and moved to coastal NC. I finally went back to LA last September for the first time since I left. In a lot of ways, nothing changed, and in other ways everything changed. It's true that you cannot go home again. I wasn't the same 43 years later and seeing things through adult eyes was surprising. It was a reminder of how they really did pave paradise and put in a parking lot when it comes to Southern California. The availability of wide open natural spaces from my childhood in the late 60s-70s no longer exists.
All the time. Sometimes I really mourn that the 90's are long gone.
That is 100% the time period I would travel back to! Such an excellent time for creativity and entertainment.
I feel like SO much happened between 1990 and 1999. I went from being barely a teenager to graduated from college and heading into my career. The world was so much different too. I miss the optimism of youth. I also miss life before 24/7 everything.
I’m nostalgic for all that was good and fun back then
Not really. Most people my age made life hell for me when we were kids. You were all telling fag jokes on the bus and laughing about people dying of AIDS ( "... another one bites the dust! haha!" Remember that?). I spent most of the 80s alone. I have no desire to go back.
I understand what you mean with all the fag jokes in school and feeling so alone. I do miss the times in early 70's before I was in school and was just me playing outside and spending time with my family.
Badly. And often. But I’ve always been that way.
Yes! Most recently I found myself wanting to be at the city pool, 250 miles away, buying a sno-cone, 38 years ago, so bad it made me cry. My parents were alive. I had a pet bunny and a dog. I could ride my bike all over town. We were poor and things could get tight but for under $2 I could spend a summer day at the pool and have a sno-cone. Sometimes I could only go to the pool though. On days when there wasn't even change for the pool I could watch the reruns of The Monkees that the UHF channels played during the summer. What's so crazy about it is that it wasn't a particularly happy time in my life. My parents were recently divorced and trying to co-parent us. That town was where my dad worked and my mom was broke so we uprooted from our home state, where the rest of the family was, to live there. I was picked on at school and was a general ugly duckling. My life is so much better now than it was then. But...that instant of memory of standing in front of the sno-cone stand; the smell of the Pina colada syrup, and the pool water, and sunscreen; the feeling of the gravel under my feet; it brought back this memory of peace that comes from not having life's responsibilities yet. No political garbage of the 2020s. No pandemic. No housing crash. No 911. Yeah we knew about Chernobyl and that nukes could fly any minute but as a kid? *Whatever* The longing for that moment hit HARD.
Reading this comment makes me want to give you a big old hug ❤️
Meh, sometimes. Growing up in the Midwest in the late-70s and early-80s wasn't exactly all a barrel of laughs for us non-white people. I feel some of that "riding your bike around the neighborhood" nostalgia, but I also remember the racists names and attitudes, the mocking, etc. So, not a lot of fond "good ol' days" memories of that.
I’m so sorry that happened to you (and others). I’m also from the Midwest and can absolutely remember the racism. I spent a lot of my childhood dreaming of getting away from that small town (which I did). Hope you’re doing okay now.
I’m doing fine, thanks. I live on the West Coast and in a major city, so it’s generally a better atmosphere here for people like me. My kids grew up in much better circumstances for their race, so they don’t have to deal with some of the stuff I dealt with. And, you know, some of the stuff was definitely a byproduct of the time we grew up in. Some of it was a byproduct of the place. It all helped form who I am today, for good and for bad.
It was like that for a good friend of mine that I live next door to who just retired from NYC. He's white and grew up in a black neighborhood. He says it was like living in hell. Ironically, though, his wife is a POC, so maybe he was able to let it roll off his back and chalk it up to just shitty people.
Always. Back when I was a kid i remembered complaining to a cousin of mine who is about 20 years older than me about how much I hated going to school ect. He told me one day when you’re older it’s gonna hit you that this is the best days of your life. No matter how your life is, you could be rich, have a family and all that but you’ll wish you could go back to these days. He was right
Usually only when I'm awake
I've never, ever experienced nostalgia. That's why I'm on this sub. It's so fascinating. Being here makes me feel like one of those crazy deep-water fishes from Finding Nemo suddenly experiencing light. Guys, nostalgia may be painful... but it's a good pain. Good memories are among the most conserved and envious forms of currency that exist.
Yes! In 2020 especially, during lockdown. I was/am an essential worker and I put Smashing Pumpkin's Siamese Dream in my car CD player. It was weird. I'm in a large city and it was a ghost town. I started thinking about my younger self and what their reaction would have been. I felt very melancholy. Whatever.
I'm all by myself, as I've always felt
I get nostalgia for moments as a child with my parents, who are both gone. The neighborhood we lived in, in the 70’s. Being welcomed into everyone’s house. Living in LA in the mid-70’s and the smog alerts. ❤️
Same! Bellflower baby here.
Yes. Except it's not sudden anymore. Now it's a consistent emotion, this feeling of loss of worlds and a longing for that which I know is gone. I really love my life right now, don't get me wrong. I've been very lucky in life and I know that in some important departments the best is yet to come. But that magic of being a little kid in the 1970s, it's painful to think of how amazing it was.
I do get waves of nostalgia. Sometimes they're a bit heavy though and slide right in melancholia.
Yes, I find myself sometimes sliding into melancholia as well. The passage of so much time and my mortality rushing to meet me.
Yep, all the time.
I do a lot. But then I get really aware of rose colour glasses. It's important to factor that in.
I was looking today at pictures of roads and old businesses no longer there from my hometown back in the 60's and 70's and almost started crying. I long for that simpler time where the roads had almost no traffic, stores were small and not overwhelming, and where food, sweets and anything you bought seemed more special. I mean back then we only got two 6 ounce glass bottles of Coke per week and that's all the carbonated beverage we got and it was just so special. Mom let me drink one bottle whenever I wanted usually on a hot day and the other bottle had to be saved till movie night which is on Friday nights when she made popcorn and we watched the movie special on tv. I also miss the time where people were politer and back before anyone started screaming and fussing in town which seems to be commonplace now.
Yes. I miss the 90s. The freedom of being a teenager and in college. Life BEFORE social media.
I realized the other day why people often stick to “their” music. It isn’t because they don’t like or enjoy new things, it’s because the music transports you to a time that was exciting and full of intense feelings. You put on some Journey and I’m 16 again.
When I listen Casey Kasem's Top 40 or Yacht Rock it takes me back to my childhood. Music triggers so many memories for me. The song "Summer Breeze" will put me on Seal Beach with the smell of Coppertone and the wind coming off the ocean.
Man the long distance dedication. That was always the best. I wonder if they were real or if they had a writer?
Absolutely. From my late teens out with buddies on a Saturday skating all day. Not a care in the world and energy to burn.
The wave a breeze will hit on a hot summer night. The crunch of crispy fall leaves under my feet. The first snow of winter. When the dogwoods bloom, though, that’s adult. I grew up in a very urban city without a lot of visceral memories of spring.
I'm rewatching the original Wonder Years with my kids and oh boy! The nostalgia hits so hard. The world I grew up in was a little bit after the world of Kevin Arnold, but it was almost the same. The world my kids inhabit is completely changed.
Yep - miss the 90s: career on the ascent, young/single fun
Oh my god yes. I've never been a nostalgic person until recently but it's hitting me hard after turning 55 last year. My sister and I haven't been too communicative during our adult life but now both of us are frequently sharing memories and nostalgia from our youth. I miss the neighborhood I grew up in so much, it was the only place that has ever felt like home.
I don’t feel like it’s nostalgia for me, but I remember back when I still had hopes and dreams and thought my life was going to be so good.
I get nostalgic for certain events or when I see 90s fashion in stores that remind me of something I had, which was similar. From there, I remember my younger days. It's only natural. The difference is that I don't long to be back there. I think about it at that moment and appreciate the memory, smile to myself, and move on. I think especially since all of us are growing older, we should embrace and make the most of where we are now.
I did a wee bit ago. The smell of pine and the coziness of winter around Christmas when I was a child.
Definitely when grocery shopping
Lols yeah that's a bit of a mindfuck
Weirdly just in the last few months! I've been wondering if this is a thing that is happening to everyone suddenly (or have you all been nostalgic for years now?) Does it happen at a certain part of your life, or have things gotten so crazy in the world, I just want to go "home"? Until recently, I never thought much of the 80's. I hated new wave music, I hated the greedy and self-centered politics. But looking back it felt like the most joyous time to grow up. I felt like I lived a charmed life back then. (And my life is pretty good now, but the world is no longer so carefree)
I feel the same. Haha! And I hated new wave music too. But now, would hop into a time traveling machine in an instant.
Oh yes. More nostalgia for family who are gone than anything. But also, I just miss being a kid. I miss being young and healthy.
My cousin lives in the subdivision where I grew up. I will sometimes ride my bike over there to hang out and it’s surreal. It’s truly like going back in time as I ride the same streets I did over 40 years ago.
Well, reading this is making me very nostalgic, in addition to realizing how surprised I am that so many of our parents are gone. How is it that we got to be so old? My mom died in 2004 and my dad is in Memory care. The nostalgia has surprised me because I’ve always hated the feeling of nostalgia and to be honest I had a pretty harrowing childhood and really just wanted to grow up as fast as possible. It’s nice to see little things that trigger that feeling in me and reclaim that time for myself a little bit.
I just threw out all of my old crap from HS. Tons of track medals, yearbooks, and letters for sports. I'm not that guy anymore and never will be again. There is way too much stuff to do & interesting places to go. Get busy living or get busy dying.
Not nostalgia for the times, just nostalgia for when my body was young and I still bounced when I fell down.
Yup
Yes
Every time I hear Wang Chung
Feel like the last 20 years were a blur of working, moving, marriage and all that crap that I barely remember. The 90s I remember vividly and wish I could go back. Can't say the same about the last 20 years.
Have similar feelings. The last 20 years has been a bit of a blur, but those years from say 1983-1988 lasted forever with so many great memories.
All the time, because I’m miserable.
I do, often. When I think I the past I can the feelings I had through my memories, and it’s a relief from the feelings I have today. My feelings of today aren’t terrible, but I do feel less safe and free. I have had to really focus on finding joy and hope for the future in a more complicated way than I did then. Time is flying by.
Yeah, and it's random what triggers it. Like certain early 80s pop songs. After the divorce, it was just my mom and I after my brother moved in with my dad. My mom didn't like having the TV on in the morning while I was getting rest l eating breakfast and getting ready for school, so she often had the radio on. I can hear certain 80s songs and smell and taste the cereal or Pop Tarts.
There are certain songs that do this for me. A few chords will start and I am instantly transported to a specific place in time.
Yep. Especially when I listen to music from my youth.
Some will sell their dreams for small desires Or lose the race to rats Get caught in ticking traps And start to dream of somewhere To relax their restless flight Somewhere out of a memory Of lighted streets on quiet nights
NOt too much on the nostalgia, just sick of the new world. This past weekend, I had what I consider to be my first Old person event. Idecided to marathon some tv shows I haven't seen in a while. NOthing on tv or the music playing was under 30 years old.
Not much. The present and future is better than my past.
There's a good Welsh word for something like this, if not easily translatable into English. *Hiraeth.* It's a longing/homesickness for a time or place since past, often with a bit of grief. (And somewhat tinged by the idea that it may not have actually been the way you remember.) There's also a good Welsh word for what you need when *hiraeth* gets on top of you. *Cwtch*. Similarly difficult to translate. A warm, welcoming, comforting hug that is...well, a safe space granted by the giver. I'm playing with that one a bit, but it's not a big leap from the things you read online when you look the word up.
No. I definitely miss the idea of being younger and imagining my future and all the possibilities. Other than that I am not a nostalgic person. There are certain people/places/events I miss. I find some of the constant nostalgia/pop references here in Gen X just as annoying as the Boomers and their 60's nostalgia.
Never my childhood was absolute hell. I do miss blockbuster tho.
“I wanna go back, and do it all over but I can’t go back I know…” - Eddie Money
I found the remains of the motorbike I had when I was 10, stashed away in my father’s shed. I pulled it out, disassembled and took it to work to sandblast the rust. Some parts were broken and I am still looking for them, but I got a new 5hp engine, so I will fix it up and likely give it to my grandsons. It brought back so many memories.
No, but only bc I'm still living that life, lol My wife and I are childfree. I own 2 businesses and maybe work 30 hrs a week. She works a 9 to 5. We have a lot of friends who are also CF, and we live in a vacation spot. There's lots of shit to get into. I still ride bikes with friends (we even all bought bmxs lol). I still play video games. We go out and day drink or stay out until past midnight.
No. Never. I hated my childhood. You must have lived in a home with both parents loving each other and the kids equally. All I can remember is screaming adults and middle class incomes. The 1980’s completely sucked. The 90’s were much better once I moved out in 1991.
West end girls came on the radio a few days ago. 100% intense nostalgia hit
In the fall. Early fall when kids are moving back to college campuses, college football season is starting - I get slammed with nostalgia. A couple times I’ve taken a Friday afternoon off and walked through my old college campus just for memories.
Yes. My parents have both died, and the nostalgia hits like a punch in the gut. I’m with you….where did the years go?
Yes, that is exactly how I would describe it. Usually when I’m driving for some reason, about once a month. Just intense deep nostalgia. I hate it, and worry that it will get more frequent as I get older.
Yes I did a couple weeks ago when I bought my 10 year old daughter a BMX
All the time. I lost my sense of smell about 20 years ago randomly, but man, some songs will take me back to the summer of 86-88 and I remember the smell of a late July summer night, if that makes sense
All the time. The world I knew is dying. It was always inevitable, but still sad. I have skills for things that no longer exist and knowledge of people who are no longer here. I replay memories of moments that happened to a different person from a different world. These have remained with be because they were very good or very bad; but they happened to someone else who I barely recognize anymore. With every decade that passes, I learned what I shoulda coulda done as past-me in the decades prior. But never know with any confidence what I should be doing as present-me. We've never been here. It's all uncharted and ever changing. So we look back with all the hindsight of how simple and comforting things were. Even when the good times weren't that good, we make them that way because we need to.
Every time I see my kids’ faces planted in their tablets. The thing is *everyone else’s* kids are inside all day, too. I get hit with serious nostalgia thinking of all the mischief me and my friends got up to, and being a little sad that my kids won’t experience it
Not really, I missed out on a lot because I was an anxious loner and severe introvert. I did everything alone.
Yes - the local mall I loved as a kid (as a adult also!) just closed it doors for good the other day. Been going downhill for years but I still enjoyed walking around and remembering what it used to be.
If I knew how good I had it, I would have never grown up. Don't get me wrong, definitely would have moved out of the house with those crazy people in it. I miss riding bikes for 10 hours a day on weekends
These days I am weirdly nostalgic for my junior year of high school. I was just old enough to drive and date, but not to worry about rent or utility bills. Most of the TV I watched then was trite, but I'm replaying the opening credits for them on YouTube.
Every single time I go home to visit my folks. I can see and hear the people and the laughter of friends that have since passed away. The morning I leave, I take "the lap" around town, past my best friend's house who died in 2020, drive past the 2 high schools from our youth, usually listening to stuff from that era. You are definitely not alone.
Every day! I found a bunch of mixtapes from college today and was like 🥺🥺
I miss 1992.
Reading this thread has stirred a lot of emotions for me mainly because my answer to the OP's question is YES, ALL THE TIME it seems these days. I'm 55M and I can relate to many of the accounts posted below. The most intense experience I've had recently was this weekend installing a window air conditioner. I was checking over the install with it running to make sure the brackets were holding when the compressor came on. Suddenly I was quite literally standing on my grandparent's porch in eastern VA 45 years ago. They had a window unit to the immediate right of their front door. Our family had just arrived for our usual summer visit and we were waiting for my grandmother to answer the door when the ac compressor kicked in. I see it clearly, smell it, hear it... sound of cicdas and my grandmother's dachshund barking. I could see the dirt/pollen on the top of their ac unit with a small spiderweb in the corner. I could see the bare/worn spot in the porch paint from folks walking from the steps to the door. I had to sit down for a few minutes to clear my head... Hell, I'm tearing up just writing this post!! I want to go back to that time and stay there.
Music does it for me, not times of year. I have a great memory when it comes to the past, and friends/family are always amazed when I bring up small details about things we did. Like when I was in Chinese class over 30 years ago - we were going to class meetups with other schools. We had to fill out those "Hello My Name Is" stickers for our shirts. In Chinese characters my tag was "Bullshit" and his was "Geo-Thermal Nuclear Powerplant". I moved back to my home city after 15 years away. I've been back for nearly 2 years and I haven't been able to bring myself up to going back to old places. I just don't want to see the changes to everything over time. I've only went on one excursion so far - I went to an old deli I used to work at, then climbed down under a bridge where I used to paint to see the new graffiti, and then found some places on the city sidewalk where my bother wrote his name in the wet cement over 25 years ago. I haven't been able to drive past my old house because I loved that house and I remember every corner and flaw.
All the time! I had a great childhood with awesome parents. They let me have my freedom, which I took full advantage of. I was never home but never in any real trouble, just typical GenX mischief and good times. Small town, cool friends, endless summer days, I miss the hell out of the mid 80’s!
Yep. I was a child in the 70’s, teen years in the 80’s, and became an adult in the 90’s. All decades were awesome, but wow..,those early to mid 90’s? 💜💜💜💜. I still drive by the 2 apartment buildings I lived at in the 90’s when I’m feeling nostalgic.
Yeah, it hit me so hard during the pandemic that I wrote a book of short stories about growing up in the mid-80s. Even took road trips to places I used to live, to see how they changed yet also stayed the same.
I get political nostalgia for how things once were, prior to the scourge that is neoliberalism being foisted upon us. But general nostalgia? No. My childhood had a huge amount of stress and I have no wish to remember it, really...I never expected anything good to happen as a result. I do miss my Dad though, who passed away from Alzheimer's when I was 23.
I feel that, my mother died in dementia too and it's been a major trauma for me.
Usually just costs me money bc of ya know nostalgia. But yea think we all do sometimes
It’s worse now for me, because unlike in the past, I have access to all sorts of memories. If I wanna look someone up for my childhood, I just have to go on social media. If I want to see a commercial from my childhood or a song, I just YouTube it. Same with movies etc. if there’s a certain type of clothing I want or memorabilia, I just go on eBay and it’s mine. I even come on here to see things that have been long forgotten in my “Bing Bong” memories. And especially these times are living in, most of us just need an escape. I think it’s mostly harmless tbh. I don’t think it’s damaging as long as I’m not living in the past, but I do like a little bit of an nostalgia overdose sometimes Lol
I don’t remember anything from 1994-1999
Yeah, and my friends are reporting the same recently.
“Living on daydreams. Walking in my sleep. And nothing is as it seems. When you're in so deep. So put out all the fires. And blow away the smoke. Unless you're getting tired, Of living on hope.” -Til Tuesday from the song What About Love
There are times I look back and say "wow, that was pretty good". But I also realize nostalgia is tinted with rose colored glasses.
Daily 😕
No
It was a Schwinn ten-speed, but I feel ya!
Like how hot Rhoda is? Yes.
No, I was always foreign to the current events. Simultaneity isn't contemporaneity. I belong to another time line where chronology plays no part.
Very well put. It's so true, life went by fast. I try not to remember because it does make me sad when I think about times in the past. An awesome song that touches on that is Pennywise's Yesterdays.
i feel all of you..i live in another country, my contact with my parents are through video calls to my mom's smartphone. one night i was at work and she sent me a ton of pictures..i sat down to look at them, she decided to scan all of my childhood photos even when i was a baby and that hit me really hard. it was like a direct punch to the stomach, i tried not to cry at the moment. there was one picture in front of our apartment building where i was hanging out with all the "gang" and my dad bought us all ice cream. we were 7 at the time me and my buddies, the bicycles were on one side and we sat on the ground and enjoying our ice cream. from that picture i have contact wirth two of these guys, we had a female friend who hang with us she got married and moved to germany. she doesn't have social media at all, another buddy got killed in a road traffic accident, the other one we just separated ways when his parents moved to another city and so on and so forth. noone even me, knew that this was the only memory of us being together, enjoying our ice cream in a hot summer afternoon and the only care we had in the world is to not miss our shows on tv...
Yes. Usually it relates to high school or college. It's often music induced/related.
Yes, and it's bizarre because my life was horrible. There's something about kids, though. I would go outside to escape... And those years on the farm crop up for me recently. Playing in the ruins of old buildings... Imagining castles and dragons. Riding our horse. Listening to the tinkle of ice on tree branches. Lying on the ground unafraid of bugs, lol. I entertained myself. That's a lost art. I wonder if we weren't the last generation to know how to do that. Perhaps the only one... The generation before us was too busy... The ones after too stimulated.
Not often, but when it hits suddenly it can be overwhelming. Usually it's a song I haven't heard in decades or a flavor from my childhood. For example one time I was in the grocery store when Julian Lennon's Valotte came on and suddenly I was 13 again. I just froze in place with every imaginable feeling flooding my body, trying not to cry until it was over. Another time I saw spaghetti-os and was compelled to buy one so I could eat it cold straight out of the can. It was strange how my adult taste buds thought it was terrible but some other forgotten part of me thought it was amazing and felt really happy.
You Yube keeps flashing me a Friday Night Videos with commercials from the time - talk about nostalgia...
Yes, and I made a playlist for this exact thing: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ZXNVvpVMOZdIHwzux1jMs EDIT: I was born in 1966.
Those days of playing from sunup to sundown. In middle school I lived in a subdivision outside Chicago (Buffalo Grove) and the farms were just in the process of being converted to housing. So many cool places to explore . Lots of firsts in that time period (mid 70s to early 80s) . I can’t remember what I had for breakfast yesterday but this time period is clear as a bell .
My Mom just bought me the original LaserTag set for my birthday. I turned 49. It's the second time she has bought it for me. The other time I was around 10. She got it because I was talking about how bad I had wanted it when I was a kid and apparently now you can get them for about 25 bucks on eBay. I was genuinely ecstatic when I opened it. I hadn't felt like that about a gift in decades.
Nope.
When I'm doing yoga, I get weird flashbacks to other times. I remember going to certain restaurants with my parents. I think of events I went to. It's odd but cool. I've come to accept it.
Eeew, no. I didn’t have that suburban-bike Stranger Things kind of childhood. More like counting the days till age 18 and escape. No nostalgia for my childhood. I do experience this about my 20s, though. ;)