When we look back, we can choose what to remember. We can temporarily live in a time when our latest problem might not have even existed yet. And besides all that, nostalgia is fun. Allow me to demonstrate: Why, I can remember as far back as fifth grade when my school chums and I would reminisce about what it was like to be children. Oh, you heard me right – in fifth grade we were already nostalgic for things that had happened, what, two years before? One of the things that makes my generation a bit unique is that we were nostalgic for times when we weren’t actually alive because of “Nick at Nite,” which launched in 1985. We, too, grew up on “I Love Lucy,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Bewitched,” “The Brady Bunch,” “Get Smart,” “Gilligan’s Island,” and “I Dream of Jeannie.” The appeal of being transported to a simpler time – even an imagined one – is beyond measure.
And we know that this impulse isn’t a new one. If you will permit me, here are a few quotes about nostalgia. “It is, unfortunately, one of the chief characteristics of modern business to be always in a hurry. In olden times it was different.” (The Medical Record, 1884).That one’s from the oh, so fast paced year 1884. Here’s another: “The art of conversation is dying.” (Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, Volume 29, 1890). That would be from 1890. And here’s my favorite: “In these days of increasing rapid artificial locomotion, may I be permitted to say a word in favour of a very worthy and valuable friend of mine, Mr. Long Walk? I am afraid that this good gentleman is in danger of getting neglected, if not forgotten. We live in days of water trips and land trips, excursions by sea, road and rail – bicycles and tricycles, tram cars and motor cars…but in my humble opinion, good honest walking exercise for health beats all other kinds of locomotion.” (The Publishers’ Circular, 1902). That person worries that the world was moving too fast – in 1902. For the most part, these quotes sound like they could be in an editorial or a blog today but they come from over a hundred years ago. How strange that one person’s “good old days” are another person’s “bad new days.”
Resources:
https://nickelodeon.fandom.com/wiki/Nick_at_Nite